Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – AASEG Lawsuit Proves “Black Developer” Group Followed Sad Oakland Crabbarel ModelThe 15-page AASEG lawsuit filed that seeks the breakup of the African Sport and Entertainment Group and by Brien Dixon and Karim Muhammed with The Alameda County Superior Court is tells a sad story that is a microcosm of giant problems in Oakland’s shrinking African American community.
The lawsuit against AASEG, filed two weeks ago and with the full lawsuit at the bottom of this post, states that Ray Bobbitt made other AASEG companies to hide his ownership from Dixon and Muhammed and keep them out. In short, treat them as “crabs in a barrel” being pushed down while the members of AASEG rise in public stature as “successful Black Americans”. The Oakland “Black Crabbarell Problem”, where Black Oaklanders put each other down and make sure the other doesn’t reach a level of success, has reared its head in the case of AASEG.
Dixon and Muhammed seek monetary damages as well as the following:
- Involuntary dissociation of LLC membership of Raymond Bobbitt and Levant Ogbulie from the African American Sports & Entertainment Group, LLC.
- Full review, audit, and closure (if necessary), for all bank accounts created by Bobbitt, AASEG, and or its affiliates in connection to the Coliseum Complex development project and company.
- Declaratory judgment that Samantha Wise, Jonathan Jones, John Jones III, and LaNiece Jones are not legitimate or duly elected members/managers and hold no ownership interest in AASEG.
How Did Bad AASEG Story And Lawsuit Happen?
If you don’t know the AASEG story, in brief, it goes in the following way. After an unsuccessful attempt to retain the Oakland Raiders in 2017, Raiders Fans who formed groups like Forever Oakland (RIP to Godfather Griz), The Black Hole and Save Oakland Sports, gradually fell apart. One of the members, nightclub owner Ray Bobbitt, started forming what was at first a casual idea, then took on a path toward a serious effort: forming Black Oaklanders into a group that would bring an NFL team to Oakland.
This author counseled Ray Bobbitt (who is a friend and has been a client for digital marketing work for his San Francisco clubs) against something that was a “Black focus” by name, believing that a group formed with the singular focus of bringing the NFL back to Oakland should have Black leaders but spread a larger racial tent, all the better to gaint investors with the ability to fuel the organization with the necessary working capital.
Bobbitt counters that he wanted to make a symbolic gesture for the world to see. Ray already spent $40,000 of his own money to power attorney payments for the initial lawsuit against the Oakland Raiders, and seeing the spotlight as a result of that, clearly hungered to take the effort to another level.
The “Name And Colors” Raiders Lawsuit Issue
But, there were vast differences in style, background, and ideology between the friends who got together to save the Raiders. For example, this author, and friends Bobbitt Dixon, and Karim Muhammed took different walks of life: this author’s background is in urban planning and urban economics, and possesses an undergraduate degree from Texas Arlington and a Masters Of City Planning Degree from Cal Berkeley, and with a significant employment history with the City of Oakland that includes forming Oakland’s only bid to host a Super Bowl Game, serving as Economic Advisor to Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, and serving on the Alameda Base Closure and Realignment Committee (the forrunner to the Alameda Base Closure and Realignment Commission), and thanks to Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson.
But the real reason for the “ vast differences in style and background” was the issue of whether a lawsuit should be focused on getting the name and colors from the Raiders, or breech of the contract between Raiders Fans and the team, as described in the NFL Relocation Bylaws.
This author, an NFL Press Corps member since 2005, was vocal in stating the view that since Oakland had lost in court with an anti-trust-focused strategy before, that using one, yet again, and with the idea that it would lead to fans owning the Raiders name and colors was pure folly.
The unofficial group that Ray was initially part of and including Dixon and Muhammed as well as the late Greg Jones AKA Godfather Griz (who this author made many Forever Oakland livestream shows for) did not take kindly to this author’s view. So, as they were forming the AASEG, this author was not invited to those gatherings either virtual or real. And some stopped talking to this author entirely and only for that reason, and nothing else.
The point is, AASEG started from a place of ideological division, and then the habit of dividing and eventually forming new companies just grew with the ambitions of Mr. Bobbitt. At no point did the members of the group express any real interest in how the NFL worked, or any sports organization. As the Dixon and Muhammed lawsuit details, Bobbitt expanded his energy toward something more of a “black community” focus: he got former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb involved and then, as the lawsuit reads:
“Bobbitt had unilaterally and without authority promised ownership interests in AASEG, and equity in the development project to four other individuals: Samantha Wise, LaNiece Jones, John Jones, III and Jonathan Jones. Without securing consent from any of the other three founding members, or properly putting the issue to vote as required under California law, Bobbitt had promised Wise and the other challenged members a 12.5% interest share in AASEG purportedly for their contributions to the company business.
Lawsuit text
That marked the second phase of division that marked the formation of and problems with the AASEG. From this author’s view, Bobbitt was more concerned with making a black community pressure group, than a development company that actually had any capacity to cause anything to be built.
What Ray either doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to accept is that the World is slowly but surely moving beyond a place where racism is tolerated, and toward a World of acceptance and inclusivity where racism is rightly seen as criminal and evil. Yes, there are racists who are trying to stop this march, but they’re branded as mentally-ill, and prove that more often than not.
While this social improvement process does see undercapitalized Black business as a problem to be solved, when it comes to the purchase of a multibillion-dollar sports franchise, the gargantuanly high cost doesn’t at this point invite the incorporation of a “Black discount” – you either have the money, or you don’t, or in the Raiders case, you’re Tom Brady. And no one in the sports industry takes kindly to being race-hustled.
Race-Hustling Is Not Good Business
The effort of race-hustling is seen as insulting to the many people who have worked very hard to break-down barriers, and formed an infrastructure of friendships based on those efforts. Consider how Magic Johnson became a billionaire sports franchise owner. His rise happened with the involvement of none other than Hollywood Super Agent Mike Ovitz (a person this author has met).
In other words, Magic went directly to a man regarded as one of the best deal-makers in human history. The man who created the concept of “packaging” in the movie business. Magic went to Mike not because he was white, but because he was the best and happened to be white. Magic was working to build capacity and should have been Ray Bobbitt’s model, but wasn’t.
Instead, what Ray Bobbitt was focused on was forming a kind of black club that says “I’m part of the in-crowed and you’re not”. That’s the kind of crab-barrel message that gains enemies in Oakland amoung those Black Oaklanders who are part of the “out group.”
City of Oakland Divided Blacks For Oakland Coliseum Developer
The City of Oakland pitting AASEG against Oakland A’s Legend Dave Stewart contributed to the “out group” problem because the competition for the coveted Oakland Coliseum Exclusive Negotiating Agreement didn’t ask the two groups to come together. So, here’s new “out group” member Dave Stewart bad mouthing AASEG at every turn, and acting as if he has the Oakland Athletics in his back pocket.
To his credit, Bobbitt did try to fix the problem, but ultimately it didn’t work and for a reason that, from this author’s view, is based on two relatively penny-shy organizations (considering the costly endeavor of developing Coliseum City), focused more on who’s in the group, rather than the capacity of the group.
Dave Stewart and Ray Bobbitt Lacked A Developer Focus For the Oakland Coliseum
If Stewart and Bobbitt had a true developer focus, their pairing would have been to increase their collective chance to land moneyed investors. Instead, Stewart believed he had the Oakland A’s and Bobbitt believed he had the vaunted Black Investment Banking Firm Loop Capital of Chicago.
Indeed, Bobbitt’s success at building political capital in Oakland was impressive enough for James Reynolds, Jr., CFA and Founder of Loop Capital to come out to the January AASEG Press Conference announcing the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) with the City of Oakland for the City’s 50% interest in the Coliseum Complex. But Loop Capital has not formally invested in AASEG and is taking a “wait and see” position centered around what the A’s next move is. A point of view that’s harmful to AASEG’s need to prove it has the capital to, for example, purchase a WNBA team for Oakland.
And it was the WNBA’s surprise deal for the Golden State Warriors to buy the right to bring a franchise to its Chase Center Arena in San Francisco that caught AASEG flat-footed, and exposed the fact that Bobbitt’s relationship with the women’s basketball league wasn’t as solid as he had others believe, or even he understood. The problem, from this author’s view, is that Ray was more concerned with who was loyal to his cause and not if he was doing the job the right way – which he wasn’t doing and this author was not shy in telling him so.
By taking the “It’s mine, not yours” stance, Ray Bobbitt invited the possibility that the WNBA would sandbag him. Ray never talked to or even met WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Instead, Bobbitt was content to believe that contact with WNBA legal was sufficient. This author has learned from the work on Super Bowl: Oakland, that you as a bidder for an event like the Super Bowl or a franchise, have no chance until you’ve met with the Commissioner.
WNBA Ignores Ray Bobbitt and AASEG at Warriors Press Conference
So, on October 5th, 2023, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert joined Warriors Owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber and others in a press conference that didn’t even mention the name “Raymond Bobbitt”. And to make matters worse, the question and answer-session with members of the local San Francisco-based media gave Bobbitt another slap by not mentioning him.
Ray had a giant habit of running to white-owned media organizations with his latest AASEG news, and very often at the expense of black-owned media companies. For all of his efforts at feeding white-owned media organizations, Ray should think that he would be remembered at a press conference on the very subject of the WNBA he was trying to bring to Oakland along with Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.
That it did not happen signaled a bigger problem, and it was given an exclamation point when another white-owned media company with a history of trying to make Blacks in Oakland look bad jumped into the conversation. The San Francisco Chronicle asked why the WNBA was ignoring Oakland (which it wasn’t doing because the new San Francisco team’s headquarters will be in Oakland, it was just not paying attention to Bobbitt and Oakland politicians), and put out that Bobbitt “Didn’t let them apply”.
That statement showed how new Ray Bobbitt and company are to the business of sports. As this author explained to him, you must not wait to be invited to bid, you must aggressively bid. And you don’t use the white-owned media to play racial “they didn’t let us bid” politics with a major sports league, and because it will not hesitate to protect itself and tell you to go away at the same time. And that’s what the WNBA did.
The San Francisco Chronicle / SF GATE wrote “A source with knowledge of the situation told SFGATE that the idea that the WNBA would consider adding a second team in the Bay Area anytime soon is not accurate. The Athletic and the San Francisco Chronicle also reported that the league isn’t considering a second Bay Area team at this time.”
WNBA Sandbags Ray Bobbitt and AASEG With Help From White-Owned Media
So, the WNBA sandbagged Ray Bobbitt and did so using the very white-owned media he loves.
In closing, this is not an easy effort for this author to write. All of the people involved are friends. But at some point a message has to be sent, and that wasn’t coming from the white-owned media trying to tell the story of the lawsuit; it’s better for black-owned media to do it. So, enter Zennie62Media.
Ray Bobbitt must do the one thing he and others have been reluctant to do, mend fences and bring everyone together for the purposes of building a black-led organization with capacity for the Oakland Coliseum. Bobbitt should look for people, regardless of skin tone, who can help in the task of builiding a new Oakland Coliseum. Ray’s focus should be on meeting money players and not with Black unity groups in ZOOM meetings. That’s not what developers do, that’s what community organizers do.
Mary Poppins sang that “A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, in the most delightful way”. Ray Bobbitt and AASEG have to take that much needed medicine first. Here’s the Dixon and Muhammed Lawsuit to deliver the first dose of that medicine.
Stay tuned for the second dose.