Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – The headline “Oakland A’s Blocked Ballers from Coliseum” is an indication of just how sloppy SF / Oakland Bay Area Sports Media has become. In Oakland, Critical thinking has been tossed out of the window by go-along, politically-driven, sensationalism. To understand, read on.
In the latest example of Oakland Coliseum managerial weirdness borne of a lack of a disciplined process, there’s no evidence the Coliseum JPA actually knew about any work to craft a lease for the Oakland Ballers. Zennie62Media checked every agenda for the 2023 Coliseum Joint Powers Authorities AKA JPA meetings, and the Oakland Ballers was not mentioned as an agenda item, not even once.
Moreover, the public statements by one Coliseum JPA Board Member, it’s Chairperson, Oakland At-Large Councilmember and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan, only react to the “news” that the Oakland A’s rightfully pointed to a long-standing clause in its publicly-available-to-read lease that it has exclusive rights to the Coliseum as a professional baseball team. Why didn;t Rebecca wonder why no one with the Coliseum JPA bothered to look at the lease for its major tenant?
Add to that, Alameda County Supervisor and Coliseum JPA Member Nate Miley’s statement to this author that he “didn’t know of the (Oakland Ballers) issue until now” – after the complaint about the Oakland A’s they issued via the media. There’s clearly a problem here, and once again, it would appear that Oakland’s penchant for playing petty politics has snaked its way into Coliseum JPA matters. The whole Oakland Ballers deal looks like a grand trick to smear the Las Vegas-Bound Oakland A’s, rather than actually follow protocol in recognition of the A’s Lease Aggreement.
A More Professional Coliseum JPA Was Operating Not Too Long Ago
It wasn’t always this way. Just three years ago, the Coliseum JPA worked with former boss Scott McKibben and Cal Berkeley and NFL Star Marshawn Lynch to bring the Indoor Football League to the Oakland Arena. That was an out-in-the-open, public process, as it should be. And then there’s the process for the establishment of exclusive-negotiating agreements with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (ASSEG). And let’s not forget the more recent one involving the Oakland Roots. All efforts done in public and with full respect for The Brown Act.
The Brown Act simply says that the business of California government is supposed to be done in public, and not in secret meetings. It’s clear a number of people who have their hands on this Oakland Ballers Coliseum issue forgot California Government 101: know the open meetings law. It seems that these people were so intent on setting up the Oakland A’s to look bad, they made themselves look bad.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Is To Blame For This Dysfunction
Since Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao was a visble-to-the-media driver of the awarness of The Oakland Ballers, she must take the blame for some of this. Why? The introduction of the Oakland Ballers was presented as the answer to the departure of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas. A long process that will end with the opening of their new ballpark in Las Vegas in 2028.
But, rather than fire up a well-staffed economic development effort, finish the never-started EIFD process, and go after an existing Major League Baseball team for relocation to Oakland, the scared-to-think-and-do-big Mayor Thao Administration reduces itself, and thus Oakland, to small, petty, media-driven, and completely annoying political games.
What Mayor Thao Should Have Done: Directly Approach The A’s With Oakland Ballers Deal
What Mayor Thao should have done, and in concert with Oakland Ballers Owners co-founders Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel, and the Oakland Coliseum JPA, is approached Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval with a deal to have the Oakland Ballers work as kind of a “summer act” for the Oakland A’s, and in recognition of the A’s status as the beneficiary of the exclusive lease clause. Make a stadium revenue-sharing offer to the A’s (as A’s then-owner Lew Wolff once said to me “we like money”), and sprinkle-in some city assistance money for the Oakland Ballers.
For those who whine that Oakland’s broke, this author’s counter is that as long as tax increment financing is not used , Oakland will continue to sit on billions in revenue it can employ to effectively accomplish a number of civic objectives. The folks in charge of Oakland keep acting completely clueless about something Oakland was once very good at: tax increment financing.
Was ASM Global Really Involved In This Matter?
The Oakland Ballers mention Oakland Coliseum Managing Organization ASM Global and basically push Oakland Coliseum General Manager Nicole Strange out for public embarrassment. Hopefully, ASM Global wasn’t pushing this lease deal, because the opposite news would imply that the organization managing the Coliseum did not know about the Brown Act or stadium protocol with respect to a lease partner, in this case, the A’s.
In closing, the Coliseum JPA needs a set of brief written statements of policy that will work to prevent this kind of keystone kops problem in the future. Oakland needs to focus on building the credibility, certainty, and capacity that it can do large-scale public-private economic development. Once again, it’s proved it’s failing at doing just that.
Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan Offers Correction To ZennieReport
Zennie62Media reached out to Oakland Vice Mayor and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Rebecca Kaplan, who sent this text message response:
Best wishes and hope you are doing well. I don’t believe ballers or jpa lied..
And working to clear up any confusion. The ballers never asked for a license agreement, which are required for longer term uses of the coliseum, and would require a vote of the board and other approvals. Rather, they worked directly with the staff at JPA/ASM for a one day special event agreement. Those agreements are regularly entered into by staff, and do not require any board vote or any agenda item. This is common practice for single-day events, for a contract to be signed and deposit paid without any board meeting.
Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan
I have asked jpa staff to prepare and provide a briefing to the jpa board about what has happened in this situation.
This author wrote back that, moving forward, the JPA Board should be made aware of all such single-day agreements. Moreover, the JPA Board should be briefed because it takes just one of these “one-and-done” events to be a front for a terrorist organization. The Coliseum JPA must make sure it’s designed to protect the interests of Oakland’s multi-billion-dollar facility, not to mention the public itself.
And an apology to Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao because that problem was not her fault, but it is important to have a process that has the appropriate review just to avoid such misunderstandings.