Zennie Abraham Has Worked For Oakland And On Economic And Sports Development Since 1985.
Why you should talk to Zenophon “Zennie” Abraham as part of your news coverage on the loss of Oakland’s Sports Teams:
- Hired as Economic Development Intern by City of Oakland in 1985 out of Berkeley Planning School: made tax increment financing computer model for joint Oakland / Emeryville Redevelopment Project that is now a hotel, movie theater, shopping center, and Best Buy.
- Started Oakland-Based Economic Development Consulting Firm: made tax increment financing computer model
- Covered Oakland Sports from Economic Development Perspective for The Montclarion from 1993 to 1996. According to then-Oakland Tribune Columnist Monte Poole, broke the story of the return of the Raiders to Oakland from LA in March 1985.
- Covered Oakland Coliseum Board of Directors, routinely interviewed Oakland Coliseum President George Vukasin. Covered politically-nasty transition to Oakland Alameda County Coliseum JPA from the Oakland Coliseum Board of Directors, including media fight between Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and George Vukasin.
- Covered City of Oakland Plans For possible transition from Council-Manager Government to Strong Mayor
- Wrote columns on Oakland economic development and tax increment financing.
- Interviewed candidates running for office in Oakland.
- Designed and ran surveys of Montclarion readers.
- Hired as Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris Economic Advisor in 1995 with responsibilities from “Redevelopment to The Raiders”, as Mayor Harris put it.
- Monitored Oakland Football Marketing Association for Mayor Harris.
- Monitored lease-related actions of Oakland Raiders for Mayor Harris.
- Served as contact point for potential buyers of Oakland A’s Franchise in 1996.
- Created forecast of A’s financial behavior for potential buyers of Oakland A’s Franchise in 1996.
- Assembled possible buyer team of Magic Johnson, Frank Robinson, and John Kehriotis in 1996, and with the help of Hollywood Super Agent Michael Ovitz.
- Marketed Oakland to developers at the International Council of Shopping Centers Spring Convention from 1996-1998. Brought Forest City to Oakland at ICSC 1997.
- Worked with Oakland Raider and SF 49ers to bring back 49ers / Raiders Preseason Game in 1996.
- Raiders introduced me to the NFL EVP of Football Roger Goodell in 1996.
- Was invited by Oakland Raiders to be Raiderettes Tryouts Judge in 1997 and 1998.
- Invited to Oakland Raiders Sponsor Party in 1998, and met and befriended new Head Coach Jon Gruden.
- Tabbed by Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb to head Oakland Super Bowl Bid in 1999.
- Single-handedly created Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission and Super Bowl XXIX Bidding Committee in 1999, and got federal non-profit approval in four months. The Board of Directors included Super Sports Agent Leigh Steinberg and 45 others.
- Single-handedly wrote a plan to host the 2005 Super Bowl in Oakland. Met with 12 members of Oakland Public Works to go over the plan, which was received enthusiastically. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opl0yWmmwvU&t=24s
- Hired Anderson Consulting Team to write plans for a temporary third deck at the Oakland Coliseum to increase capacity from 56,000 to 68,000.
- With GMO / Hill Holiday, 32 special Palm Pilots were made for our “Gifts to the NFL” part of the Oakland Super Bowl Bid.
- Attended first of many NFL Owners Meetings November 1-3 1999. Gave the first presentation of the Super Bowl Oakland Bid. Well received by the Super Bowl Policy Committee.
- In 2000 Zennie and members of the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission their first Super Bowl Game as guests of the National Football League because the Oakland Super Bowl XXXIX Bidding Committee was working on a bid to host the 2005 Super Bowl Game.
- In 2000, Oakland was invited to present the Super Bowl Oakland Host Plan to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in New York City.
- In 2000, Oakland was named one of three finalist cities to host the 2005 Super Bowl, along with Jacksonville and Miami.
- In late 2000, Oakland lost 2005 Super Bowl competition on the 3rd ballot at the Fall NFL Owners Meeting in Atlanta.
- In 2001, NFL announced Jacksonville may lose Super Bowl to Miami or Oakland because it lied about its hotel room numbers in its bid documents; Jacksonville gets a pass due to the popularity of team owner Wayne Weaver.
- In 2001, Zennie created a game about running the business of the Oakland A’s online and turned it into Oakland Baseball Simworld. And then makes the XFL Simworld game about running an XFL team.
- In 2002, Zennie got investor interest for a company called Sports Business Simulations, Inc.
- In 2002, Zennie helped Oakland City Manager find an economist to focus on Downtown Ballpark for the Oakland A’s: Dan Rascher of USF
- In 2003 Zennie attended Super Bowl XXXVIII in San Diego, the second Super Bowl Game and the one pitting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. The Oakland Raiders.
- In 2003, Sports Business Simulations was launched. SBS games were used in 40 colleges and high schools by 2010.
- In 2004 Zennie attended Super Bowl XXXVIII in San Diego, the third Super Bowl Game.
- In 2003, Zennie started Zennie’s Zeitgeist blog and Oakland Focus blogs, both first blogs focused on Oakland, CA.
- In 2004, Zennie started covering the NFL Draft, first at Raiders Headquarters, then in New York City in 2005 at NFL’s invitation.
- In 2004 Zennie attended Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, the third Super Bowl Game.
- In 2005, Zennie was at NFL Draft in New York, starting an unbroken string of annual on site credentialed coverage of the NFL Draft.
- In 2005 Zennie started blog focus on other Oakland sports issues and projects.
- In 2006, Zennie attends fourth Super Bowl Game in Detroit after Super Bowls in 2000, 2003, 2004.
- In 2007, Zennie attends Miami Super Bowl Game.
- In 2008, Zennie attends Arizona Super Bowl Game and continued a string of attendances at Super Bowl Games either with week-of-game press credentials or game tickets that extends to present day.
- In 2010, Zennie started Zennie62Media brand, which in 2019 is turned into a corporation of the same name.
- In 2010, Zennie62Media started coverage of Oakland Coliseum JPA Meetings and initiatives.
- In 2009 Zennie62Media started video-blog coverage of the quest to build a new stadium for Oakland A’s and Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors.
- In 2014-2015, Zennie62Media covered Oakland’s effort to build a new stadium for Raiders and Mayor’s presentation to NFL in NYC to build new stadium.
- In 2015 at the NFL Spring League Meeting in San Francisco, Oakland Raiders Owner Mark Davis asked Zennie to come up with a design plan for Oakland Raiders Stadium. The plan is released later that year and can be seen today at: https://zennie62.wixsite.com/coliseumreboot/about-coliseum-reboot
- At same meeting, Zennie learns of Raiders plot to work behind the backs of the Mayor and focus on Las Vegas – he asks Davis about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcwHYC_pqEk
- In 2016, Zennie vlogs the rise of Ray Bobbitt and Oakland Raiders Fans who wanted to stop the Raiders Move to Las Vegas.
- In 2017 Zennie released a forecast that revenue for bonds for Las Vegas NFL Stadium is not enough to cover initial debt service.
- In 2017 Zennie presents tax increment financing plan for Howard Terminal Ballpark and presented it to Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval.
- In 2019, Zennie was invited to the Oakland Raiders Sponsor Party in Las Vegas for CES 2019 at Delano Hotel.
- In 2021 Zennie covered the first press conference of Oakland African American Sports and Entertainment Group, AASEG, and competition with Dave Stewart.
- From 2020 to 2021 Zennie has Dave Kaval on as a guest in interviews of over 25 minutes to 40 minutes long on Zennie62 YouTube.
- Zennie uncovers Howard Terminal consultant Century Urban tax increment financing errors in 2021.
- Zennie predicts and backs Oakland A’s move in November 25, 2021.
- 2024 Zennie starts new sites covering sports and events for NFL and entertainment: NFLNewsbyZennie62.com, as one.
There’s even more but that’s a lot. In short I learned that Oakland has not invested in having sports teams save for the Warriors effort, and has avoided spending money at every turn, almost making it a noble practice.
The old saying is you have to spend money to make money; Oakland does not spend money on economic development, save for the Forest City example. That is where Jerry Brown promised Forest City to guarantee $70 million in profits.
But that was for market-rate housing, not sports and entertainment.
Zennie