Oakland A's Future Hangs In The Balance; Crucial City Council Vote Tuesday
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- The Oakland Athletics future will become much clearer Tuesday after the City Council votes on a development plan that is vital to building a new stadium in the East Bay community.
Oakland is now on the clock. Major League Baseball has already given the team a greenlight to exit from the San Francisco Bay Area with Las Vegas among the cities actively pursuing the team.
Hanging in balance Tuesday is the future of the team's much-debated plan to build a new stadium as part of the Howard Terminal Redevelopment Project. Negotiations have been ongoing around the clock over the last few days. As of Monday night, there was still no sign that the two sides are closer to reaching a deal.
The team insists it's all that can keep Oakland from losing its last major sports franchise. The team's current lease ends in 2024.
"I think that there's a concern that they may vote on their term sheet, which really doesn't have any specificity or detail, and I think that'd be really challenging because it really isn't what we agreed to," said Oakland A's President Dave Kaval. "We're hopeful that they'll vote on something we proposed or something we would agree to. If not, it's kind of like a no vote."
Kaval says he wants the city to vote on the team's term sheet it presented in April. One of the biggest issues at play is who pays for nearly $500 million in offsite infrastructure.
"It's really around offsite infrastructure," Kaval added. "These are things that are deferred maintenance on the city, they're not even on the site that we're building. We really feel like that's the city responsibility to pay for that - on other projects it's highly unusual for cities not to handle that."
Workers and environmental and community advocates held a "vote no on the Oakland A's" agreement rally Monday afternoon, saying it would disrupt operations.
"At the end of the day, this is a working port," said Mike Jacob, VP and General Counsel, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association. "This is not a vacant facility behind us. We've been watching these trucks come in and out behind us. This is where we work everyday."
"We're concerned about the watercraft that's going to be out in the turning basin. What are the ships going to do - stop?" said Susan Ransom with SSA Terminal.
Mercedes Rodriguez is a longtime resident of Oakland.
"I want to keep the team here," she said. "The people that work at the Oakland A's - I know them very well and they're good people, but they should be at the Coliseum."
