The Athletics likely won't be playing baseball at the Oakland Coliseum much longer, and apparently they don't want other teams to, either.
Oakland's new minor league team, the B's (short for Ballers), planned to play a game at the Coliseum in June, but the A's prevented them from doing so because they had exclusive rights to the building for professional baseball.
“We started negotiating to play at the Coliseum in July, and by December we had signed our lease and paid our deposit,” B co-founder Paul Freedman told Janie McCauley of The Associated Press on Wednesday. “A few days after Christmas, we were informed that the A's would be enforcing a clause in their contract with the stadium that would prevent other professional baseball teams from playing at the Coliseum.
“We are disappointed by this development as we believe this would have been a great event for Oakland. Regardless of this setback, nothing will stop us from starting a new chapter for baseball in the city.”
Freedman said he exchanged dozens of emails to secure a special evening at a meaningful venue for him and many others, explaining that he and co-founder Bryan Carmel had a signed contract ready to go and the deposit through Communications with ASM Global, the venue management company, are leasing the stadium to the A's through December 2024.
Although the A's have received the green light from MLB owners to move from Oakland to Las Vegas and plan to move to a new stadium on the Las Vegas Strip in 2028, the A's have the exclusive right to play at the Coliseum due to their licensing agreement with them play the Colosseum Authority.
“We are pleased to work with the JPA [joint powers agency] about other ways to celebrate and promote professional baseball in Oakland,” David Rinetti, the A’s longtime vice president of stadium operations, wrote in an email to ASM Global that the team shared with The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The B's were ready to begin selling tickets Thursday for the June 29 game against the Colorado Owlz, which they hoped would be “a celebration of Oakland's baseball heritage and the Coliseum” and “a joyful farewell and would be a celebration”, but they need to find a new place to host the competition.
Freedman said he and Carmel were moved by the “reverse boycott” organized last season by heartbroken and angry A's fans as one of the final attempts to persuade A's owner John Fisher to sell the team.
“We were inspired by the energy of the night of the reverse boycott,” Freedman told McCauley. “This game was a protest against the idea that baseball could leave Oakland.” It was an important and emotionally healing event for the Oakland community.
“Our goal with this game is to celebrate that baseball will stay in Oakland for as long as the community wants it here.”