The Oakland Coliseum is imperiled.

The last of the three Oakland-based professional sports teams to play at the Coliseum, the Oakland A’s, is heading for the exit. The A’s have demanded that Oakland pave the way to build a new waterfront stadium at Howard Terminal, or they will follow the Raiders and the Warriors out of town.

Construction was completed on the state-of-the-art Oakland Coliseum in 1966.  The Raiders were the first team to play at the Coliseum in 1966.  The A’s relocated from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968.  Despite numerous attempts to leave the city throughout the years, the A’s have remained in Oakland until now.

Oakland has been lucky for the A’s.  Fans cheered them to victory in three consecutive World Series in the 1970s and stood by their side through many less than stellar years more recently.

The Oakland Coliseum and its companion Oakland Arena have been the site of many jubilant celebrations throughout the years.  But now, many Oakland residents question whether corporate greed will drive the team away from the loyal fans who have supported them in good and bad times.

The A’s threaten that they will leave unless they are given public funds that are desperately needed to fill potholes, fix playgrounds and help with a variety of services needed in East Oakland and other low-income areas of the city.

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The monolithic gray structure – albeit not the most attractive piece of architecture today – has brought feelings of pride and victory to many an Oakland resident.  But now the A’s say the Coliseum area is not fit for development.

Rickey Henderson, who lived in my neighborhood and attended school with my brother, stole our hearts and made us love going to the games with my family and friends. Not anymore. They told us that the Coliseum was unfit for the A’s and then they doubled the price of tickets.

Despite its perfect location, with a BART station, proximity to the airport, easy freeway access,  ample parking and space for epic tailgate parties, the A’s have publicly stated time and time again that the Coliseum is not a suitable location for the team.

By stark contrast, Howard Terminal is located on prime industrial land in the heart of the Port of Oakland. There will be no access to public transportation and no space for parking.  The list of hurdles that the A’s will have to jump to make this site work is long, including an extensive toxic clean-up, necessary after decades of industrial use.

When I hear that the A’s refuse to rebuild at the Coliseum and want to move across town to the port so they can build luxury condos, I think they just don’t want to be near an African American neighborhood anymore. They say they are rooted in Oakland but what they are doing sounds like they are rotten for Oakland.

The coliseum is an Oakland jewel and as singer Joe Tex’s song “Hold What You’ve Got” goes “you’d better hold on to what you got ’cause if you think nobody wants it, just throw it away and you will see someone will have it before you can count one, two, three”

Major League Baseball has a race problem.  The number of Black baseball players has declined by more than 50% and in Oakland, many of the local parks and schools that helped serve as feeder networks of ball fields to fulfill the dreams of many kids and helped produce A’s Hall of Famers like Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, Vida Blue, and Dave Stewart have long dried up like raisins in the sun. It was Oaklander Curt Flood who changed sports salaries forever when he sued for athletic freedom. Now, as Blacks are displaced from baseball and neighborhoods, salaries and prices of homes have increased dramatically.

Major League Baseball is aware of the problem and has pledged $150 million to a non-profit organization, Player Alliance, dedicated to attracting African American players back to baseball. The perception that the A’s don’t want to continue to play baseball in a Black neighborhood will not help that effort.

Building a new ballpark at the Coliseum would be the ultimate community benefit, say many speakers who have attended public hearings, and would provide a much-needed economic boost to East Oakland. Everything they say they want to build at Howard Terminal can be built at the Coliseum.

So why don’t they? It would be the ultimate Centrification move to stem the tide of economic gentrification of Oakland.

This summer, the A’s leadership doubled down and gave Oakland an ultimatum: approve a  new stadium at Howard Terminal and give the A’s public funds to help with related construction cost or they will leave.  Ironically, the costs of their demands and the proposed usage of taxpayers’ dollars could’ve been deployed to rebuild Oakland’s rich parks and recreation history. When it comes to Oakland’s budget, the A’s want to be raiders.

While many are debating the merits of teaching Critical Race Theory, I recommend Langston Hughes’s poem entitled “Harlem” — What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore—And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over—like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.  Or does it explode?

A team that makes these kinds of threats is not rooted in Oakland. They could be considered rotten for Oakland.

Isabelle Price

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