The conversation and controversy continue over Oakland’s plan to sell the Coliseum complex after the buyers missed a key deadline.
It's a deal between the city and the African American Sport Entertainment Group, which is worth tens of millions of dollars.
On Wednesday, African American Sports and Entertainment Group said the Alameda County Board of Supervisors needs to make a move before the deal can close. Specifically, they need the supervisors to sign off on the other half of the deal for the A's portion of the Coliseum.
“We're urging the board of supervisors to help move forward the negotiation process. So, we can complete the transaction, said Ray Bobbit, co founder of the AASEG.
AASEG missed a $10 million payment deadline last week. They said they're waiting to transfer the funds until the county pending sale with the A's is transferred to them. All sides said a deal with this many moving parts is complicated, buying two parts of the same property from two different owners.
Oakland has not released a deadline for when they would penalize the AASEG for failure to pay.
AASEG already paid a nonrefundable $5 million to the city. But millions more are at stake, money that Oakland is relying on to avoid significant cuts to public safety.
Oakland is relying on the $125 million sale to help balance its budget crisis and a revised agreement have already forced the city to begin making cuts to key programs.
Oakland city councilmember Janani Ramachandran said that community safety ambassadors have already been cut.
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The councilmember argues the coliseum deal should have never been factored in as a fix for the city's ailing budget.
"I fully do blame on the other hand, leadership within the city of Oakland and tying such a complicated deal and trying to fast track something so complicated, just so we can plug holes in our budget deficit, which at this point we are realizing isn’t even going to happen," she said.
It's worth noting that even if had gone through on time, Oakland still wouldn’t have access to the $10 million until the entire deal was finalized until of May of 2025.
Supervisor David Haubert is confident the deal will go through and AASEG is the best fit to take over. He hopes the board of supervisors will vote on the issue by the end of the year and move things forward.
“We have to make sure we protect our interest," he said. "That we get everything that we contemplated when we sold to the A’s, that we don’t lose any money from that or incur any additional liabilities and make sure we are protected."
Despite the delay, all parties are confident that deal will go through.
"Nobody would ever want to see this deal not occur because it is so close and all the groups at the table are moving in the right, same direction," Bobbit said.
