The intricate deal for the sale of the Oakland Coliseum Complex has encountered a delay as the Alameda County Board of Supervisors did not approve the sale at their latest meeting. The transaction involves the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG) acquiring Alameda County’s share of the complex, a process that stakeholders anticipated would be much further along by now.
A key component of this complex deal is the sale of Oakland A’s 50% stake in the Coliseum to AASEG, which remains pending before the Board. According to
ABC7 News
, Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert expressed the need for a careful approach, stating, “And as for a timeline goes, I’m pressing for as fast as it can happen as soon as possible, but that we take the right steps to do it right. That means we’re going to take the time to do it right. Weeks, not months.” A unanimous decision from the Board is necessary for the sale to advance to its subsequent stages.
The deal has been further complicated by AASEG’s non-payment of a mandatory $10 million sum into the city of Oakland’s escrow account, a development entwined with the delay at the county level. AASEG has placed the funds in escrow but hesitates to transfer them before seeing how the county resolves its part of the deal. Ray Bobbitt, the AASEG co-founder, mentioned due diligence as a reason for the hold-up, asserting in a statement, as per
ABC7 News
, “Just some small things in a transaction this large that you just want to dot and cross every T.”
At the county level, AASEG is pressing for expeditious progress and has appealed to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to enable this by dismissing or pausing a lawsuit from Citizens for a Better Environment, which challenged the county’s initial sale of the property to the A’s. “Once that occurs and that we have transaction on the city side and the county’s interest, then for the first time in 57 years, the site will have the approval to have ownership by one entity,” Bobbitt explained, as cited by
KRON4
. Despite the setback, Bobbitt remains optimistic that the deal will go through, reiterating, “It’s in everybody’s interest.”
Local officials are also entangled in the particulars of the arrangement. Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo has pushed for a joint project instead of an outright sale to AASEG. Councilmember Janani Ramachandran expressed surprise in an interview with
ABC7 News
upon learning about the escrow conditions for the $10 million payment. “And that was not what we were told in the first place. This is new information to many of us,” she said.
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