The Oakland Athletics had an illustrious history that mostly fell by the wayside in recent years as a result of neglectful ownership, and the same could be said about the Oakland Coliseum, the ballclub’s former home. While the A’s have been forced to leave town at the greedy behest of one billionaire and his co-workers, the Coliseum remains. According to its new, local owners, the site can look to its renowned past so that it may flourish in the future: by turning the stadium into a full-blown concert venue.
“I think that the Coliseum has the potential to dominate stadium shows,” Ray Bobbitt, founder and managing member of the African American Sports & Entertainment Group, tells SFGATE.
Bobbit and his AASEG cohort officially completed a purchase agreement with the city of Oakland and the Athletics in late August to become the new owners of the Coliseum site. The property includes not only the former home of the A’s and Raiders but also the Oakland Arena, the former home of the Golden State Warriors.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Combine the trilogy of uprooted sports teams with a period of ownership that included an organization that actively spurned Oakland, and you get a recipe that allows almost anyone with enough capital to become a local hero by simply buying some property. The fact that it’s going to a group of Black entrepreneurs with local East Bay ties who are saying all the right things makes it that much better.
Dolly Parton performs onstage at Day on the Green at the Oakland Coliseum on May 28, 1978, in Oakland, Calif.
“We recognize that while this is a tremendous opportunity, it is above all a profound responsibility,” Bobbitt said in August on behalf of his group after the A’s announced they were selling their half of the Coliseum site to AASEG. “We graciously accept this responsibility and look forward to working with the community on this generationally transformational endeavor.”
Among those endeavors is figuring out what exactly will happen to the Coliseum itself. Depending on whom you ask, it’s either a dilapidated eyesore with a monument of excessive public spending stapled on top of it or a beloved local landmark that represents the city’s rich sports history and “baseball’s last dive bar.” In turn, the suggestions for its future are as wide ranging as the opinions people have of it.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
In the short term, it will serve as the home of the Oakland Roots, a local second division soccer club. In the longer term, Bobbitt........