Despite supply chain bottlenecks, soaring inflation, and policies that discourage owner-operators in California, the City of Oakland plans to take a giant step backward and hand over its Howard Terminal for a shiny new baseball stadium. In response, a coalition of shipping-industry groups, port managers, trucking operators, and the dockworkers’ union banded together to bring a civil lawsuit intended to stop the Oakland Athletics baseball team from displacing workers.
“It’s another sign of how challenging it is to do business in California. You have the largest polluters in California suing us, using environmental law,” Oakland A’s President David Kaval reportedly said. “It just shows you the entire system is broken.”
Kaval holds an MBA from Stanford University and reportedly enjoys a net worth upwards of $5 million. The Oakland A’s franchise boasts a value north of $1.1 billion. The franchise was reportedly purchased by Lewis Wolff and John Fisher in 2005 for approximately $180 million. Their return on investment appears sizable, and a waterfront stadium would elevate its value further.
City officials fear the professional baseball team will follow the former Oakland Raiders football team to Las Vegas unless demands for a state-of-the-art stadium are met. Groups suing to prevent the waterfront sports stadium make valid points. A baseball field can be built almost anywhere. Cargo ships require waterfront docks to unload, and litigants reportedly include Schnitzer Steel, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, California Trucking Association, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and the Harbor Trucking Association.
“A ballpark is going to impact operations at the harbor and port. We think the EIR (environmental impact report) is severely flawed, and it does not look at alternatives like the Coliseum site,” Harbor Trucking Association president Matt Schrap reportedly said. “There is nothing in the EIR that talks about where the trucks will be at Howard Terminal if they can’t utilize the surrounding space because it’s occupied by high-rise condominiums, hotels, office space, apartments, and a ballpark.”
Although Howard Terminal is not currently used to directly load and unload cargo vessels, the space remains heavily industrialized and a primary storage area for container overflow. It’s also deftly positioned near a steel recycling plant operated by Schnitzer Steel Industries and a Union Pacific rail yard. Removing the terminal from the supply chain and logistics assets would further exacerbate a broken system. It also highlights what many see as backward priorities by local officials and land-use planners.
“We’re more concerned about the 84,000 jobs that the Port of Oakland supports and how it is the economic engine of Northern California,” Schrap reportedly said. “I’ve been a fan of the green and gold all my life, but the team is underplaying the impact this will have on the port. It’s just mind-boggling. The Coliseum site is completely viable. I just think they can’t make enough money there.”
One of the long-standing bones of contention in Oakland stemmed from both the Raiders football team and Athletics sharing a stadium and field. The Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020, and the baseball team is the sole sports team occupant of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum.
Sources: wsj.com, ttnews.com
Fine. Let those overgrown kids (almost all millionaires) play their little games in another state. Tear down the current stadium and use the land for truck parking and staging for the ports. (I don’t know how far apart they are but maybe something can be worked out.) How much revenue would be produced by a stadium (no doubt with large tax exemptions) as opposed to that produced by truckers and other workers associated with moving freight across the country?
Oakland, the arm pit of California forever.
I would not expect anything different from CA, its been awhile now since the leaders had American values.
Greed, pure and simple.
Leave it to the druggies and homeless Oakland is a pile of hot steaming poo anyway what a dumpster fire close the port and send everything to Texas and Florida.
Crazy stupidity. The Coliseum is already serviced by BART. Excellently matter of fact. That facilty can load up and clear out less than an hour. Now move to the crowded Port ? Its an uppity stupid no sense thing to do. You are getting played my friends. So much for going green too.