The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority approved a one-year lease extension with the Raiders to continue playing at the O.co Coliseum through the end of the 2015 season.
Coliseum JPA members said the extension, which followed a similar one-year deal last year with the team, gives Oakland and Alameda County officials more time to finalize a deal to build the Raiders a new stadium at the current Coliseum location. Last month, the Raiders and San Diego Chargers jointly-proposed to develop a $1.7 billion stadium in Carson. Raiders’ ownership, however, has reiterated that its first choice is to seek a new stadium in Oakland.
Larry Reid.
“This is a good start and we need to maintain this momentum,” said Oakland Councilmember Larry Reid. “Starting today, we can work with new urgency and take a fresh look at the opportunity ahead of us to find a solution for our teams and our community.” Reid is also chair of the JPA.
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Terms of the deal are similar to last year’s extension, said Deena McClain, the former JPA interim executive director, who is now a consultant for the Coliseum Authority. The Raiders will continue to pay $400,000 a year in rent for use of the stadium and $525,000 for the team’s training facility in Alameda.
Under the previous deal, the JPA and Raiders split concessions equally up until the team received $1.125 million in revenue. The JPA received the entire overage. This time around, the Raiders will receive 30 percent of all revenues from concessions over $1.125 million, according to the contract.
The team will retain all revenues from signage during football games on the new stadium scoreboards and ribbon boards placed on the second deck façade.
Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, also a member of the JPA, said there was some pushback in negotiations against the 70-30 split in overage, but the board is focused on the longterm goal of keeping the team in Oakland indefinitely over the short-term.
Coliseum City.
The difference between today’s agreement and the deal last year, said Kaplan is, “This time around we have a developer who is legit and someone we think is willing to make a deal,” said Kaplan of Floyd Kephart, the San Diego businessman who is leading the effort to build Coliseum City, a mega-development that would include new sports facilities, along with hotels, housing, restaurants and bars, and retail.
In addition, she said, infrastructure costs for Coliseum City could partially be paid by $40 million in funds from Measure BB, the transportation sales tax approved by voters last fall. “We didn’t have that last year,” said Kaplan, who along with Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty pushed for the inclusion of Coliseum City in the measure. She believes Measure BB tax dollars can be leveraged into state and federal funding for infrastructure needed for the project.
The Oakland City Council and Alameda County Board of Supervisors must also approve the lease extension in coming weeks. Unlike the confusion that followed approval of the Oakland A’s ten-year lease extension last year, Oakland city administrators were involved in the current negotiations with the Raiders. JPA officials said they do not foresee any problems in either body approving the new Raiders lease.
