Oakland eyeing Raiders' practice site, Coliseum lot

In an effort to keep its pro soccer teams in Oakland, the city has proposed spending a combined $20M to buy Alameda County's ownership shares in the former Raiders practice site, which houses an athletics facility and multiple soccer fields in Alameda, as well as the Malibu property, a giant parking lot adjacent to the Coliseum, after months of back-and-forth negotiations with the county "went nowhere." The city is offering $12M for the practice site and $8.7M for the lot, and the acquisition plans will go before the City Council on April 30. Precise details of the sale "still need to be worked out," but "if successful it would keep the fast-growing Roots franchise -- plus a companion women’s team, the Soul -- anchored in and around Oakland." The Roots and Soul also "hope to build a temporary, 10,000-seat modular stadium" on the 8.8-acre Malibu lot (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 4/21).