The proposed 10-year lease extension for the A’s to remain at O.co Coliseum “contains some ‘out’ clauses based on what the Raiders decide to do" about a potential new venue on the property, according to Mark Purdy of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. If the Raiders and the city of Oakland “agree to construct a football stadium on the Coliseum site -- which is Raiders owner Mark Davis' stated preference -- then the A's would then be permitted to break the 10-year lease.” A's Owner Lew Wolff said, "We aren't preventing the Raiders from doing anything they wish to do there. If the Raiders have a feasible plan and want to move ahead, we have no intention of standing in their way." Purdy notes the A's "must be given at least two years' notice of such a Raiders' construction project -- or two-plus years, if the notice occurs in the middle of a baseball season.” Team ownership is “definitely not embracing the ‘Coliseum City’ project at least partially because only 200 of the 800 acres in the plan are now owned or controlled by the city.” But Wolff is “open to discussing a new ballpark proposal" on the Coliseum property if civic leaders "alter their focus away from a proposed downtown Howard Terminal site” that he and MLB have rejected. Meanwhile, the San Jose “scenario is not dead,” but it is “definitely on hold while the city's lawsuit against MLB proceeds.” Wolff said that once the extension is signed, he will “step back and assess the landscape to see what the A's might do on a long-term basis.” In a “slight policy shift, Wolff puts Oakland and San Jose on equal footing as potential locations” (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 6/11).
