A's co-Owner Lew Wolff was not ready Thursday to "sign off on changes" Oakland City Council members inserted into a lease agreement approved hours earlier, but in a departure from recent statements, he said that he would "give them serious consideration," according to Matthew Artz of the OAKLAND TRIBUNE. Wolff's "apparent change of heart left city officials hopeful that after several months of rancorous negotiations a deal was finally in place that could keep the team in Oakland for another decade and set the stage for talks" about a new ballpark at the O.co Coliseum complex in East Oakland. Until Thursday, Wolff had been adamant that he was "done negotiating the lease deal." Wolff said that his "willingness to now consider the lease amendments was in part due to a call he received after the vote" from Council member Rebecca Kaplan, who has forged a "strong relationship with him." Wolff: "Just based on her asking me alone is enough for me to tell [A's President Mike Crowley] and the guys to look hard at it." Wolff also indicated that the council vote and the "testy lease negotiations that preceded it would not preclude the A's from one day building a new ballpark in Oakland" (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 7/18). Wolff said of the proposed lease amendments, "If it fits, we'll do it. If it doesn't, we won't" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 7/18).
