Post by TheShadow on Dec 22, 2005 5:40:36 GMT -5
www.insidebayarea.com/
City Council's decision warms relationship with Raiders, yet may cause new turmoil with A's
By Paul T. Rosynsky, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND — The city and Alameda County's rocky relationship with the Oakland Raiders began to mend Tuesday, but their cordial friendship with the Oakland Athletics appeared headed toward a storm.
The City Council lateTuesday night approved a deal that will end the despised Personal Seat License and years ofbickering with the Raiders. Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Desley Brooks abstained from the vote, saying they did not have enough information to make such an important decision. But just as both the council and the county Board ofSupervisors began the final approval process years of bickering with the Oakland Raiders for the deal, it was revealed that the A's had been denied a request that would have cemented the team's stayin town longer.
But just as both legislative bodies began the final approval process on a deal that will end the despised Personal Seat License and years of bickering with the Oakland Raiders, it was revealed that the A's had been denied a request that would have cemented its stay in town longer.
As part of a complicated set of negotiations last summer, the A's had requested a three-year extension of its lease at the Coliseum, which expires in 2010.
The Oakland Raiders made a similar request.
Both requests were denied.
The fact that owners of both teams asked for lease extensions — despite sometimes being perceived as itching to move their franchises out of Oakland — was revealed Tuesday afternoon as the Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved a settlement agreement with the Oakland Raiders. They voted 4-1 in favor of the deal, with Supervisor Keith Carson opposed.
The Oakland City Council was set to vote on the deal late Tuesday night.
Though the deal appears to have settled a long simmering dispute with the Raiders, it might have cooked up new ones with the A's.
By denying the A's request for a lease extension, negotiators for the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority appear to have angered the team's ownership at a time when it is trying to find a new ballpark.
"Our wish for a three-year extension was to show our commitment to the city of Oakland," said A's spokesman Jim Young. "We were disappointed that it was turned down."
The baseball organization became involved in the negotiations with the Raiders after the football team requested more advertising space inside McAfee Coliseum.
The Raiders made that request as part of the larger settlement agreement that ended Personal Seat Licenses and millions of dollars' worth of pending lawsuits.
Since the Raiders moved back to the Coliseum in 1995, the A's have had all say in choosing advertisements inside McAfee Coliseum. The team chooses the advertiser and the ad location, and reaps all the monetary awards up to $3.5 million.
After the $3.5 million threshold is reached, the A's must share any additional profits with the Coliseum and the Raiders.
Under the new agreement, the Raiders get a little say.
The football team wins the right to place four ads on four scoreboards, in addition to banner ads along the walls of the Coliseum.
In exchange, the Raiders agreed to drop a $14 million claim against the Coliseum Authority that argued the A's were not properly accounting for its stadium advertising revenue.
A's owner Lewis Wolff agreed to share the space inside the stadium but requested the extension as a concession.
The thinking on the A's part was that an extension would give the team and Oakland more time to find a location in the city for a ballpark. It also would help the team squash constant rumors that it was looking elsewhere for a stadium, Young said.
"More than anything else, it would have extended the window toward securing a baseball-only facility in the city of Oakland," Young said. "That window remains open, but it won't be forever."
Wolff's request was denied by a negotiating group that included Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and Alameda County Supervisor Gail Steele.
De La Fuente did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Steele said it was not her idea to deny the request.
"If it was up to me, I would have had a three-year extension with the Athletics and I would have a three-year extension with the Raiders," she said. "I just think others wanted to look at these things separately, it was just compounding an already complex deal."
Despite the denial, Wolff eventually agreed to allow the Raiders some advertising room inside the stadium.
His approval helped the governments sign their settlement agreement with the Raiders. That settlement includes the demise of the PSL and gives the Raiders control of ticket sales for Raiders home games. It also ends 17 separate claims the team had against the city and county for a variety of issues, including day of game expenses and advertising revenue.
But it failed to resolve a $34 million jury award the Coliseum must pay the Raiders, an award that is now close to $43 million.
And it failed to ensure the Raiders would stay in Oakland once the team's lease expires in 2011.
But it could have guaranteed they stay until at least 2013.
The same negotiating group that denied the A's request for a lease extension also denied a request by the Raiders for a three-year lease extension.
Raiders Chief Executive Officer Amy Trask said the team is not disappointed that its request was denied.
Instead, she said, the team looks forward to working with the Coliseum Authority to settle the $34 million jury verdict.
"We agreed with the Coliseum, back in November, that we will sit down to see if there are ways to resolve the judgment in Sacramento," Trask said. "We have already met and will continue to do so in an effort to work this out."
In addition, Trask said, the team looks forward to working with the A's in hopes of generating additional advertising revenue inside the stadium.