Oakland A’s block Pioneer League team’s plans to host game at Coliseum

When Oakland Ballers founders Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel started putting together their plans to launch a new Pioneer League baseball team in Oakland last summer, one of their first ideas was to have a celebration of baseball in the city by hosting a Ballers game at the Oakland Coliseum. Months of back-and-forth discussions with ASM Global — the organization that manages the Coliseum complex — resulted in a signed agreement to host a game on June 29, 2024. Then, just days before the team was set to announce the game publicly, the Oakland A’s invoked their right as the current tenant of the Coliseum to block it from taking place.

In an email to ASM Global provided by the A’s to The Athletic, A’s team vice president of stadium operations David Rinetti wrote on Dec. 29: “We support the JPA (Joint Powers Authority)’s efforts to bring new events to the Coliseum. However, under our license agreement with the JPA, we have the exclusive right to play professional baseball at the Coliseum, and we therefore do not consent to your request. We are happy to work with the JPA on other ways to celebrate and promote professional baseball in Oakland.”

The team declined to comment further.

Freedman told The Athletic the Ballers were “surprised and disappointed” by the A’s decision to block their game, which they intended to be “a big celebration of the fact that baseball is going to stay in Oakland.”

“We think that Oakland is the best baseball market in the world, the best city in the world for baseball, and we think that the Coliseum, despite its flaws, is the best place for baseball to be played,” Freeman said. “We really thought that this could be a milestone celebration that we’re going to continue to have baseball in Oakland, and we think that the community would have been really excited about it.”

The A’s, whose relocation to Las Vegas was unanimously approved by MLB owners in November, are in their final year of their lease agreement at the Coliseum, which has been their home since 1968. The team has yet to announce where they will play in 2025. A new stadium in Las Vegas isn’t expected to be ready until the 2028 season, at the earliest. The A’s were expected to release renderings of their proposed stadium on the Las Vegas Strip on Dec. 4 but cancelled the press conference, citing the deaths of two Las Vegas police officers. The press conference has yet to be rescheduled and no renderings have been released since then.

The Ballers had been working closely with A’s fan groups to build up support for the June 29th Coliseum game and, among other plans, had been planning to give tickets to local youth baseball organizations. Tickets for the game were set to go on sale today.

“The ticket price of baseball has gotten high, and a lot of kids in Oakland have never been able to see a professional game, so this could have been their first game,” Freedman said. “But overall, this was supposed to be a celebration, and a community event.”

Freedman says the Ballers are still assessing their options but hope to put on some sort of other community baseball celebration during their inaugural season, which kicks off on May 21 on the road. The Ballers will play their first home game on June 4 at Laney College in Oakland.

The team will get an opportunity to mingle with the Oakland community for the first time on Feb. 24 at Fan’s Fest, where they will be one of the attractions at the fan-organized celebration of Oakland baseball taking place at Bloc15 in downtown Oakland. Fan’s Fest, which is being organized by A’s fan-supporter groups the Oakland 68s and the Last Dive Bar, will feature appearances from several former A’s players, including former star slugger Khris Davis and 20-game winner Mike Norris.

We’re still six weeks away from Fans Fest, but throwing an event like this takes a ton of planning. A few moments ago we finished checking out Bloc15 in Jack London Square. We can’t wait to party here with you on February 24th!#SellTheTeam #FisherOut #OaklandForever pic.twitter.com/qomqrJAgbo

— Oakland 68s (@Oakland68s) January 3, 2024

“I think a fan-organized fan fest is just so awesome,” Freedman said. “It’s an indication of what a great sports community this is.”

Required reading
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Oakland fans fight to keep their team despite MLB owners’ approval for Vegas move
(Photo: Robert Edwards / USA Today)