American professional baseball team Oakland Athletics, also known as the A’s, have found a waterfront location for their new ballpark, with picturesque views toward San Francisco, the Bay Bridge and Port of Oakland, the Associated Press reported.
Oakland Athletics President Dave Kaval revealed the renderings and a plan for the new privately funded ballpark with an aim to complete the project by 2023. There is no announced price at this stage, and Kaval didn’t want to even share an estimate. A California Environmental Quality Act assessment will begin immediately, according to the AP report.
Kaval, the enthusiastic, high-energy team president who oversaw a successful new stadium for Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes, had hoped to finalize a site by the end of the year, and he said the team settled on the Howard Terminal site near Jack London Square after meeting with 500 members of the community and nearly 80 organizations.
“We did a tremendous amount of community engagement where we listened to people in West Oakland, in East Oakland and I think what we found is this project is bigger than baseball,” Kaval said. “It’s not just a ballpark it’s something that could have a lasting impact in a positive way on our community here in Oakland to ensure the A’s are here for another 50 or 100 years or really basically forever.”
The ballpark site is about 6 miles from the Coliseum and there is no mass transit. The A’s and city said they plan to build a gondola that would go from the waterfront area of ballpark over Interstate 880 to downtown. The team’s new downtown offices will have a view of the project, including right from Kaval’s large corner window, the AP report stated.
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