A’s propose ‘jewel box’ ballpark for waterfront, Coliseum redevelopment

soxhop411

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This time it might actually happen.


The Oakland A’s are set to unveil a “bigger than baseball” mega-ballpark deal that includes a “jewel box” waterfront stadium at Howard Terminal on the city’s waterfront.

The plan would also turn the current Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum site into a tech and housing hub that would keep the Oracle Arena as is, while stripping the massive stadium there down to a low-rise sports park and amphitheater.

“This is a big vision for our city,” A’s President Dave Kaval said.

Kaval said the A’s call for control of both the 55-acre Howard Terminal waterfront site and 111-acre Coliseum site in East Oakland is essential if the team is to deliver on its promise of a “100 percent privately built ballpark.”
Still, the A’s say sustaining the team for the long term in Oakland will require more money than the proposed 34,000-seat park (the smallest in Major League Baseball) can generate on its own.

“Obtaining the Coliseum makes the odds of Howard Terminal better,” Kaval said.

Developing the Coliseum site would also allow the A’s to honor their commitment that any ballpark deal would include “significant community benefits” for East Oakland residents.

At the center of the proposal is the “jewel box” ballpark at the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal, just north of Jack London Square. Kaval describes it as “like nothing you have ever seen.”

Designed by the cutting-edge Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group, the ballpark is a deliberate throwback to the turn-of-the-century diamonds like Philadelphia’s Shibe Park (a.k.a. Connie Mack Stadium) where the A’s once played.

The ballpark itself would be nestled amid wedge-shaped high-rises — some as tall as 20 stories — with windows looking directly down on the playing field.

The site is too windy for the ballpark to be open to the water, but the stadium would include a publicly accessible rooftop park with sweeping views of the waterfront, Oakland and San Francisco.

“Instead of a ballpark that sits like a fortress, this will be open and accessible to the community at all times” when games aren’t taking place, Kaval said. “It will be a reason to live in the community, activate Jack London Square and become a great landmark in the Bay Area.”

The plan also includes an aerial gondola to shuttle 6,000 fans an hour from downtown Oakland over Interstate 880 and the railroad tracks to Jack London Square. While not shown, the plan would also feature a couple of pedestrian bridges over the tracks — though apparently not an auto bridge.
For information about how they will utilize the old Coliseum site, click the link below..
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/A-s-propose-jewel-box-ballpark-for-13426272.php

The organization announced Wednesday its plan to build a 34,000-seat waterfront ballpark at Howard Terminal near Jack London Square. If everything goes to plan, construction would start in late 2020, with the stadium opening in the spring of 2023.
https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/athletics/plan-howard-terminal-stadium-oakland-coliseum-site-redevelopment

 
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John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I hope that this works out for the Athletics and I'd like them to stay in Oakland.

Though I have a feeling that if this plan craps out, the A's might be the next franchise that leaves Oaktown.
 

NickEsasky

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Will they be going to the old Cubs model of only playing day games?
 

moondog80

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I have no idea if the finances will work, but that looks really cool. A big departure from the Camden Yards model, which has gotten stale with all the clones.
 

Kliq

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I hope it works out for them, no team should have had to endure playing in that stadium for so long. Oakland has taken a beating with the Raiders and Warriors headed out after this year, but it still strikes me as a good place to have a team; the city has grown by almost 10 percent since 2010 and there should be a good amount of Fortune 500 companies in the area that can pay for suites.
 

InstaFace

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The plan also includes an aerial gondola to shuttle 6,000 fans an hour from downtown Oakland over Interstate 880 and the railroad tracks to Jack London Square. While not shown, the plan would also feature a couple of pedestrian bridges over the tracks — though apparently not an auto bridge.


More seriously, the departure of the Raiders is probably a blessing for this, since the multi-purpose stadium just wasn't working for either side. I hope the Athletics can stay there, there's not a lot that Oakland has over their cross-bay neighbor, and this would keep a lot of pride.
 

E5 Yaz

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Talk about burying the lede ... they're going to have this ready in time for the 2023 World Series
 

Ale Xander

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The land would be better used for a residential development to ease the Bay Area housing prices, IMHO. Contract the Rays and A's (will never happen) and move the Marlins to Orlando.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Contract the Rays and A's (will never happen).
It'll never happen because it's a dumb idea. Why would you contract the A's* and the Rays? There are more than enough major league ready ballplayers in the world and MLB should be thinking about expanding.

* Especially the A's since they're one of the first AL franchises and have been playing since 1901.
 

SoxJox

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That top graphic isn't too scale, obviously. Otherwise, those boats/yachts in the harbor are YUGE. Either that, or the players, fans, and park staff will all be nano-scale.

Anyway, still can't top our lyric little bandbox*

* with all due respect to Mr. Updike.
 

mauf

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If the A’s get the development rights to 166 acres of Bay Area real estate, I have to imagine this will be the richest subsidy ever given to a pro sports team.
 

bohous

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Looks like they still value extra foul territory in the IF.
I'll pile on to say i hope this happens. Interesting design and really like the opening in CF.
 

shaggydog2000

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If the A’s get the development rights to 166 acres of Bay Area real estate, I have to imagine this will be the richest subsidy ever given to a pro sports team.
Yeah, I'd find it hard to believe that the city would give them that much land for free, the value of that has to exceed the cost of building the stadium by a pretty big amount.
 

koufax32

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That would qualify as the worst batter’s eye in any level of baseball.
Other than that minor tweak it looks pretty cool.
 

nvalvo

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Yeah, I'd find it hard to believe that the city would give them that much land for free, the value of that has to exceed the cost of building the stadium by a pretty big amount.
What I read was that they're asking the city to sell them that land. Presumably there would be some sort of subsidy built into the sale price of that site.

The A’s tweeted that the batters eye will be RETRACTABLE
Oh, interesting. So only for day games?
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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If you notice the cross bar below the screen of the scoreboard, I imagine that would be the top of the retractable eye (sounds like some ballpark demon).
 

Spacemans Bong

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If the A’s get the development rights to 166 acres of Bay Area real estate, I have to imagine this will be the richest subsidy ever given to a pro sports team.
Yeah, I really don't see this getting through the flurry of political controversy and lawsuits for that reason. The A's becoming the biggest property developer in Oakland and building a pretty but probably relatively inexpensive (since glass and concrete are cheaper than brick and steel) park as thanks? Yeah, nobody's going to object to that at all. Even what the Giants did, which was basically just the ballpark with the city owning the land it sits on and building a light rail line down the Embarcadero, would be far more heavily critiqued today.

Saying this, they've managed to rack up Larry Reid, president of the city council (whose district includes the Coliseum) as a supporter, which is a big get for them as he's been a thorn in any ballpark plan for fifteen years now. It's also possible they are basically coming out with their best case scenario expecting the city to negotiate down the ambition. And I do like preserving the Coliseum bowl as a community space. Say what you want about the place but the Oakland A's and Raiders are arguably THE iconic franchises of the 1970s and that was their home stadium. Six titles between them. Considering Candlestick Park is being redeveloped into homes and a mall with zero public memory of the stadium itself, I am very jealous.
 

Al Zarilla

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The land would be better used for a residential development to ease the Bay Area housing prices, IMHO. Contract the Rays and A's (will never happen) and move the Marlins to Orlando.
I don't see that KB homes or any other home developer was swooping in to buy that land before somebody liked it for an A's ballpark.

If the A's move out of the area, it might tip the scales for me moving to San Diego though and have a little further drive to a Red Sox game in Anaheim. It's all about me of course. :)
 

Ale Xander

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I don't see that KB homes or any other home developer was swooping in to buy that land before somebody liked it for an A's ballpark.

If the A's move out of the area, it might tip the scales for me moving to San Diego though and have a little further drive to a Red Sox game in Anaheim. It's all about me of course. :)
That's a nicer drive, a nicer ballpark, and nicer people inside. (In my limited experience from 2016)
 

nvalvo

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I still really like that waterfront site. On the one hand, it's an industrial (port-related) use nestled between Alameda and some more industrial stuff. But it's also only a few blocks — a half mile or so — from the north side of Jack London square. So that brings good restaurants and amenities, it brings an Amtrak Capital Corridor train station. It has the 880 freeway. It has the ferry terminal.

You'd probably want to run ballpark buses to BART stations, because that's maybe a 30 minute walk. (Or, if you can talk the relevant authorities into it, build another downtown BART station at Castro or Market, just two or three blocks away).
 

Minneapolis Millers

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Geez, not to be a killjoy, but even the updated rendering looks hideous to me. I don't get the roof top garden-like thingy (which looks like it has about a 30% grade - people are going to be walking or wheel-chairing up and down that??). And it doesn't seem to embrace the waterfront particularly well. Also, 34,000 is too small. I know it's Oakland, but still.
 

edoug

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Geez, not to be a killjoy, but even the updated rendering looks hideous to me. I don't get the roof top garden-like thingy (which looks like it has about a 30% grade - people are going to be walking or wheel-chairing up and down that??). And it doesn't seem to embrace the waterfront particularly well. Also, 34,000 is too small. I know it's Oakland, but still.
II think it looks pretty cool but to be near the water and not have a view is kind of odd. And it does look like a roller coaster. A really awesome roller coaster but still. Plus practically no bleachers. Not that it's hard to remedy.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Or a center field fence and non-white batter's eye. It can't be considered a particularly detailed or realistic rendering.

*
 

Spacemans Bong

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Because baseball parks must face northeast or else the hitters will be blinded by the sun and killed by pitches?
Well, not due west at any rate.

It's a rectangular plot of land, so the ballpark can either face east or west. Note where the first picture above places the setting sun.

I suspect wind was another concern, if Pac Bell Park is any guide. The reason it faces eastwards away from downtown San Francisco is a quarter-turn to the west, framing the Bay Bridge and all of downtown, would have given it more wind than Candlestick Park. Wind blows southwest in Oakland, so you'd have a very unhappy 3rd base grandstand for a game. Put the stadium facing the other direction and it hits the exterior.