UPDATE: Oakland Coliseum City ENA Approved By Oakland City Council
Coliseum City Project Proposal In City Of Oakland Closed Session Tuesday
The Oakland Raiders may move back to the Los Angeles Basin, and to Torrance, CA, but only if a business man succeeds in his effort to buy the organization. This was told to me by a high-ranking source and the same person also explained that the expected financing for the Oakland Coliseum City project, a proposed 800-acre sports and entertainment complex, did not “come through.”
A key Oakland official was expected to present the exclusive negotiating agreement (ENA) document this week (a contract that is the guiding organ for talks between the City of Oakland and a developer) but the financing snag has delayed that. That ENA would be between JRDV Urban International, the project manager, and its organizational team: HKS Sports and Entertainment, a stadium developer, and Forest City Real Estate Services.
The centerpiece of Coliseum City was, among stadiums for the Oakland Raiders, Oakland A’s, and an arena for the Golden State Warriors (there are versions of the plan that have scenarios for the loss of each team) was to be a retractable-roofed stadium. That stadium cost was at $1.2 billion. When the price tag was considered too high, HKS Sports and Entertainment went back to the drawing board and removed the retractable roof, lowering the cost to around $900 million.
Stay tuned.