A's future in Oakland looks promising after supes approve new stadium

OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland Mayor Schaff displayed her excitement Wednesday, a day after learning that the Alameda County Board of Supervisors non-binding vote to approve using property taxes to help fund infrastructure around a proposed A’s stadium at Howard Terminal in Jack London Square.

"The non-binding vote sets the terms by which we can then send the lawyers off to actually draft the binding agreement so that we know that confines, the boundaries of what this agreement is going to look like," said Mayor Schaff.

But because the vote is non-binding, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said a move to Las Vegas hasn’t been taken off the table.

"While yesterday was a major milestone, we still have many more steps to go and I fully expect the A’s to have a backup plan," said the mayor. "They have been working for far too long to improve their current conditions to not be keeping their options open."

Mike Jacob, with the East Oakland Stadium Alliance and Vice President of the Pacific Merchant Association, two groups opposed to the team’s move to the waterfront, believe the project would negatively impact port operations.

"The M.O for the A’s on this project has been to try to ramp through decisions quickly without a lot of analysis.

Still, Jacob told KTVU that he’s happy with the board’s decision and believes it will take a scalpel to the very detailed and intricate portions of this deal.

"They went to so far as to say they weren’t going to take any action until they hired a third party to independently verify the numbers that they got from the city (and) that’s a good thing," he said.