Oakland A's Offer to Pay $135M-Plus City, County Debt to Assume Coliseum Control

The Oakland Athletics publicly announced their desire for full owernership of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Monday.

They sent a letter to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf in which they offered to pay more than $135 million in city and county debt in exchange for control of the Coliseum complex:

The city of Oakland and Alameda County currently co-own the venue.

The Athletics have played in the Coliseum since 1968, and they have long been in search of an opportunity for a new ballpark.

In the letter to Schaaf, A's president Dave Kaval called the Coliseum complex the "one site in Oakland that offers an assured path for the development of a new privately financed baseball venue."

Kaval added that paying the debt would alleviate the "cash drain" on the city and Alameda County.

The A's and Oakland Raiders share tenancy in the Coliseum, but the Raiders are set to move to Las Vegas by the 2020 NFL season.

Dieter Kurtenbach of the Mercury News wrote in December that the Athletics' most realistic option may be to renovate the Coliseum rather than build a new venue.

Regardless of what the organization decides, it needs an answer amid recent whispers that majority owner John Fisher could consider relocating the team.