Oakland A’s Gain Support from Local Businesses

Oakland business leaders are rallying together to keep the Athletics in Oakland.  According to Nate Stuhlbarg of CSNBayArea.com, local business leaders have united to form a potential ownership group that they say would be willing and able to fund a new stadium.  There has been talk of current A’s owner Lew Wolff relocating the team to San Jose which is an area he believes to be a more sustainable area for a professional baseball team.

Oakland’s local business contingent is being led in the press by Clorox Co. CEO, Don Knauss.  Other businesses that are reportedly involved are Safeway, Pandora Internet Radio, World Market, Kaiser Permanente, Bigge Crane & Rigging, Jobs and Housing Coalition, Matson Navigation Company, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Reynolds & Brown, Signature Development Group and Wendel Rosen Black & Dean.

Knauss said that the group’s intent is to show that “if the current ownership group is not committed to Oakland” they “want to make clear that Oakland and the East Bay business community are ready to step up to the plate to help ensure the A’s stay home where they belong in Oakland”.

For his part, Wolff said that the A’s are “not for sale” and that “no one has reached out to purchase” the club”.

Knauss and the group said that there were four initiatives that would allow them to secure the funds necessary to keep the A’s in Oakland; stadium naming rights, establishing major corporate sponsorship commitments, attracting more regional sponsorships and pursuing specific industry anchor sponsorships (health care, airlines, food companies, etc.).

Stuhlbarg reported that a new stadium in Oakland would likely cost between $400 and $500 million.

For more on the Athletics be sure to check out Swingin’ A’s.

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