Oakland A's Sign Approval Of Coliseum Land Sale To AASEG: Ray Bobbitt Interview With Zennie Abraham

hey everybody expected Ray bobit to join me I still waiting for him but I decided simply to go ahead and get started and uh talk to you about what happened and uh the news is basically simple that uh Rey after some negotiation succeeded to in gaining the approval of the Oakland Athletics uh in the purchase of what was now what was their share of the Oakland alamia County Coliseum and it's a real Milestone it's a very much so so um it happened on Thursday where they complet what was called an acquisition agreement and the total sale price is 12 $5 million and the only step from this point um is approval from Alama County and that's it uh so and of course Alam has a still has sale of the property's future and but once the entire it's a complicated it's a different deal because it's not it's not a straight purchase in other words if it were straight purchase the the um monies would have been an escrow and um oh hold on a second let me straighten out something with Ray because he says it's not letting him on uh hold on a second me try this um see uh all right I'm G to call you let me see here oh no here he is here is Ray speak of the devil he he appears speak of the devils and I said it twice that was me and the echo I thought that was Echo I was like does Z have a twin brother over there uh hey sometimes sometimes I have four congratulations man thank you appreciate you appreciate you absolutely yeah so hey tell us I was I I was at the point where I was explaining there was uh an acquisition agreement and but then as you and I discussed off camera and you were saying that the deal is different because of course you have you don't have a straight owner of a property of a public entity and under California laws and so normally the money would go into escrow uh but this is an entirely different situation so pick up from there and first of all congratulations you did it as I as I I don't know if you noticed this but I made this Photograph uh that that very out that very very pointedly said Ray Bob did it that's at the FR oh thank you yeah yeah it was myself with a bunch of team members and a bunch of people that are awesome and yeah but you know how they they made you the target when everything goes wrong right yeah so look they might as well give you your let me get theid of this they might as well uh they might as well give you your accolades hey that's the that's the role of a quarterback you know when you win everybody carries you off the field but when you lose you know everybody's criticizing you so I mean if you're a quarterback you know I definitely feel like I've been certainly quarterbacking I'm carry you off I'm carry you all my shoulds off the field that strong man that's right very proud of you very proud of you thank you I appreciate you app absolutely yeah hey so let's so I'm gonna shut up and put put on my other hat and my ears tell us how all this um where all this is right now and what were the final points of the process to this point yeah so we have been negotiating obviously both with the A's and the city simultaneously and it's been a tremendous this amount of work and it's been a Incredible Journey and time consuming and all of the above and when you're trying to accelerate to get to an agreement on a you know a property of this size with this magnitude with this presence and it's you know has so many different elements to it Transportation um you have to think through you know as the jpa there um it has you know um trans it's a transportation um center point so there's a lot of different things you have to consider when you're doing a a land agreement of this size so that one of one of the reasons why people were very um skeptical as to whether we could complete it in the amount of time not that we couldn't complete it but in the amount of time is because it's just such a massive lift and so if you you know you run into anything there's a number of questions that you have to answer in all these different categories so we were able to work full-time the attorneys had worked full-time you know we work together with the A's and their business team um full-time I mean this was really a heavy lift and something that was really important that we all stayed focused on in Partnership together can I add something I put this in proper context because it's important to realize that what what Ray here has done is re really unprecedented in this history of the city of Oakland and here I'm not talking about race folks I'm simply talking about getting to the point of purchasing this land okay because the last person who we all thought was going to do it was a gentleman by the name of Floyd Kart remember him yes Renaissance properties yes sir and it turned out that not only did he not have the money okay but there are a number of people including some naysayers today who were stating that he did have money that he didn't have then Mr Kart was trying to position himself such the city would give him 200 million plus he was going to use that to buy a share of the Raiders I informed mayor sha M sha jettisoned Mr Gart upon receiving that information that is just a taste of the kind of bad history we've had just getting as far as Ray bobin has gotten today and I want everyone to understand where this really is and forget the politics of the moment because the land sale would have happened regardless right Ray that's correct yeah I mean I think that that point you know yeah I mean I think you're right I mean that a lot of people have tried to get here and um you know this is this is but you I think you had to have everything sort of an alignment um and I think that this moment was an alignment and I think that there's um a lot has you know happened uh that were it was unforeseen we were in an Ena which was going to take us to a development and disposition agreement a DDA and because of you know some of the things that were happening in the city from a budgetary perspective um and the opportunity for us to move into a purchase and sell agreement to accelerate um that was a big factor and then off also um the A's negotiations with the city for a three-year extension um getting us into the room with them in a meaningful way where we could actually work together with each other and and um you know really look at this from the standpoint of actually moving forward with it um you know so that was important for us to actually engage each other that way um so a lot of people didn't even realize we were talking to each other and there was a lot of assumptions that the A's would never even transact with us regardless so I think what ended up happening is we got to you know we weren't sitting at the table um from the standpoint of it being across from each other we just made a round and we just worked together and we just kind sat down and try to figure out what our interests were and I think that from their perspective you know we we fit in a lot of ways um the ability to kind of get these things done because of our community-based approach and you know we they felt like I'm sure they felt like you know we were a group that the community was going to support and so we weren't just the typical developer and you know the people had who had done it before were not really from here they didn't really understand the gauntlet of development and the politics and the different things you need so I think that they really had a lot of confidence in us because of our makeup and um I think that we had confidence in the fact that they were um willing to be you know to transact with us and we gained that confidence in each other so once we did that we started kind of just figuring out the pathway together and so that because we had to work together to do it um as a Oakland native and a lifelong a fan obviously is very painful and it's a you know it's a it's hard to do because you're sitting across the room and you're you're hoping you know you're you're you know you're with an organization that you've been you know going to Dollar Day since you were a kid you know um and so so you have to but at the same time we both understood that for us to become the stewards of that property they've been the stewards of that property at least in some capacity for the last 6 years so we felt like you know being a community-based you know organization that's local we felt like it was appropriate for this to get into our hands in stewardship so as much as we see it as a profound you know and a a great opportunity it's more of a profound responsibility because now we have to actually you know take steps towards revitalizing and getting to this point was very difficult but the more important part of this is going to be creating a situation where this community can be revitalized where we can open up new chapters for professional sports at the site and that we can actually create jobs and we can serve as a tax base that will help you know stabilize Public Safety and really help um you know create jobs for people within the immediate community and really serve as a as a revitalization tool also so what about the matter of the money tell everybody where that is because there number of people are saying well they're not going to have the 15 million by September 1 and but it which is really isn't the right date anyway so let Set everybody straight as to where you're at yeah I mean I think we we so we we the A's had a $2 million deposit that we sent to them the city will have a $5 million deposit that once we sign we'll send to them um all of the negotiations on the payment schedules that we have are you know obviously are items that we're finalizing uh but we're going to make sure that whatever final dates we determin will be consistent with supporting the budgetary needs of the city um and so you don't get into I mean obviously loop capital is our Capital Partner and I mean they have this thing that they created a while ago called Google so you could just Google them you just Google a financing mechanism no there's no there's this there's this there's this program called Google right you could probably just Google them and figure out you know um you know what their financial capacity is so I mean it's kind of a yeah and it's and it's you know you're dealing with municipalities you're dealing with a sophisticated business organization um on the other side so they're obviously going to have vetting tools and vehicles in place to make sure that you know the things that they need in order to complete a transaction like this are already available so you know you hear stuff like that but at I mean at first I started thinking like you know this is because you know African-American developers or business people that's an a really easy target to say oh they don't have the money I mean that's just an easy target because our community hasn't really been ingrained in the in the economic fiber of this country um as much as other cultures but the truth is is that I started thinking about it as I was sitting across from the A's I was like every other day I hear John fiser ain't got the money to do his project you you know so I mean so to some degree I'm I'm like I think he's I Googled him and he's a billionaire but um I but but if you let everybody else tell it they're they don't have the money and it's not going to happen so I was looking at it from that perspective and just thinking it's more about you know when you step out into a into a situation where you're making a decision to go into the public and do something that is public they were on public land they're going into public land we're buying public land so hey everybody has a right to have those questions but they are not I mean that the same questions that they have about us they have about you know John fiser and the A's you know on their project so it doesn't really you know it doesn't really impact us but more importantly I think the question is is the only way you can really resolve those kind of questions and concerns is execution you know so I mean if we didn't have $2 million to wire to the A's then we wouldn't have a deal you know and if we didn't have you know so and if we didn't have some mechanism of being able to vet our C our financial capability we wouldn't have a deal so I think that that's I mean I don't really want to be labor it but I think that you hear about things like that and you hear about um you know even when you know sports teams are moving and there's these questions about do they have the money is it going to be able to happen I think it's really just about pathway and it's about how you get there it's about being able to kind of open up Pathways that you didn't know existed it's about navigating the process it's like getting through the gauntlet of Oakland and I think one of the things that we got to be careful of in our city is that when we see things happening that are positive we have to be careful you know not to to be the reason why good things can't happen you know and so yeah I mean it's really you got to be careful because you know um it's to you know we had three iconic sports franchises and you know that you know and and I think we're all have a lot of pain over them leaving um we can debate all day about whose fault it was but at the end of the day they've they're going to all be gone after September 26 and so I think here instead of talking about you know what our capability are what the city's capability is or their decision- making we should be the thing that's the most the disturbing to me to some degree is we should be celebrating the historic opportunity that an African-American Le organization has to have the largest transfer of public land to an African-American group in the history of our country yep but instead we're kind of answering questions on social media that don't seem that you know just seem like they're more designed to be um you know to kind of hurt the process rather than be celebrating it and I I want to get to that because you can't in my view talk about this without crediting the mayor and because the mayor apparently trusted ascg enough and Luke Capital enough to be able to make this step and I'm curious to know how did that part of the story start because I never heard or read about how exactly how that started whose idea was it to move this forward I mean I think it just became we had already been negotiating for 18 months we had already been working with the city and that's the one thing is sometimes I think people think this is like something that's brand new we were in an Ena you know in January of 2023 and so we were and our goal in the ENA was get to get to a purchase so that was the objective and so we were already in that process so we were already in a position where we would have had a right to you know to detour and pivot towards a purchase and sell agreement at any time so but a development and disposition agreement just takes a lot longer so if we felt like the circumstances were available for us we could pivot and I think a lot of people try to tie the decision to um the the the budget but ultimately um it's not the budget it was the A's opening up the op it was the A's unlocking the opportunity because there was nothing we could have done in our DDA or our Ena if the A's weren't willing to we couldn't even go to the Planning Commission and file for a permit because you would have had the authorization of both sides and the county and the City you know there was never an opportunity to do that and if we bought the city's interest so the we reason why we went into an Ena and a DDA because it's longer and we felt like we would have an opportunity to see what was going to happen with the ace because we knew that they were going to be leaving the Coliseum site because of they said so publicly they didn't feel like the Coliseum site fit the model for MLB they like Waterfront and downtown so we knew that the Coliseum would become available the question is is that could we transact with them and so I think the focus on this budgetary process and sort of tying our decision into the budget because if you're not involved in the transaction and you're not involved in the process it could appear that way but really the transaction that was the most critical was the A's transaction because once you get the a transacted then all of a sudden you're working with the city and had it not been for the budget or we been just adhering to the ordinance that would have given us a year right we would have just been working together with the city to get their half and we would have been working in cohesion you know in a in a more stretched out period of time because we would have had the ASA side locked in and we could have then went to planning and started a real site plan so I think that that's I'm glad you asked that question and probably only you would ask a question like that because you understand how these things work so while the public is sort of focused on the budget and thinking that we're doing this because the budget they're not not understanding that what really motivated us to because we could have stayed in our Ena and a DDA we still had extensions but what motivated us is when we started talking to the A's and we realized oh they can actually transact and if they're ready to transact we got to move and that really is what unlocked it so it really was less about the budget it became more about the budget once I think the city realized their budgetary position but I think I'm glad to be able to kind of state clearly that that's not really how this really came to be I want to uh put in something I don't want to play the whole thing weaker expected job support hold on a second I just want to turn that down uh but uh it has to be noted at this point that uh we're talking about how long this Coliseum City matter has been alive okay and I'm just going to point to uh everyone's attention when you have opportunity to watch uh it's a Blog called Coliseum City Origins and uh I'll skip this right here and it started this what this is is a um that's Bob Ley right here I'm gonna freeze it Bob Ley Steve low and Frank Dobson who passed away Steve L and Bob I call him Uncle Bob because and I know his daughter we go back to high school but uh this is it's an Oakland story and this is 2009 colise City started in 2004 Larry Reed took this idea and created the initial RFP that would bring in Floyd ke harder eventually so Ray is really the the endpoint of a very long journey uh a quest to really establish the Coliseum as a true destination point because these three gentlemen said hey look if I get to an A's game I've got no place to go before the you know Stadium opens exactly right nothing so that was that was how all of this started so it really yes so it's not a budget issue uh not at all I mean I think if you're if you're a Oakland sports fan and you follow the Oakland sports history of the Coliseum I think you're less focused on that budgetary process because you know that that's not what that's about this is about completing Coliseum City for lack of a better term yeah and without the three sports teams uh and this is you know you're going to start where in every iteration the arena is going to be there because it's doing incredible I think people probably don't know that since the Warriors left and the arena picked up the 41 additional days that they catapulted into the top 10 in asm's properties of the 350 they manage and so um the entertainment capacity and capability at the arena is a great barometer to understand that people still love coming to that site to be entertained sold out shows sold out concerts when we got the Warriors dates back we start doing more Disney on Ice more Selene Dion more Anita Baker and now people just can't get enough of the site because of the great Rich Transportation infrastruct so I mean this is the I mean this is really about that this is about completing something that really was started a long time ago um the Coliseum specific plan you know that I mean it it really accounts for that and I think you can trace back the ability to get to this position when you know the you got the 10-year lease with the A's you know just how the different sports teams didn't see a way to Coexist on the site um and so but if you followed it closely enough and you've been around it enough it's I'm just so glad that you asked that question because I think the the Oakland sports fans are going exactly you know you guys the the people just in the general public who are either supportive or critical could be talking about the budget but the real the sports fans in Oakland are really talking about unlocking the ability for the A's and because the A's were going to leave the Coliseum site regardless they were either going to go where they're going now um and I don't say the name of that place because it took my football team but they either I'll call it the desert so they're either they were going to go there or they were going to go to Howard terminal so there was not so we were always just kind of waiting for the opportunity for that last shoe to fall and um that's why we got into an Ena with a longer period of time cuz we knew if we just waited and waited and waited and we kept and that's why you never heard us say bad things about the A and you know because we knew that at some point we'd have to transact with them yeah and we've worked together with them pretty effectively I want to point out one other thing regarding the the back story here too uh that's important and it's this you're that man is Chris De Benedetti and he's been a CR critic of you know deals like this but Chris was the chair person right the chairperson of Ron Dam's sports and entertainment task force specifically discussing Coliseum City so he played a role in trying to advance this as much and he won't tell that story so if Chris starts talking again and others there no people in this room who should be applauding you okay just that's to be noted we have to we have to right set the history here uh before it's too late we have to get out ahead of it because you're right this should be a celebration for the city we finally got to this point a point where and I think the other part of the naysayer part is we have made naysaying a habit because we're so used to the failure right the other you there in the I think he's uh he'll be back something's happening I don't know what's happening folks but at any rate um while he's there I'm going to bring up uh the the scream I mentioned this is the Ben a daddy talking oh here he's back we got him back we got him back there he is I just wanted to expand on that point though sure like we have to pay homage in this moment to all the people who like really are part of the Oakland sports Pro you know ecosystem like if we want to get in involved in the Olympics in 2028 um we got to go back to you know U bring in the super bow to Oakland there's a guy that I think I'm sitting in front of who probably came the closest to ever accomplishing that it would have been the first time that we had a major event of that magnitude um there's no reason why we can't participate goad just I'm the only person in Oakland's history who even ever wrote a bid to do so right you know so thank you yeah what I'm saying is is that you know we have to we have the ability now to do a lot of the things that we a lot of us wanted to do and and the sports teams were there and we were happy to have them there but when you start talking about writing the next chapter of the site you know um we missed the World Cup you know we missed a lot of different scenarios where we could have really been front and center on um and I think that ultimately we have the only shovel ready site to build professional sports stadiums um and they are contemplated in the specific plan and so but but even beyond that even just beyond looking at that we have to think like Super Bowl Oakland thought and we have to think about you know what is the highest and best use so people like you who've been in this ecosystem that people may not even know you did that I'm bringing it up because you brought up Chris De Benedetti who I have a lot of respect for and I know a lot of the people who um you know have been just involved in this from the beginning and you know so I just want to when you're having a conversation about that site you know the community around it um it's just interesting to see how the the the confusion around the budget has really made absent the point of this historical agreement between the Oakland Athletics and an oakland-based group um the the Oakland sports having a you know somebody with Oakland sports background and having an interest in sports staying in Oakland uh coming back to Oakland um so it's not like it got sold to a large industrial entity that was going to you know have it be a a a center point for Amazon and they were going to use it as a transfer point or something like that or I mean it's it's set for industrial uses it's except for multitude of uses so when you go back to all the uses you have under the plan you know we all obviously in our name talk about sports and entertainment so it's a combination we've seen it at Mission Bay um we've seen the impact that um the Mission Bay development with the giant stadium and the chase Center has had with UCSF and the housing has had on Third Street in biew Hunters Point they've benefited you know and so East Oakland can benefit the same way um from a mixed use development that has sports and entertainment tourism as a component um and potentially come back with professional sports and so I mean that was all the groundwork has been laid for that so I think it's really important you brought that up and I'm glad we took the conversation in that direction not only that let's not forget you're a member of the black hole and the at at the Coliseum and you this all started off folks as a fan effort uh and I think that has to be noted too uh the whole history here has been forgotten and I mean uh this is right here this is Ry right here I'll show you this folks this is Ry seven years ago Ray remember that yeah greater fan conference I'm gonna play that it's only a minute 39 seconds here right first of all great meeting and uh what are your thoughts about the meeting right I me I think the general consensus is that um we feel less for as a as a community as a fan base because we realize that all of us weren't on the we weren't connected to each other right right and and we all had the same feelings and we all had the same sentiments but we weren't connected to each other so we felt helpless every time we got the the a different news story that went that suggested that the team was leaving we all felt the same anxiety we all felt sick to our stomach main yes and so we don't pay attention the mainstream media so you know we it affected us and so um now now just the general consensus of everybody kind of talking is like you know what even if they get approved we're moving on this situation this situation will not be in any in any way shape or form where it ends it'll just be the beginning of us and we'll be I mean we our rally and our March is going to be phenomenal I mean if this occurs and you got this I want stop it there because you brought that energy to this you realize that yeah I think I think that that was like you know it was interesting because um um we when with the fan organizations that I'm a part of with the black hole and everything we really fought to keep the team here but I think I was thinking because I grew up you know three four blocks from the Coliseum like a lot of times I'd be a fan organization or in events and they would say Ray we don't know you we've never seen you at games or tailgates and um I would say because because I I never grew up being able to afford to come to games like our community directly surrounding the Coliseum has always had an economic relationship with this site uh we we've my brother and sister both sold um concessions at the Coliseum me as an entrepreneur of the family I sold things around the Coliseum I sold waters on the hot day and umbrellas on rainy days so I was that kid you saw asking if you want to buy something and so we we worked there we have a relationship with it from that perspective and so I was always kind of different from the fan groups in that right because I was so like a lot of times my I would be able to go to the A games a dollar day that's why the a hurts so much because the the the price point to be able to go there as a kid but I never really went to Raider games growing up um even though as an adult I became part of a notorious fan club but the really the reality is that I always had a Vision even when I was supporting keeping the Raiders here and keeping the Warriors here and even to some degree the A's here um I always had a economic Vision in my mind about like what if this they left and I always thought we can't allow for this the moment that the A's leave on September 26 this won't be a blighted empty site that will be fought over to do something there that doesn't benefit this community you know you have the roots coming in to play a one season in 2025 it's going to give us just enough time to really get down to the site planning of it and so we're here to really Revitalize East Oakland in the area and really be in a position where we can create jobs for people and have a huge impact and be the vehicle that's going to bring back the Hegenberger Corridor and allow it to expand but even in the other direction so we're we're really excited about that and I just want to say I always had in the back of my mind um just because of where I was raised that this is an economic opportunity for our community not only a sports opportunity yeah John asks will you try to bring Major League the cume in the Oakland Arena 100% I mean we will definitely work I mean I think now that we have the thing that's been interesting about the sports leagues I think they always wanted it in private hands I think it would have been easier because when you have the municipalities running it especially the city and the county where they don't always see eye to eye um so I think to have it in one entity's hands that's private I think that the the sports leagues are going to be a lot more attracted to it uh because I think that they're going to understand that things can move in an expeditious manner that won't necessarily require the approval from the different municipalities that they have worked with over the years it's it's interesting you said that because that's what Joe lob said to me um in my interview with him uh 12 years ago folks uh when they were announcing what some people had Mook as a groundbreaking it was just a party to announce uh their intent to build at Pier 32 if you remember that Ray yeah I do and I was invited to it as press did didn't art agnos stop that if I'm not mistaken it was uh it was a coalition of people actually I joined one group uh that was in opposition to it because of a noise issue right I helped them behind the scenes politically because you know I just hate the idea of Warriors leaving but here's Joel lob I'm talking about something that is very important to what you just said Ray uh and that's basically is you know who do you who do you address right came after us pretty aggressively and we certainly were having conversations he's talking about Ed Lee the late San Francisco mayor Ed Lee was my first client way back in 1993 he's talking about Ed Lee Samir listen yeah we were having conversations certainly with everybody and we're looking into all options but he really came after us aggressively and his staff some of the people Jen matz was very involved in this and I have to give them a lot of credit for being great Visionaries and uh being entrepreneurs he Jo I have to ask how much of this is criticism of the jpa Coliseum a guy worked for the Coliseum I mean what started there's no there's no criticisms I mean clearly the previous ownership of the words not us right had issues that we all know in the courts with the jpa um we when we came in we did what we should have do which is settle all that we wanted to have a clean slate and we did that right and we have a very good I feel a good working relationship with them I do think it's it's not the easiest it's a public venue we don't have control of the venue um it's not the easiest thing to manage and it's an old building and there are a lot of problems I'll stop it right there see that's what you're alluding to right c yeah I'm just saying that the like we have a great relationship with the city and the county and we believe you know that the city and the county really did do everything they could to keep our sports teams here we are of that position but I do think that um you know the owners are business owners you know and so they have to do things that are are not going to be driven the same way as um you know a municipality or even a local business entity it's I think the story about why the um craft family bought the um Patriots is because the Patriots were going to relocate and they didn't want them to and so um you know I think if you have people who are committed to Oakland and are from Oakland I think certainly it would be a different it's it's almost an impossibility you know within you hey R you're muted yourself somehow accidentally do think but I do think that the sports leagues to be able to deal with a private ownership I think that that's what he was saying is that he's not in control of the the arena and you know so I mean I think that that's what he was gathering so I think that this just makes it easier and he said there's no criticisms and I don't think there is I think this the jpa is a great vehicle and has been to manage the the the site and it could continue to manage administrative processes on the and things of that nature but um but I do think that it's just one of those things where I think the sports leagues are going to look more at the private ownership as more attractive because they can make decisions quickly yeah and that that's what I think is going to put us in a really good position to bring Sports back to Oakland and to the site and and something else too you have more financial flexibility from this position because a number of people have said well why does it have to be an outright sale as opposed to a lease and uh i' like to know your thoughts on but I'll tell you what my thoughts are just from my experience and it's very simple you at least you pay a payment but it's not a property tax and therefore because it's a lease because a city would still own it if you had different Parcels on the site and you would and you wanted to sell those Parcels okay you wouldn't be able to because it's not your land that's right therefore the city doesn't get transfer uh transfer tax revenue from a sale not only that if you don't sell it let's say you want to do a enhanced infrastructure financing District using tax income ref financing well you want land to turn over to be sold because when it's sold then it bumps up to the market value and when that happens you increase the re the Redevelopment tax incent excuse me the tax in financing Revenue but if it's a lease you cut all that off that's that's choked off yeah okay I think I think understand that and I don't know who came up with this lease Point anyway as maybe they thought maybe it was gonna be some sort of poison pill to stop your project when I first heard it I thought these folks really don't understand how this works go ahead Ray yeah I mean I think that first and foremost what we had to tell people who were sort of the the you know pushing for the you know public land for public good and the lease versus sale option is that the the when the county made the decision to sell the side to their half to the A's is no longer public property and there's no way for us to um to in you know to require that a entity that owns something like how would a lease even work we can't lease something that we don't own from somebody who owns it you know so I mean it's so it just it killed that process first of all second of all you know just we know that the the the the site has been subsidized by the city and the county for years to the tune of3 to 12 million at times a year and so it really took right out of the general fund and You' hear people arguing about the budget about the sale it's actually going to save the city money and more importantly the property to transfer tax immediately and then the property tax is I mean right now there's no property tax because there's an exemption on both municipalities so if and then you're talking about you know divid you you your sound right that U there you go I right right right still yeah that's so if you're talking about subdividing the space up into multiple development pads you're going to generate tax base for every one of those and so I think that the the I mean to to to just be clear you know our position is that we were open to you know we you know we obviously needed to purchase the site for these bunch of different reasons so um I think that I hope this is helpful because a lot a lot of people don't have the information you have they don't have the information that I have and so they're just looking at it from what they might hear on you know from uh however whatever source that they hear it from but I think if they were to have the information in front of them and saw it they would understand how the community was actually benefiting from this purchase and also folks I would remind everybody that Oakland has not used Tax increment financing at all since it was reintroduced to the public September 21st 29th excuse me of 2014 and meanwhile we have municipalities throughout the country that are using tax increment financing to do things like for example build new houses in Missoula Michigan them $250,000 a pop and at a rate below what it cost to build them because they use tax increment financing right that's that's gone that happened last year in that City there are a number of innovative uses of tax inur financing that Oakland has not even paid attention to hasn't considered hasn't done we really sat on it yeah so now we have an opportunity to really bring home the positive use of tax increment financing to Oakland no I agree I mean yeah 100% I think you pushed for it to have to be presented publicly at the jpa they did a great presentation on it I watched it um it's a great concept if it's done correctly and people understand it correctly and so um just you know happy to to know that you know that that that is available as a prospect and really a vehicle because it can really be uh extremely helpful especially something like this this magnitude when it starts to go vertical um I mean and it's going to be a lot of work I mean this whole thing has been a lot of work even getting here you know so it's just it takes a you know it takes a lot of time and patience tip of the ice right right up here man yeah so but I'm I'm GNA have to I got to get ready for um a meeting right now so but I wanted to just make sure that I gave you a time to very important question is the jpa still gonna have any say so on who plays the Coliseum and Arena and in lease terms I mean they will up until the time that it dissolves you know I mean that that's the governing management entity you know that's I mean so they have every right to do whatever they feel and make all the decisions but once we get into these agreements we'll make sure that you know we're now tracking in a direction of managing that kind of thing I gotta ask you publicly don't you think that there should be established like now some type of subcommittee that offers you a position regarding at least to have some eyes and ears on what they're doing with an eye toward the future so you're not sandbagged or caught by surprise yeah I mean I think you recommended that and it got put on the jpa agenda as a sports commission I think it was called and so I'm not sure where they are with it I know that they were trying to do it in a very specific amount of time um to make sure that it had a a a nice Runway until the bonds de fees but I think that that would be good because as we kind of plan um what kind of sports will will we have like Cricut wanted to come to the Coliseum because uh when the when the World Cup of cricket was happening in the US we missed it because the A's um it would have been a scheduling issue with them apparently but the reason why they were so big on Oakland is because our foul territory is so big that it actually fits the the um the metrics for Cricket and so no other I mean we hate the foul territory at A's games because you know popups end up you know just just foul balls end up as outs but but for Cricket they were like well you know notoriously we don't like the a file territory but uh cricket they thought wow this is actually fits perfectly and if you just think about that as a as a different game um that could bring fans from you know from all over oh yeah you know that's kind of goes back to the whole concept of Super Bowl Oakland and thinking big and why are we not involved in the world cup and why are we not involved in the Olympic discussions and so I mean we just got to think but I think a Sports Committee could actually go out and open up and unlock other opportunities for us there are 200 over 200 sports events annually to bid on and we just have to have a facilities planned for them and that's all hat to come up with yeah well I gotta jump off so all right all right thank you so much appreciate I'm gonna stick around and debrief some folks get way all right than stopping by man congratulations so that's R he's done a fantastic job uh sorry I missed here he says tell R we need a drag strip for racing cars somewhere on the property parking lot or open up the inside like they did for the big trucks tell them to contact me you can make big money now are you suggesting that we bring Formula One to Oakland just asking um KF says does this make the Coliseum the favorite site for any future pro sports team over Howard terminal yes uh because it's of all because simply where Howard terminal is is reverted to status once it stopped once the A's moved away from Howard terminal the way legislation was written regarding the bay conservation development commiss commission excuse me uh the agreement was that it would return to its original use so we would have to go over the process of hearings with the bcdc and other agencies again to unlock that for Howard terminal in other words you quite literally reinvent the wheel right but we don't have that issue at the Coliseum and really we never did because of the coliseum's place you don't have to uh get the bay conservation development commission's agreement it's enti different ball game it really is uh so I'm going to leave it right there I'm GNA come back with more later uh on this but I want to emphasize how big a deal this is this is an enormous deal congratulate Ray bobit for what he's done he did something that no other person in Oakland's history has done that includes F kep part that includes the prince of Dubai and that debacle with under uh Oakland mayor uh Gan Quan we've had a lot of missteps that also includes mayor sha failing to sell the property to the National Football League yeah the National Football League wanted to own the property that Ray bobbit's group now owns all right Ed grubman said that you know he offered it for nominal fee uh EG uh Eric grubman excuse me and ER Gman said that to me on camera um in I believe it was 2015 uh nominal means you know they not going to break the bank okay uh but as to what that would be it wasn't like a dollar or anything like that um but they truly were interested in developing it and were very disappointed that the mayor wouldn't even you know do a deal I'm talking about mayor sha so uh this has come a long way uh there have been a lot of missteps uh that have come to define the history of Oakland As a can't do City that can't get things done and here's an example of a group that focused and I want to talk about also uh Brien Dixon and the lawsuit group that he hang headed up and express you know how uh how much they should be applauded for getting this as far as it got I know they didn't like what Ray did um I've talked about it and but the bottom line also is that Ry had said you know both privately and publicly that he didn't want to keep arguing he want he needed to move forward and he managed to establish New Capital as a partner early on uh and uh was really eager to get this done uh and that that has to be I'm not saying that that Breen wasn't he was but the bottom line was that at some point in any process you have to learn to fish and cut bait on what you want for the greater good of achieving the objective and that didn't happen um it didn't now did Ray handle that part of it well know by his own admission okay but he also had established luk Capital to a point where they were able to help him Advance uh and as I said privately to Breen I said you know you should go talk to Ray because you don't want to be in a position of on the outside looking in when he achieved success and right now he's about to do that uh and that's just a fact Okay so they had ample time to say you know what we're let's start all over we want to be a part of this we want to help you we all want to get on the track of where we were initially let's move forward um but he didn't want to do that and that's really unfortunate and I I I cry for him and uh but it's not like hey he's alive he can always say you know what I want to come back in why not uh that's that's not of course not my call it's between the two of them um but the court Situation's gone um uh apparently they tried to say that they didn't have any type of understanding that this was going to be an arbitration matter they negotiated yet there's a video of them you talking about this and uh agreeing and you know signing those documents a video that I guess they didn't think existed or forgot existed whatever so how they handled this was really um really sad really really was um and so yeah we have to move forward we can't just say oh well I don't like that this deal went through because of the mayor look the mayor's problems have nothing to do with this at all and the mayor did make the right call like it or not she did she pushed it forward and she gave a can do group a chance to do and that's what they're doing you know I mean that's it we have to acknowledge when something is working and say this is good and then let's figure out how to make it work better we need to evolve to that place Oakland has too many decades of crab Barrel generated failure and when I say crab Barrel I'm saying mean there's always somebody around that wants to pull you down and and figure out what you didn't do even if it's not true that has to stop and I'll leave it at that all right subscribe to z62 on YouTube bookmark Oakland newws online.com and NFL news by z62.820