Major League Baseball would help the Oakland A's move across the bay and play at rival Giants' AT&T Park in San Francisco if Coliseum officials don't come to terms on a new short-term lease for the team, sources tell us. The A's two-year home stint at AT&T Park, which would start next season, would probably be the first step toward moving the team out of the Bay Area. The league's hardball warning was passed on to Coliseum officials at a closed-door meeting by Jon Streeter, the San Francisco attorney who is representing the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority in the stadium lease negotiations.
We're told MLB is also demanding that the Coliseum give the A's just a two-year lease extension - not the five- to eight-year deal the authority has been pushing. The short-term lease would give the A's more flexibility should the team's owners swing a deal to move to San Jose - or beyond.
The sticking point in the Coliseum negotiations hasn't been the length of the lease so much as the money from food and beverage concessions. Under their old lease, the A's managed the concessions for all sporting events at the stadium, including for the Raiders, and they got a major share of the revenue - terms the Coliseum Authority wants to change in its favor.
The talks have dragged on for more than two years. Now, however, the Coliseum's governing board - which includes two Oakland City Council members and two Alameda County supervisors - is definitely feeling the heat.
"Now we have to do this lease quickly because Major League Baseball has injected itself into the conversations," said one board member, who like our other sources asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks.