Oakland A's co-owner tours waterfront property for new possible home

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- For almost 50 years, the Oakland A's have called the Coliseum home. ABC7 News toured the place they might call their next home.

It's a place filled with trains, trucks, noise and ships. In short, it's about the last place a baseball fan might expect to find the boys of summer. But that was before a blue van drove through the gates of the Charles P. Howard Ship Terminal in Oakland Friday.

"I don't know what the transportation is going to be like down there," said one Oakland A's fan. Spoken like a true Oakland A's fan, when we broached the subject of this place as a possible new stadium site.

Team owners and executives arranged a tour of the docks to check them out. A port spokesman made it official. "We would lease the property and we're always in discussion with potential tenants," said Mike Zampa of the Port of Oakland.

A move to the waterfront might both simplify and complicate Oakland's relationship with its sports teams. Both want places of their own away from the 50-year-old coliseum.

The Oakland Raiders announced that they have taken out a trademark to call themselves the Las Vegas Raiders, with an artist's conception of a stadium to go with it.

But if the A's left the Coliseum, would the raiders still want to leave?

"Mark Davis has been saying, I cannot work with the A's, I want to stay in Oakland, but I need my own stadium. If the A's actually do move, that frees up the Coliseum for him," said Chris Dobbins of Save Oakland Sports.

In the meantime, the view from Sky7 shows the bus passengers out and about alongside the docks, maybe imagining where home plate might be. They did not speak with reporters Thursday. Then again, actions and van rides may speak louder than words.

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