Oakland Athletics moving closer to picking future home

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The Oakland Athletics say that if they build it, the fans will come.

The A's are moving closer to picking one of three options to call their future home. The team could stay in its current location at the Coliseum next to Oracle Arena. Also under consideration are sites at Laney College and the Port of Oakland.

"We're estimating about a million person per year attendance increase in a new stadium," Jeff Ballisario with the Bay Area Council Economic Institute said.

The new economic impact estimates are exciting to A's President Dave Kaval. "Obviously we're very pleased with the results," Kaval said.

The organization partnered with the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.

"The stadium and the team would equate to a $3 billion impact for the City of Oakland and 2,000 construction jobs during the construction period," Ballisario said.

The A's are looking to win over the community as they work to pick a ballpark site out of three proposed locations.

"There's a big movement into moving stadiums into downtown areas and then those stadiums have seen higher increases in their attendance because the stadium becomes the attraction," Ballisario said.

Howard terminal near Jack London Square would have a great bay view, But getting thousands of people across train tracks would be challenging. The Lake Merritt site could cause congestion around the Laney College campus.

"There's a wide variety of unique characteristics at each location so we're weighing those," Kaval said.

The current Coliseum location would have the least hurdles for development based on the amount of available land already here. There's a lot of parking lot surrounding the stadium.

"At some point you have to put your stake in the ground and say this is the direction we think makes the most sense for the community," Kaval said.

A second location specific study is now in the works.

Kaval says the A's will announce a site by the end of this year.

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