Venue News & Notes: To Keep the A’s, Oakland Turns to a Higher Power

The Oakland Athletics are tired of sharing a home with the Oakland Raiders, and it is common knowledge that the A’s want out. The city of Oakland, CA, however, has other plans. This week, Oakland city officials turned to a higher power — MLB Commissioner Bud Selig — for help in developing a new stadium plan for the Athletics, which will hopefully serve as enough bait to keep the A’s in town.

Oakland city officials are asking for baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to help develop a plan to build a stadium for the Athletics. Mayor Ron Dellums and City Council President Jane Brunner asked Selig in a letter to name a point person to a new committee working on building a ballpark in the city. City leaders say the team boosts Oakland’s economy and enjoys strong local support. They say they are ready to do everything “reasonably possible” to keep the A’s…

…On the surface, the expansion of Miami’s Southeast Overtown/Park West Community Redevelopment Agency district and construction of a Little Havana baseball stadium in Miami have little in common. In fact, commissioners barely mentioned baseball during a 90-minute discussion on the inner-city neighborhood. But the redevelopment evolved into an unexpected stumbling block for the proposed stadium after Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones emerged from a month-long maternity leave with the struggling neighborhood on her mind…

…Six months after 91,000 people packed the Bird’s Nest to watch the closing ceremony of the Paralympics bring down the curtain on Beijing’s Olympic summer, its owners are struggling to find a role for the iconic arena. There is no shortage of examples of Olympic hosts’ building vast stadiums that are rarely used after the Games end, and, with a price tag of more $500 million, the National Stadium always had the potential to become the mother of all white elephants…

…The BankAtlantic Center of Sunrise, FL, a multipurpose venue serving the diverse sports and entertainment needs of the Fort Lauderdale area, recently upgraded its sound system with a series of products from EAW. Aside from housing the Florida Panthers NHL franchise, the arena hosts minor-league and college basketball, arena football, mixed martial arts, and professional wrestling…

…The New York Yankees borrowed $105 million in early March to cover cost overruns at new Yankee Stadium, set to open this year, according to a report in this week’s SportsBusiness Journal. The loan was made using “sponsorships, premium seating, and ticket sales, categories that are expected to total $330 million this season,” as collateral.