Oakland Roots President’s Coliseum Use Request Opens Dispute With AASEG ENA & Agreement - ATLNews

Oakland Roots President’s Coliseum Use Request Opens Dispute With AASEG ENA & Agreement This 22 minute long vlog describes the anatomy of what is now a full-blown dispute between Oakland Roots Soccer and the African American Sports and Entertainment Group AKA AASEG. The problem is that AASEG was never mentioned by Oakland Roots President Lindsay Barenz as a point of contact in her open forum Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority Meeting statement of November 20th, 2023. AASEG had anticipated that the Oakland Roots would use or want to use the Malibu Lot; no contact was made by Oakland Roots to involve AASEG in the matter. The problem that Lindsay Barenz pointed to in her open forum statement involved what it would take from a cost perspective to prepare the Malibu Site for use in accordance with the Roots’ needs. In turn, the sea level rise drainage problem I told the Oakland Roots President and Lydia Tan, the Roots Director of Real Estate , about (and is on video here from the February 2023 Coliseum JPA Meeting, is here. At the time, when I advocated for the Roots to be in the Coliseum in our off-camera discussion, they were determined not to be in the Coliseum and believed the Malibu Site could work, against my warning. It took City Staff essentially telling them the same thing nine months later, before Ms. Barenz shifted gears toward being in the Coliseum, itself. I must also add that a full-blown EIR is necessary because of the traffic and use impacts a development drawing 10,000 people would cause. City Staff should have told them that, as well. The entire story is yet another example of the dysfunctional operation of the Coliseum JPA without a sports commission component. A sports commission would have an overall land use plan for the Coliseum and then be able to organize what AASEG wants to do with what the Oakland Roots need, and organize them in such a way that we don’t have conflicting ENAs. I said Oakland Roots ENA should be subordinate to AASEG’s and not in competition with it. The Coliseum JPA acted as if it had a better perspective. I have a generation of experience with this organization and was there before it was born, while it was formed, and hired by Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris in 1995, to specifically monitor it, and the Coliseum organization that came before it. Stay tuned.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPGCQFsuVC8