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Open Letter to the City Council: Tell the A’s to Stop Abusing Oakland

Stop this madness now! Tell the A’s to pay their fair share or get out of town! Give them no public money for a ballpark. None! If Howard Terminal is so much a better deal than the Coliseum, where a ballpark could be built for little or no public money, let the A’s billionaire owner pay for it. If the A’s don’t like that deal, let them leave.

Published

4 years ago

December 12, 2021

Oakland Post

The A’s have been pitting cities against each other to leverage more public money for a ballpark.

By Post Staff

The City of Oakland is in an abusive relationship with the Oakland A’s.

The A’s tell the city, “Give me what I want, and I will stop hitting you.” The city bends and the A’s demand more and hit the city harder. We, the voters must come to the aid of their elected leaders. Please intervene and tell our elected leaders to stop allowing the A’s to bully them. Just say “NO” and walk away.

After all the city of Oakland has done to demonstrate their desire to keep the A’s in Oakland, including offering over $500 million of public funds for development of the Howard Terminal ballpark, the so-called ‘rooted in Oakland’ A’s have made an offer on a Las Vegas ballpark site at the Tropicana Casino. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/sports/nevius-as-should-just-skip-oakland-charade-head-for-vegas/

Clearly, the A’s have been pitting cities against each other to leverage more public money for a ballpark.

Who needs a team that is so uncaring that they arrogantly demand diversion of public funds to them, or they will leave?

Taxpaying residents of Oakland have suffered long and hard with homelessness and crime. They need public funds devoted to those problems, not a baseball park. At a point where the city has empaneled a blue-ribbon commission to actively consider increasing business taxes for every business in town to pay for revenue shortages, it is outrageous to consider giving the A’s public money and tax breaks to build a baseball stadium.

This is especially galling when there is perfectly good property at the Coliseum that could be the site of a new ballpark without the need for all the public money the A’s are demanding for Howard Terminal.

“Our job is to feed people,” said Keith Carson, president of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, at a recent hearing on whether Alameda County should contribute public funds to the Howard Terminal project. Carson is absolutely right. The City and the County have great needs that should take priority over giving public money for a ballpark.

But the arrogant and hostile ways the A’s treat the public does not stop with city taxpayers. The A’s recently increased their season ticket prices and eliminated discounts previously offered to their fans. But the fans did the appropriate thing. They stopped buying tickets. During a recent playoff run, the A’s had fewer than 5,000 fans at their games. According to public reports they ranked 29^th out of 30 teams in fan attendance.

Our elected officials should follow fan responses to the greed and arrogance of the A’s. The A’s must pay their own way. Do not spend public dollars on baseball parks. Do not let them bully and abuse our elected officials.

If they choose to leave, “let the door hit them where the dog should have bit them.”

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Oakland Post: Week of March 4 – 10, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 4 – 10, 2026

Published

5 days ago

March 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

2 weeks ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

3 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.