Do sports have a future at Oakland Coliseum? The A’s may hold the keys.

OAKLAND — The Oakland A’s last played baseball in this city over a year ago, but the franchise still holds both a potential ownership stake in the Coliseum and the decisive ability to reject groups that seek a longer residency there.

It is an uncomfortable arrangement that comes at a turning point for the Coliseum property, where lucrative private events could bring an end to live sports played at the iconic stadium.

The stadium’s current highest-profile draw is the Oakland Roots soccer team, which on Friday will seek a special events permit to play 17 home games for its 2026 season, which begins in March.

Coliseum officials, however, are mulling whether the Roots may instead meet the criteria for a full licensing agreement, which involves more complicated legal details.

A key condition of the agreement approved by Alameda County is the A’s power to veto it through the franchise’s real-estate company, Coliseum Way Partners. Only the A’s, Raiders and Warriors have ever held such an agreement at the site.

Because the A’s may soon come into partial ownership of the stadium-arena complex, it may decide the costs associated with a long-term tenant are not worth it.

“I think you can read between the lines,” said county Supervisor Nate Miley, who sits on an appointed body that oversees the Coliseum. “With the overhead expenses and costs, (the A’s) would likely not want to absorb this.”

It is a symptom of what seems to be an unavoidable problem at the 60-year-old Coliseum stadium: live events have rarely turned much of a profit, from the Raiders to the A’s to the Roots, which had trouble filling seats last season.

Henry Gardner, the executive director of the Coliseum’s decision-making body, said the Roots did cover baseline costs of security, electrical systems and other on-site staffing provided at the site by entertainment company AEG.

But longer-term expenses, such as insurance and facility maintenance, are carried by the property’s owners.

“The stadium operations have always been a drain on the city and the county,” Gardner said.

He noted that the two governments pay for stadium costs out of their general funds — millions of dollars a year in public money that would otherwise go to services like roads and parks maintenance.

Last fall, Coliseum officials allowed the entire site to be taken over for a private three-day tech conference held by Block, the company formerly known as Square that is valued at tens of billions of dollars for its online-payment products.

The event, which drew 8,000 attendees and featured a secret lineup of celebrity appearances that included hip-hop icon Jay-Z, was the Coliseum’s most profitable event of the year, officials said.

But the gala, closed off to the public, also signaled a possible future where the publicly owned Coliseum could move away from ticketed sporting events in pursuit of profits.

Roots team officials are pushing to obtain a special events permit for the upcoming season, which would help the team avoid the A’s scrutiny.

The Coliseum’s decision-making body, a “joint powers authority” comprised of city and county officials, will meet Friday to consider the Roots’ deal.

Already, there is disagreement between elected leaders who serve on the authority about whether the Roots would be a worthwhile partner beyond 2026.

“If they want Oakland to invest in them, they need to invest in Oakland and make a long-term commitment to the Coliseum,” said City Councilmember Ken Houston, who sits on the joint authority board. “You want them to say, ‘I’m going to be in Oakland for 60 years.'”

Like many sports franchises to come through Oakland, the Roots have run into trouble finding a permanent home. Before arriving to the Coliseum, the soccer team bounced from Laney College to Cal State East Bay in Hayward.

Last year, the team effectively ditched plans to build a new stadium in a space next to the Coliseum known as the Malibu Lot, citing complications.

Instead, the Port of Oakland announced this week that the Roots are finalists to build a stadium at Howard Terminal, the waterfront site on the estuary that the A’s, ironically, once tried and failed to redevelop.

“Since day one, we’ve shown a deep and unwavering commitment to The Town,” Roots president Lindsay Barenz said Thursday in a statement, noting the team has “continued to invest in building and playing in Oakland, saving hundreds of jobs and generating tens of millions of dollars in economic benefit for the community.”

Maritime industry interests at the waterfront successfully pushed out the A’s from building there. Separately, though, the baseball team also purchased the county’s half-ownership interest in the Coliseum back in 2019.

The A’s acquisition of the site would be complete after longstanding improvement bonds at the site are paid off next month and a lingering environmental lawsuit at the property is resolved.

But in the meantime, the city, county and the A’s are collectively trying to finalize a sale of the land in full to a private development coalition, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, which promises to transform the whole property into a new megaplex of housing, retail and entertainment.

In a statement, A’s executive Sandy Dean declined to comment directly on the Roots, saying instead that the team is focused on completing the land sale to AASEG.

That deal has run into numerous snags, and privately city officials worry it may not be complete by an expected escrow closing date of June 30.

Sports fans in Oakland have been left to contend with the intricacies of stalled real-estate deals that have led their favorite teams to effectively play musical chairs between the Coliseum and Howard Terminal.

For some, however, the long deliberations are worth the end result.

“Obviously the Roots can’t fill the stadium,” Miley, the county supervisor who sits on the joint authority, conceded. “But it’s better when they are playing there than if they were not playing in Oakland at all.”

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.