Oakland Sought Proposals From White Developers To Compete Against Black NFL Group For Coliseum
ONN – Oakland Sought Proposals From White Developers To Compete Against Black NFL Group For Coliseum – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube
City Of Oakland Sought Proposals From White Developers To Compete Against Black NFL Group For Coliseum
Former Oakland Raiders / Coliseum City Developer Floyd Kephart and Rick Tripp, both asked to submit proposals, even though both lacked financing the first time they got involved in stadiums for the Raiders and The Athletics.
Ray Bobbitt’s group of powerful African American investors finds itself in the middle of a political game that’s being played by the City of Oakland, and not the Mayor of Oakland.
In my opinion, and stated with background information, Oakland City Councilmember Larry Reid, seemingly angry that he was not more directly involved in Bobbitt’s group, has tried to pull strings to exact influence. It’s typical Oakland stuff that causes sports teams to leave our city, and sound investors to not take us seriously.
What I was told by an Oakland city official was this:
Yes, both Floyd Kephart and Rick Tripp have both submitted separate proposals for the Coliseum property that are subject to real estate negotiations. Since these were unsolicited offers, there are no rules in terms of what the development proposal must include. You are correct that there is no formal RFP for the Coliseum site, however, we are apparently receiving considerable interest from the marketplace.
What happened was Ray Bobbitt’s press conferences placed national attention on the Coliseum site. The City of Oakland and the Councilmember then altered the environment so Bobbitt’s group had a bumpy playing field of so-called competition for the Coliseum site, just as Bobbitt’s group was working with the Oakland Athletics. How? By inviting Tripp and Kephart, and restart a bad period in Oakland’s sports history. In Floyd’s case, I’m reminded of a take I presented, writing
Who was there ate what Floyd gave them hook line and sinker. Kephart must be having a lot of fun thinking these folks are fools, based on what he told them. It’s either that, or Floyd doesn’t really know stadium finance, but just will not admit it – which would also explain the total garbage that came out of a restaurant known for good food.
First, regarding the $900 million to $1.1 billion stadium, Kephart told them that he planned to have the City of Oakland float a “conduit bond” of about $300 million, then reportedly said the bond would be paid for by “various stadium revenue” and said “naming rights, non-game day revenue and ticket or parking assessments” – which means he didn’t have it all spelled out one bit, and was guessing.
Where’s the detailed spreadsheet?
Moreover, anyone knows that you don’t even try to float a fucking “conduit” bond for a damn NFL stadium project: those types of bonds are used for non-profit housing projects.
And in the case of Rick Tripp, the otherwise affable business man failed to produce an actual spreadsheet to demonstrate that his never before used or proven real-estate-transaction-based financing plan would actually work. Moreover, he has no findable track record of large scale development, and only a curious interest only in the Oakland Coliseum. And he doesn’t live in Oakland.
Then Bobbitt’s group was asked by the City of Oakland to include a man by the name of Eric Murray, an Oakland-based African American investor.
The question is why weren’t Kephart or Tripp asked to add Murray, and why would the City of Oakland attempt to insert itself into the very makeup of Bobbitt’s development team? To be sure, adding Murray was a suggestion, but when it comes from the City of Oakland, who is the ultimate decider, it looks like a demand.
The Mayor of Oakland Must Install A Process For Developer Vetting And Acceptance
The Mayor of Oakland must step in to solve this problem. I’ve said before that Oakland lacks and needs a process for dealing with developers and their proposals, starting with a task force.
On January 28, 2018, I wrote this: Mayor Schaaf Must Form A Sports Task Force – Her New Oakland A’s Stadium Hire Won’t Solve The Problem.
And on June 27, 2015, I wrote this:
Once again, Oakland proves that it’s really good at just one thing when it comes to big projects, keeping secrets, and openly shows why it may lose all three of its sports teams sooner rather than later or never. Well, in the case of Coliseum City, it is really several things beyond keeping secrets that plague Coliseum City.
Here we go again.
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media’s Zennie62 YouTube and Oakland News Now Today Blog SF Bay Area: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.