The Golden State Warriors needed a new arena, and Joe Lacob is in the process of building one.
The Oakland A’s need a new stadium, and it’s possible that Lacob is the owner the franchise needs to help accomplish that mission.
Though the A’s are not for sale, Tim Kawakami of The Athletic had Lacob on the latest edition of the TK Show podcast and asked Lacob if the Warriors’ owner would have interest in purchasing Oakland’s baseball team if they were on the market.
“If they were for sale, we would be interested in discussing it and certainly considering it,” Lacob told Kawakami. “I think we have the organization we could make it very successful if we were to get into that. We know how to build an arena I think, we’ll see soon and they do need a stadium.”
While the Warriors are busy building and developing the Chase Center in San Francisco, Lacob said he believes the A’s belong in Oakland. While he appeared to express disappointment the team’s plans to build a new stadium at Laney College did not work out, Lacob said he’s hopeful owner John Fisher will be able to make progress soon.
“But it’s not our team, it’s not my decision as I’ve said before,” Lacob said. “I totally support John as a friend and I totally support what he’s doing and I hope he’s successful. The Laney College thing is from what we all have observed seems to have blown up or is not doing well, maybe they’ll be able to salvage it, I don’t know. But we’ll just have to wait and see I guess.”
Lacob said he thinks there are three potential sites the A’s can build on in Oakland, but he appears to favor erecting a stadium at a waterfront location, Howard Terminal.
“I think there are three possibilities,” Lacob said. “The Coliseum site certainly has to stay in the bucket of possibilities for them. The Howard Terminal certainly is available and is a possibility and the Laney College site which they decided to pursue was a possibility. They all have their advantages and disadvantages and we’ll see what happens. I certainly think the Mayor of Oakland is in favor of that. I personally in the past have thought that it (Howard Terminal) would be a good site for a variety of reasons.”
While Lacob isn’t involved in the A’s plans yet, it’s not out of the question for the Warriors’ ownership to become involved with Oakland’s baseball franchise in the future.