OAKLAND — The Oakland A’s — soon the only game left in town — have committed to staying put. Now they just have to tell their faithful fan base, the ones who stuck with the team through good times and bad and numerous threats to move, where team majority owner John Fisher plans to build his self-financed ballpark.

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A’s spending millions to find best site for new Oakland ballpark Sources say a stadium announcement could happen as early as this summer, fueling speculation about a brand-new location, or perhaps the same old place. Will it be Howard Terminal along Jack London’s waterfront? Squeezed onto the Laney College campus? A cozy new ballpark next to their crumbling, current home?

The A’s have done polling on each site, but the allure of a downtown or waterfront park has sucked up the most air in this discussion. In an interview Friday, team President Dave Kaval said all three locations are in play, and environmental, neighborhood, traffic and other impacts are being evaluated daily.

“It’s such a big decision, and we really want to be deliberate about it,” Kaval said. “It’s a 100-year decision, a generational decision, and we want to make sure it’s not just our decision.

“Each site has its unique pros and cons in different areas,” he added. “We are laying them all out and getting feedback from people in those communities.”

There probably isn’t a whiteboard big enough to list those pros and cons. While Kaval wasn’t ready to dive into the detail of each, fans, politicians and leaders interviewed this week didn’t hold back.

Howard Terminal

The port-owned property west of Jack London Square offers 50 acres of unused property and has long been considered a possible future home for the A’s. Of the three sites, it is the longest walk from the nearest BART station at 12th Street and Broadway.

For all its attractiveness — with views of the water and restaurants nearby — more than a dozen regulatory agencies, from the California State Lands Commission to the Army Corps of Engineers, would have to sign off on the project. Kaval said the A’s may seek state legislation to help them speed along the environmental review, which is more critical at Howard Terminal and Laney College than the Coliseum, where the impacts of a sports stadium are already known.

The terminal location would also require infrastructure upgrades to help fans cross railroad tracks and safely guide them to and from the stadium to public transit. Just as it did with the unsuccessful deal to keep the Raiders in Oakland, the city could offer an estimated $200 million in infrastructure costs, if negotiated and approved by the City Council.

“It’s no secret my favorite is the Howard Terminal site,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said Thursday. She said building there would “put that land into the public’s use, show off our spectacular waterfront and develop an incredible piece of land.”

Fan Bryan Cauwels, a season-ticket holder since 1991, would give up tailgating at the Coliseum if he could hang out in Jack London Square after an A’s win.

“There’s a lot more life in Jack London Square,” the 44-year-old said. “I personally believe they already know what the site is, they are just working out the details.”

Laney College

Though referred to as the Laney College site, the land is really home to the Peralta Community College District headquarters, along Fifth Avenue just east of busy Interstate 880, although accessing the freeway can be a challenge. A healthy walk from the Lake Merritt BART station, it is closer to a residential neighborhood and small businesses than the other spots on the shortlist, worrying Schaaf and residents about displacement.

“Those NIMBY issues can become legal issues, which you don’t have at Howard Terminal,” said Andy Dolich, a former A’s executive.

It’s also likely a Laney stadium would require further environmental review, given its proximity to a channel connecting Lake Merritt to the estuary. Also, Kaval said the orientation of the stadium has not been penciled out. Longtime fan Kenny Mellor can’t figure out what the view would look like.

“It’s a pinch point for traffic,” the 70-year-old Pleasanton resident said. “I’d like to see the A’s stay just where they are.”

The land also might not be up for sale. Peralta Chancellor Jowell Laguerre said the A’s have not directly sent any proposals to the district.

“Nothing is impossible,” Laguerre said. He said land between the district office and the Embarcadero “is crying for something good to happen.”

Coliseum

Close to BART, Interstate 880 and Oakland International Airport, no other stadium site in America offers so many transportation options. For Mellor, there’s the nostalgia of watching the A’s in the 1970s and ’80s, long before Mount Davis blocked the view of the Oakland hills. And, at least now, there’s plenty of room for tailgating.

The Coliseum is not the jigsaw puzzle it once was. As the Raiders pack for Las Vegas and the Warriors prepare to cross the Bay, the 120-acre, city- and county-owned land is up for grabs and ripe for development that could surround a new ballpark that would serve as the centerpiece.

Even though Major League Baseball increasingly has encouraged new ballparks to be built closer to a city’s downtown, the team will have the final say.

So what happens to the Coliseum if the A’s do leave their first and only Oakland home?

“We’d like to see affordable housing, maybe a school,” said Towanda Sherry, of Oakland United, a coalition representing residents, workers and faith leaders in East Oakland. “These are the things that people asked us for. They would like to have a movie theater there and recreational facilities for youths and adults.

“For us, it’s important that we have development without displacement.”