OAKLAND -- The Oakland A's are being pitched several potential ballpark sites in and around the city center, as the team continues exploring options for a new East Bay home.

A 21-page city report submitted to team officials last month and obtained by this newspaper identified five potentially viable ballpark sites, including two on the campus of Laney College and one at a U.S. Postal Service facility in West Oakland.

A's co-owner Lew Wolff declined to discuss the sites Tuesday. In an email, Wolff said the ballclub was continuing to take a second look at possible stadium locations within its East Bay territory and that there was no timetable for completing its review.

With the Golden State Warriors likely leaving for San Francisco and the Oakland Raiders possibly returning to Los Angeles, the A's, after unsuccessfully seeking to move to San Jose, are now considered the East Bay team least likely to uproot itself.

"The A's are going to stay," said Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who also sits on the authority that operates O.co Coliseum. "The exact location is anybody's guess."

City leaders have made no bones about their preference that the A's build as close as possible to downtown. Not only would the team's 81 home games potentially boost surrounding businesses, but extracting the team from the Coliseum complex could help the city keep the Raiders there and redevelop some of the surrounding land.


Still, the city's report illustrated just how difficult it might be to satisfy the A's anywhere other than the team's current home, which has ample parking and an adjacent BART station.

"It's not like you open up this document and ... a perfect site jumps out at you," said Andy Dolich, a former A's executive and current sports business consultant. "Every one of those alternatives is fraught with delay, incredible extra expense and logistical hurdles that are already solved at the Coliseum."

Several of the proposed stadium locations, including Laney College and nearby Brooklyn Basin, scored poorly on a previous 2001 study and would present a new set of challenges.

The Laney sites, south of the Oakland estuary, lack sufficient parking and would require the college to tear down its relatively new athletic facilities or administration buildings.

"There is nothing to discuss right now," said Jeff Heyman, spokesman for the Peralta Community College District. "Without seeing a proposal, it's impossible to address it in any meaningful way."

As for the 22-acre postal service facility near the West Oakland BART station, it is not for sale, postal service spokesman Augustine Ruiz said.

The city's initial study was so preliminary, officials didn't contact site owners that their land was under consideration, Assistant City Administrator Claudia Cappio said.

Several sites, including two in the desirable Uptown neighborhood and another just east of Jack London Square, were deemed infeasible because of the number of privately owned parcels that would have to be cobbled together for a ballpark.

The most plausible alternative to the Coliseum complex appears to be the site the city has been touting for several years: Howard Terminal, just north of Jack London Square. It offers about 50 acres of publicly owned land, but the team has pointed out potential flaws, including that it sits about a mile from the nearest BART station and could require costly decontamination.

Cappio said she was pleased to see that a developed city like Oakland had "at least some possibilities" to offer the A's.

She said the team has asked for more information and analysis, which the city is planning to provide in mid-January, by which time it might know whether the Raiders will be bound for Los Angeles.

With San Jose off limits, the A's still have rights to build in Alameda or Contra Costa counties, but local officials said the team appeared focused on Oakland. The team hasn't inquired about any sites in Fremont, where it had once proposed building a stadium, Fremont Mayor Bill Harrison said.

Contact Matthew Artz at 510-208-6435.