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Athletics president: New stadium is '100 percent' top priority

Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

Dave Kaval is set on finding a new home for his club.

The recently elected president of the Oakland Athletics was a guest Thursday on MLB Network Radio, where he confirmed to hosts Jeff Joyce and Mike Stanton that moving out of Oakland Coliseum is his primary goal with the team.

"One hundred percent. It's really the key to our long-term success," Kaval said. "We need to find a location where we can build a truly iconic stadium for the A's in Oakland. That's going to transform our ability to spend on major-league payroll and enable us to kind of be in that top-tier of spending, which should bring more championships to Oakland, which is a huge goal of ours."

The Athletics have played out of the Coliseum since 1968, though they've shared the ballpark with the NFL's Oakland Raiders every year since 1995. That co-tenancy has resulted in conflict over recent seasons, however, with each side putting blame on the other for some of the deplorable conditions at the stadium.

The Raiders, however, are planning a move to Las Vegas, leaving the Athletics the sole owners of the ballpark. Kaval, however, who has experience securing new stadium deals with the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS, is still trying to find a new place, though he intends to stay in the city.

"It's going pretty well actually. We're down to kind of three or four sites," Kaval said. "They're all in Oakland but they're in different locations.

"We're spending a lot of time right now working on the transit and traffic plan, making sure any site that we pick, people can get to easily, whether its public transportation, driving, parking, all that kind of stuff."

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