Athletics propose ski lift-style transit option for new stadium
Getting to the new Oakland Athletics ballpark might end up being more fun than the game itself.
One of the most popular prospective sites for the new stadium - Howard Terminal, just south of downtown Oakland - is hampered by a lack of public transit, and that's led to some outside-the-box thinking for a solution.
The Athletics are exploring building an elevated ski-lift style gondola that could shuttle fans from the nearest Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway station to their proposed Howard Terminal stadium.
"You have to be creative in how you approach these problems in the modern era, where you have transportation gridlock," Athletics president Dave Kaval said Wednesday to Phil Matier and Andy Ross of the San Francisco Chronicle.
If built, Athletics fans would board the gondola at or near the 12th Street/Oakland City Center BART Station in downtown Oakland, and then travel over a series of railway tracks and the I-880 expressway to reach the ballpark. The service could potentially carry between 4,000-6,000 people an hour.
No official plans or studies to build the gondola have been drawn up, and the idea is still very much in the exploratory stages. But the plan is likely their best hope to improve public-transit access for a ballpark at Howard, as BART officials have already refused to build a new, closer subway station. Without an alternative, be it gondola or otherwise, Athletics fans would face a nearly 23-minute walk from Howard Terminal to the BART at Oakland City Center.
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The Athletics have called the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum home since arriving in Oakland in 1968, and the facility hasn't aged well, making the need for a new stadium all the more urgent. In addition to Howard Terminal, they are still considering building on the Coliseum site itself; though Howard is closer to downtown, the Coliseum offers far better public transit access thanks to its own BART station.