Oakland A’s ballpark plan dealt big blow

In September, the Oakland Athletics unveiled plans for a new downtown ballpark. They proposed to pay for the ballpark themselves, and they pledged to work with the community for a year to develop a project that would enhance the neighborhood, rather than force a stadium within it.

That plan has been nixed, at least for now.

The community college district that owns the land on which the A’s wanted to build halted negotiations with the team on Wednesday, with its board of trustees ordering its chancellor to “discontinue planning for a community engagement process on a possible baseball stadium.”

The A’s said in a statement that they were “shocked” by the decision because they had hoped to discuss how to make the project work for the city of Oakland, and for the community college that would have been adjacent to the new ballpark.

“We are disappointed that we will not have that opportunity,” the A’s said.

The team did not say whether it would consider the two sites previously rejected — a waterfront ballpark, favored by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, or a new stadium adjacent to the A’s current home at the Oakland Coliseum.

The Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors plan to vacate that property in the next several years, with the Raiders departing the Coliseum for Las Vegas and the Warriors leaving the adjacent Oracle Arena for San Francisco.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said the A’s and Tampa Bay Rays need to resolve their long-running searches for a new ballpark before the league can consider expansion or relocation.

Manfred has expressed interest in locating a Major League Baseball team in Canada or Mexico, with Montreal and Mexico City among the possible locations. The Dodgers and San Diego Padres are playing a series in May in Monterrey, Mexico, and the league has committed to play six regular-season series in Mexico over the next four years.

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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