The Oakland A’s Consider Rising Sea Levels in Building New Ballpark

Baseball teams have to consider all sorts of factors, before beginning construction on new stadiums. they have to consider things such as location, transportation, as well as capacity.

However, the Oakland A’s are going far beyond simple structural and seating issues, when contemplating the design for their new stadium. Instead, the A’s are factoring in climate change as well.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, when discussing a potential location at Howard Terminal, team President Dave Kaval, “mentioned twice that the Howard Terminal site would have to take into account sea-level rise and transportation concerns — and he said there have been conversations with the city and county and the Joint Powers Authority about developing the Coliseum site.”

As Hardball Talk explains, “The Howard Terminal/Jack London Square area of Oakland has been identified as susceptible to dramatically increased flooding as a result of projected sea level rise due to climate change. On the other side of the bay both the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors have had to consider sea level rise in their stadium/arena development plans. Now it’s the Athletics’ turn.”

The A’s are free to pay attention to whatever considerations they want when determining how to build. No doubt their liberal fan base approves of those considerations, and, will eventually be called upon to help pay for the facility.

However, if the A’s are truly concerned about flooding, they might want to fix the rather frequent and severe sewage floods which plague their coaches’ bathrooms, before they try to tackle mother nature.

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn