For bad-news A’s, Howard Terminal ballpark timeline in danger

Bad news is coming at — and from — the A’s by the trainload.

Many A’s fans dreamed that this season would be a tipping point for their beloved ballclub. With a dynamic young team, the A’s were penciled in as a contender. World Series? That might be a little stretch, but not unrealistic.

So far the season has been a tipping point, but the wrong way. The A’s hoped to sprinkle stardust, but they may wind up choking on coal dust.

First, some news. An A’s spokesperson said the team might have to push back their plans to open a new ballpark at Howard Terminal for the 2023 season.

The A’s and president Dave Kaval have long held firm on that 2023 date, even in the face of growing political and logistical hurdles.

It’s no secret, I have not bought into the A’s dreams at Howard Terminal. I call it Fantasy Island. The hurdles, even before the pandemic, are enormous and growing by the day. The virus-related delays, no fault of the A’s, bleaken the picture.

So what’s a year or two delay for A’s fans who have waited decades for that gleaming new ballpark promised by a succession of A’s owners? For one thing, a delay likely threatens the core of the current team.

The A’s say they need revenue from a new ballpark to boost their payroll to competitive levels. No new ballpark — or even a delay in its construction — would represent a loss of revenue and make it hard for the A’s to keep their young stars.

The A’s could pivot at any time away from Howard Terminal and to the Coliseum site. Building a ballpark there would be cheaper, much easier and much quicker. The Coliseum site is Reality Island.

To build at Howard Terminal, team owner John Fisher will need to borrow and spend mountains of money, and with baseball revenue plummeting and the Fisher family’s Gap stock worth half of what it was a year ago, big projects are trickier than usual.

If the A’s are even considering taking a harder look at a Coliseum ballpark, they aren’t tipping their hand, which is not surprising. They are playing real estate chess with Oakland, and no good chess player telegraphs his/her moves.

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