OAKLAND — Days before the sold-out inaugural home opener of Oakland’s new minor professional baseball team the Ballers, the team’s co-owner was scrambling to run through a “million tasks.”
“We’re putting in all the final touches,” Paul Freedman said in a phone interview Thursday as he watched workers install a large scoreboard above Raimondi Park, the West Oakland home of the fledgling franchise. “They’re also putting in the last bit of the home dugout.”
The Ballers — nicknamed the B’s, in a sly nod to the soon-departing A’s — have been marketed as an injection of positivity into a town that has otherwise seen its major professional franchises leave.
Freedman and co-owner Bryan Carmel undertook a long journey these past several months to transform a neglected neighborhood park with few places to sit and out-of-commission public restrooms into a 4,000-seat baseball stadium.
It took an investment of $1.6 million — raised from friends and associates of the owners — to refurbish the available facilities, renovate the field and add accommodations for fans, such as shuttles that will take them to and from the West Oakland BART station.
The Ballers are encouraging fans to attend the game by bus, train or on foot, though they’re also offering 1,000 parking spaces across three lots with attendants, two of them under a roof. Parking can be purchased online before the games.
One of the lots once hosted Northern California’s largest homeless encampment on Wood Street. The B’s are paying to remove contaminated soil stockpiles dumped on the property, which in the long-term is expected to be converted into affordable housing, according to city documents.
Residents who live across the street from the park said in previous interviews that a single homeless individual had been using the lot to store some goods, but the city cleared his tent several months ago.
In some ways, Tuesday’s home opener will serve as a test for how Raimondi can serve as a sports venue over the long-term. With expectations of a packed house, Freedman said he’ll be watching for areas in need of improvement; for instance, lines that are too long or sound that isn’t loud enough. He says he’ll also try to enjoy himself.
“The first time a ‘Let’s go Oakland!’ chant breaks out, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep it together.”
In order to keep the numbers of teams even in the independent Pioneer League — which operates outside Major League Baseball’s minor-league farm system — the co-owners earlier this year founded the Yolo High Wheelers in the greater Sacramento region.
That team had a much quieter launch. In Oakland, the Ballers ‘ arrival is widely anticipated.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” team manager Micah Franklin told this news organization earlier in the month. “Our number-one thing is to put on a show and win. I gotta believe fans are going to really, really enjoy watching us.
Staff writer Justice delos Santos contributed reporting to this story.