Oakland’s City Council took the final vote to approve the sale of the city’s 50% share of the Oakland Arena and stadium complex on Tuesday, and residents are already petitioning for how those funds should be spent.
As part of the deal, Oakland will receive 6% of all ticket sales at the complex, adding about $3 million toward its general fund, the city estimates.
For artists in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, this recurring revenue source is seen as a potential lifeline for arts funding in Oakland, which has seen significant cuts.
“This is not a novel idea,” said Ilana Lissette, a member of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission advisory board. “Other cities from Columbus to Portland to Seattle add a ticket fee to support the cultural infrastructure that makes cities desirable to begin with.”
Since 2024, Oakland has seen a 63.3% decrease in its Cultural Affairs Division budget, from $5.36 million to $1.97 million. The city typically allocates less than 1% of its total budget toward the arts. The most recent midcycle budget passed in June included $300,000 in culture grant funding from the city’s General Fund, as well as $200,000 for an audit of city-owned artworks.
The midcycle budget also included $750,000 for Oakland’s Film Incentive Program, a 10% cash rebate on eligible expenses for films shot in Oakland, typically ranging from $50,000 to $250,000, according to the department’s website.
Nestled within the Economic and Workforce Development Department, the Cultural Affairs Division was reestablished in 2020 after a nine-year hiatus and oversees various programs, including a public arts program, which commissions works of art for public spaces around Oakland, and a cultural grant funding program, which funds arts and cultural activities through a competitive grant process.
The division also runs Oakland’s poet laureate program, which awards the title to a new Oakland resident each year and works to make poetry more accessible across the city.
‘We bring business to the city’
Roberto Bedoya, former commissioner of cultural affairs for the city of Oakland, said that the 6% royalty from Coliseum ticket sales would be a way to affirm what the cultural community brings to Oakland and go a long way toward making Oakland a “city of belonging.”
Joti Singh, co-artistic director of Duniya Dance and Drum Company, added that this was an opportunity to increase arts funding without burdening taxpayers.
“Artists are small businesses and we bring business to the city,” said Singh. “We must walk that talk and invest in the art sector, which makes Oakland the culturally rich place that it is.”
Councilmember Charlene Wang said she was open to having a portion of the 6% royalty go toward funding for the arts and expressed a desire to support homegrown talent that could one day perform at the Oakland Arena.
The 112-acre complex will be sold to the Oakland Acquisition Company, or OAC, for $110 million. The city also plans to receive an additional $15 million as OAC obtains building permits for new construction on the site. Fifty million dollars from the sale is slated to pay down the city’s $2 billion in long-term pension obligations.
The arena itself will then be sold by OAC to Oak View Group, led by former Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff, who plans to remodel the arena and turn it into a world-class destination for music acts.
On July 13, Councilmember Kevin Jenkins said the sale of the arena would help further solidify Oakland’s reputation as a “music city,” noting that the city has historically been an arts and culture hub that would ultimately benefit from the arena’s renewal.
