Shipping pitches for the Oakland Athletics to walk

A host of shipping groups have come together as a team determined to oppose a giant stadium planned along the waterfront of Oakland, one of California’s premier ports.

On Friday, several organisations representing truckers, ocean carriers, terminal operators, longshore workers and other port-related businesses filed a lawsuit against the Oakland Athletics baseball team for its plans to build a $12bn ballpark complex on the Howard Terminal waterfront. The complaint alleges the stadium plans don’t properly meet environmental standards as stipulated in the California Environmental Quality Act.

Rail firm Union Pacific Corp has also entered the fray, filing its own separate suit against the project.

The development “will cause major disruptions and impacts to both the surrounding community and the operations of the port,” including by eliminating the port’s Howard Terminal, according to Union Pacific’s complaint.

A fortnight ago local officials used a bureaucratic technicality to slow the project with management at the baseball team now openly threatening to move the franchise to Las Vegas.