SIDELINES : Oakland Cuts Rent for A’s

The Oakland Athletics will pay about $525,000 less in rent at the Oakland Coliseum this year and would save at least $13.4 million over the next 15 years under new lease revisions.

Both the Oakland City Council and Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved the revised lease, which was announced Tuesday. It was the second revision in four years of the lease which runs through the 2004 baseball season but still contains escape clauses.

The A’s, current World Series champions, will pay the Coliseum a lower percentage of ticket revenue than in the past and receive a larger share of parking and concession-booth revenue. The A’s have an escape clause in 1997, and the team would be allowed to leave any time it lost a total of $3.5 million over a three-year period.