SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Community leaders rolled out the red carpet for Major League Baseball’s Athletics, hoping the three-year stay would become permanent if the Las Vegas project came undone.

However, with progress on the stadium evident in Las Vegas, Sacramento leaders turned their focus toward the potential expansion of Major League Baseball into new cities. 

They now believe the community, given the welcome residents extended to the A’s, has moved to the front of a crowded line for a major league expansion team, jumping past Portland, Nashville and Salt Lake City. 

Sacramento’s tourism, business and elected leaders said the community should jump past other markets given the success being seen just two-thirds through the inaugural season at the 14,000-capacity Sutter Health Park, a 20-year-old venue the A’s are sharing with the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.

“We’re a major league city and having the A’s puts us on the map,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty. He believes the city has done a good job welcoming the A’s. He hopes Major League Baseball will recognize the effort, which he expects to increase over the next two seasons. 

Developments have cemented the likelihood the team will begin playing games on the Strip in 2028. Late last year, the A’s finalized their plans with Clark County and the stadium oversight board and cleared up any financing concerns surrounding its 33,000-capacity ballpark on the Strip, although the project’s cost has ballooned to more than $2 billion. 

A concrete foundation is being poured for the stadium's surface, which will support the steel structure. Mortenson | McCarthy, the contractor overseeing the project, released a timeline showing steel placement starting early next year.

Meanwhile, Sacramento wants to get into the ballgame. It’s the state’s sixth-largest city with a population of almost 536,000, according to the U.S. Census. But the total metropolitan area is more than 2.3 million when accounting for seven neighboring counties.

“We need to keep working on corporate sponsorship,” said McCarty, who was elected last November after serving 10 years in the state legislature. “It's always been something that [baseball] looks for from smaller market teams.” 

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has said expansion will wait until two issues are cleared up — any hiccups involving the A’s move to Las Vegas and finding a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Those factors give Sacramento time to organize a game plan.

“Do we want a permanent [Major League] baseball team here? Absolutely,” said Mike Testa, CEO of Visit Sacramento. He said the area’s hotel and restaurant development undertaken over the last few years has provided reasons for visitors to come to Sacramento, and it's playing out thanks to the A’s. 

Testa said Sacramento has also taken a page from the Las Vegas playbook by embracing professional sports as a way to grow beyond a tourism destination for the 15 million visitors the city attracted in 2024. 

The $558 million, 17,600-seat Golden One Center opened in 2016, which helped keep the NBA’s Sacramento Kings from leaving the market. Similar to Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, the venue has brought concerts and entertainment to downtown.

The Wilton Rancheria Tribe of Sacramento, which owns the Boyd Gaming-operated Sky River Casino, plans to build a 12,000-seat soccer stadium and entertainment district on a 31-acre site in the Downtown Railyards. Plans are in place to expand the venue to 20,000 seats if the Republic FC soccer team is moved up from the United Soccer League to Major League Soccer.

Scott Ford, deputy director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, a 20-year-old community redevelopment program that is now exploring ways to redevelop more than 100 city blocks — including industrial areas — said Major League Baseball “complements the NBA season” because it's the first time Sacramento has had year-round major league sports.

“It's very unique and everyone is aware that this is most likely a temporary situation,” Ford said, given the A’s attention is on Las Vegas for 2028.

A complete set of data — visitation numbers as well as gross revenue from sales taxes and other fees — will provide a clearer picture of what the A’s have meant to the community and what needs to be done over the final two years of the agreement.

Ford grew up in the Sacramento area, which he said had a larger A’s fanbase than a Giants fanbase. 

Testa expects Sacramento’s hotel room occupancy numbers will increase significantly, given the travel by visiting team fans. An Embassy Suites Hotel is across the river from the ballpark. In early July, the lobby was crowded with Seattle Mariners fans during a three-game series with the A’s.

“Can I put a number on that? No, not halfway into the season,” Testa said. “But I think just in talking to some of the hotel general managers, they're feeling it.”

He compared the business to what Las Vegas probably sees from visiting team fans on weekends when the Las Vegas Raiders have a home game. But then he laughed at the juxtaposition.

“We have about 16,000 hotel rooms in all of Sacramento. That’s probably what Vegas has [at] one Strip intersection," he said.

Attendance could be higher

Through 61 home games, the A’s have averaged 9,594 fans at Sutter Health and have drawn crowds of more than 12,000 seven times — two three-game series with the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants and the season’s first game with the Chicago Cubs.

One person who has a good idea of how the community fits into the baseball equation is five-time major league all-star Steve Sax, a native and current resident of West Sacramento. He joined the A’s television broadcast team this year, co-hosting pregame and postgame shows from a booth above the third base foul line.

Sax, a second baseman who won the National League Rookie of the Year award with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1982, spent 14 years in baseball with four teams, including part of the 1994 season with the then-Oakland Athletics. He said he believes that if the A’s show success in attracting fans, as well as increasing community involvement efforts, it would give Sacramento an opportunity when expansion talks heat up.

“I was hoping attendance [at home games] would be a bit higher, but the team has an opportunity over the next few years to get ingrained in the community,” Sax said. “I think as the community gets to know the players, interest will grow before they go to Vegas.”

Sutter Health is in the city of West Sacramento. The community is connected to downtown Sacramento by the Tower Bridge that crosses above the Sacramento River and Interstate 5. The bridge is a landmark behind right field and seems to glow at sunset.

Aaron Laurel, the city manager for West Sacramento, said hosting the A’s is serving as “sort of an audition for Major League Baseball. It's been a great showcase of what's possible here on our riverfront, not just with baseball but beyond. We have a lot of potential for infill development.”

Laurel said sales tax dollars from concessions and merchandise sales at the stadium have increased, given that the A’s and the River Cats are playing more than 150 home games combined this summer.

“We knew going in this was going to be a great opportunity,” he said.

The River Cats were acquired by Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé in 2022, who announced the three-year deal with A’s owner John Fisher and local officials in April 2024. 

The A’s funded extensive renovations and upgrades over five months to bring the Sutter Health Park experience as close to major league status as possible, including the addition of a state-of-the-art, two-story clubhouse, which sits beyond the left-field wall. 

The most popular feature for players, however, is the dining area on the second floor, which includes a kitchen and patio deck with views of the field. It serves as a lounging area for players before and after games.

“Sacramento has been a great host. It’s been a great environment,” said A’s General Manager David Forst. “We're here for another two and a half years. I think we'll enjoy the time here. But ultimately, everything the organization is doing is geared toward Las Vegas.”

Sacramento recognition

As soon as the A’s departed Oakland, the team and Major League Baseball decided to shun references to Sacramento. The official designation in press releases, box scores and standings has been Athletics or A’s along with the abbreviation, ATH. The San Francisco Chronicle sports section, however, rebelled. The publication refers to the team as the Sacramento Athletics.

The A’s did want to provide some recognition to Sacramento, and the team added a jersey patch depicting the Tower Bridge.

However, to combat a growing black market that began selling bootleg A’s/Sacramento gear, the team now sells baseball caps, T-shirts and sweatshirts that carry the name Sacramento along with the A’s logo and the Tower Bridge at stadium merchandise outlets. The apparel includes the official Major League Baseball trademark.

“Fans wanted to buy merchandise that recognized the city that the A’s are playing in,” said Andrew Davis, who was managing a large stand near the beer garden along the stadium’s third base line. “It started with just a couple of items that said Sacramento, and they sold out quickly.”

Las Vegas looms in the background

Las Vegas has a presence at Sutter Health Park through the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and two gaming companies.

The tourism agency is paying the A’s $8.25 million over the next three years to place a “Las Vegas” patch that is being worn on the left sleeves of the team’s jerseys. The deal also came with three Las Vegas signs that are prominently featured on Sutter Health’s left field wall.

Circa Sports, the sports betting operation of Circa Casino Resort Las Vegas, is paying for signage on the left field wall and the scoreboard, even though sports betting is not legal in California. A spokeswoman for Circa CEO Derek Stevens said the company wanted to “support the future home team of Las Vegas.” She said Circa plans to be an A’s sponsor when the team arrives.

Meanwhile, the Boyd-managed Sky River Casino sponsors an upper-deck club level section, has pregame messaging on an outfield scoreboard and sponsors the first and third base foul lines with on-field logos.

“We probably have what I believe is the right footprint for us,” said Sky River General Manager Michael Facenda. “The A’s have been great for Sacramento, and I think a lot of people would love for the team to stay here. But I also know that [the team] is very excited about Vegas.”

Catching souveniers

Sitting on Sutter Health’s grassy berm above right field on a pleasant Monday evening in late July, David Pearl briefly lost track of his daughter, Skylar. 

But he wasn’t concerned, figuring the pre-teen girl was tracking down a baseball being tossed into the crowd by Athletics players during warm-ups ahead of a game with the Mariners.

Sure enough, within a few minutes, Skylar came bounding back to show her father a major league baseball.

“She’s caught about 20 balls this season,” said Pearl, a resident of the Sacramento suburb of Rocklin who has made the 40-minute commute to Sutter Health Park more than a dozen times to watch the A’s during the first of the team’s three-year Sacramento residency.

“I’ve sat in the stands, but we prefer sitting out here.” He had placed blankets and lawn chairs on the hill to enjoy the game underneath the shade of several large oak trees. 

“You can’t find another setting like this anywhere,” said Pearl, a lifelong fan of the Athletics who grew up watching games at the Oakland Coliseum. 

He jumped at the opportunity to buy single-game tickets when the A’s announced last September the team would leave Oakland.

“I’ll root for the A’s when they move to Las Vegas. I still root for the Raiders,” Pearl said of the NFL team that relocated to the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium west of the Strip in 2020.

“Maybe I’ll get to Vegas for an A’s game. Of course, I would love for the A’s to stay [in Sacramento],” he said.