As West Sacramento readies for A’s, local leaders contemplate MLB opportunity
Local dignitaries had much to celebrate during a Thursday gathering at Sutter Health Park, from the Athletics’ impending, three-year stint in West Sacramento to a slew of upgrades at the stadium.
But they made clear that they laid the groundwork for the A’s with aspirations beyond 2028, when the team plans to move to Las Vegas.
“We’re ready to show the world why West Sacramento and the Sacramento region are more prepared and deserving than ever to be a permanent home to Major League Baseball,” West Sacramento City Manager Aaron Laurel said during Thursday’s news conference at the ballpark.
The prospect of expanding the MLB has been discussed for years, and in early 2024 the league’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, said he wanted a process in place to expand to 32 teams from 30 by the time he retires in 2029, according to news reports. Vivek Ranadivé, owner of the Kings and the minor league Sacramento River Cats, has said publicly that he hopes the A’s tenure in West Sacramento could help the region secure an expansion team.
The league did not respond Thursday to a request for comment about expansion.
West Sacramento’s city planners have dreamed of hosting a Major League Baseball team for decades. The notion precedes the minor-league stadium itself, which opened in 2000.
As the stadium plans came together in the late 1990s, “there was always in the back of everybody’s minds this idea that at some point there might be — there might be — the prospect of a Major League team,” said Yolo County Supervisor Oscar Villegas, who chaired West Sacramento’s planning commission from 1997 to 2000 and served on its city council from 2000 to 2014.
“Because everyone sort of intuitively has known: We are a baseball region,” Villegas said.
Sutter Health Park has a maximum capacity of around 14,000, a fraction of many major league stadiums. MLB’s smallest permanent venue by maximum capacity, Progressive Field in Cleveland, can fit just under 35,000 fans. Local officials have said it’s unclear whether the West Sacramento ballpark could be expanded to accommodate an MLB team.
Still, Villegas said, to win an expansion team, the region would have to prove it has the fanbase and financing to support a permanent MLB franchise.
“This is a very unique, probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that no other city has had, to have a Major League team play in their community, while at the same time they are vying for that Major League expansion,” Villegas said.
Barry Broome, president and CEO of Greater Sacramento Economic Council, said the region would have to be aggressive in coming up with financing to support an expansion team.
“I think we’ve got to be practical in understanding what we have to do to compete,” Broome said. “And that’s going to require us to be bolder than we’ve been before.”
Laurel, the city manager, pointed to the recent upgrades at Sutter Health Park, from amenities and infrastructure to a new scoreboard.
“This was no small feat,” Laurel said. “But it’s a true reflection of what’s possible here in West Sacramento, and also what we’re capable of accomplishing together in the Sacramento region, and in the state of California.”
