Sacramento MLB investors? Some big names are already in … and out
Kevin McClatchy quickly shot down a question about whether he was interested in an ownership stake in a potential Sacramento-area Major League Baseball expansion franchise.
McClatchy, 63, is a Sacramento native whose family owned The Sacramento Bee for generations. He served as chairman of The Bee’s parent, The McClatchy Company from 2012 to 2020, when it filed for bankruptcy.
But his business has also been baseball. McClatchy was lead owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1996 to 2007 and kept a stake in the team until 2009.
He was on-hand Thursday for a press conference at Drake’s The Barn in West Sacramento where regional leaders unveiled a pitch to bring an expansion team to West Sacramento. McClatchy wants to help in this effort, but there are limits to how far he’ll go.
“I’m not looking for an ownership stake,” McClatchy told The Bee. “I’m merely looking to help as an advisor … But I will help them get the ownership folks they’re looking for.”
Successfully landing an MLB franchise would be a monumental undertaking, not the least of which would be finding an ownership group that could build a ballpark and pay an MLB expansion fee that local leaders expect to top $2 billion. McClatchy showed that it might be a tough sell even for those with experience, though some in attendance were interested.
Which possible investors were in attendance Thursday
There were at least two people on stage during Thursday’s event who are interested in investing in an MLB expansion franchise locally: developer and former Sacramento Kings minority owner Mark Friedman; and two-time MLB All-Star Derrek Lee, who grew up in Sacramento and went to high school with current Mayor Kevin McCarty.
Lee, who finished third in National League MVP voting in 2005 and earned $91.4 million during his 15-year MLB career according to Baseball-Reference.com, had been a potential investor when Sacramento was in the running for a Major League Soccer franchise.
Asked if he was interested in investing in a possible Sacramento MLB expansion team as well, Lee replied, “I am. It’d be on a smaller level, but I have interest. I want to be a part of this any way I can.”
Friedman is the founder of Fulcrum Property. His company began purchasing West Sacramento land in 2004. Friedman announced Thursday that he had control of a 50-acre parcel, which is where an MLB-caliber ballpark could be built.
Nearby Sutter Health Park currently hosts both the Athletics, ahead of the team’s planned move to Las Vegas for the 2028 season and the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, though the park has capacity for about 14,000 fans, far below a standard MLB stadium.
“We’re committing land and capital, $150 million in the effort,” Friedman said. “So we’ll be an investor in the project.”
Friedman, who is chairing the expansion effort, dubbed The Sacramento Pitch, didn’t say what his percentage of ownership would be, saying, “We’re not at that stage yet.”
The group announced $1.8 billion in possible commitments toward the franchise, with a press release from Brianna Buda of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council noting that this includes “$800 million in land and private investment and $1 billion in expected investment from the City of West Sacramento.”
Other big-name owners might soon emerge, with GSEC President and CEO Barry Broome saying that “we already have two global ownership groups” and that one of them would be in the area on June 2.
“Historically, baseball makes money,” Broome said. “The teams generally produce about a 10% return, which is phenomenal and that doesn’t count real estate, so the investment will be easy to get.”
Broome said that Sacramento Kings general partner Vivek Ranadive had already provided a minority ownership commitment. Ranadive, who lives in Palo Alto, wasn’t present Thursday. The team’s chief operating officer, Matina Kolokotronis, was on stage but declined to be interviewed afterward.
Lee’s father Leon Lee, one of the first Americans to star in Japanese baseball, was also on-hand Thursday. Leon Lee also grew up in Sacramento and is of several professional baseball players who attended Grant High School in the 1960s or ’70s. This includes his brother Leron Lee, who played eight years in the majors before going onto Japan.
“We know people,” Leon Lee said. “I’m sure we’ll be talking to people in the future about who wants to get involved and be part of that investment group.”
Why Kevin McClatchy (and others) are out
McClatchy said he had a great experience in his time owning the Pirates, but that he wasn’t planning to do it again.
“I’ve got a 9-year-old son, so I got to spend a little time with him,” McClatchy said.
He’s not the only person who is unlikely to invest in the team.
Sources told The Bee’s Chris Biderman that Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who had interest in buying the A’s before the team left Oakland, will not invest in Sacramento’s MLB bid.
Longtime MLB manager and former All-Star player Dusty Baker spoke at Thursday’s event, talking about how he moved to Sacramento from Southern California as a teenager. He lives in Granite Bay. But Baker, who turns 77 on June 15, said he would “probably not” want to invest in a Sacramento MLB expansion team and that at his age, he’d prefer to be an adviser.
“It’d be difficult to be that old and have things invested at that time,” Baker said. “So I’m trying to bring things closer to the house. But I’m here to lend my support and lend my knowledge in what I’ve seen in baseball.”
Still, Baker added that he thought Sacramento had a real chance of landing a team.
“It’s been a big-league city for a long time,” Baker said. “It’s just that sometimes we didn’t believe it and some of the rest of the world didn’t believe it, but now we believe it.”
McClatchy said that Sacramento was “in a great spot” and that he’d been impressed sitting down with Friedman and others to discuss the opportunity.
“I am out here because I believe it,” McClatchy said. “I think people in Sacramento, when they realize that this can be a possibility, it’s going to be pretty exciting.”
He added that this was the first day of the campaign.
“It’s going to take time and it’s going to take a lot of energy,” McClatchy said. “We’re going to explain to the rest of America why Sacramento is a viable Major League Baseball town.”
