Is Sacramento’s MLB pitch a winning one? What it takes to get an expansion team
The “Sacramento Pitch” announcement Thursday at Drake’s The Barn in West Sacramento had just about everything.
It had Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty introduce local baseball legends Dusty Baker and Derrek Lee; Barry Broome of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council make an impassioned speech about the region needing to take on a “dog mentality” to get a permanent Major League Baseball team; and grassroots supporters erupting in a “Sac-ra-mento” chant to cap the proceedings.
“Who’s ready to step up to the plate, and who’s ready to swing for the fences?” McCarty said, riling up the crowd.
But one important thing was missing: a primary investor to pay an expansion fee expected to be north of $2 billion, and one who could pass a vetting from MLB owners to give Sacramento a leg up on other western markets competing for an expansion team.
Namely, Salt Lake City, which has the Miller family in tow ready to give MLB what it wants, including a history of previous sports ownership having presided over the Utah Jazz and Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer. There’s also buzz about Salt Lake City being a heavy favorite in the race for expansion, thanks largely to the Millers’ deep pockets.
But that doesn’t mean Sacramento can’t catch up and pass Salt Lake when MLB expansion becomes real. MLB upon expansion would grow from 30 teams to 32, and would likely add one team in the West and one in the East to keep geographic balance.
Here’s what the process should look like over the coming months and years, and the boxes that the Sacramento Pitch group will have to check if they want to make Sacramento a viable choice for MLB and its commissioner, Rob Manfred.
Finding an owner
An owner to pay the expansion fee and pay for the team is the most important aspect to an expansion bid. And Sacramento’s bid will fall flat without one. It’s that simple.
Major League Baseball as an entity is a group of 30 owners whom Manfred works for. Winning expansion means that group of owners is willing to give a new owner entry into their exclusive club.
So not only does Sacramento need an owner — it needs an owner capable of beating out other markets. Warriors owner Joe Lacob is not involved with Sacramento’s bid, and would prefer to buy a team already in existence, sources said. That was evident when he bid on the Padres this spring before they sold for $3.9 billion.
Which is an example of the uphill battle Sacramento has to climb. A lead investor buying into an expansion pitch is buying into a competition for a team that might never exist. A billionaire prospective sports owner might prefer to buy a team that is already playing games, not one that might be playing games in five years.
“It’s going to require that financial giant to come in and say, ‘This is what we’re investing, and we believe in this market, and we’re going to put together a stadium plan that’s going to knock these other markets out of the water,’” said Patrick Rishe, executive director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.
“At the end of the day, money trumps all. And if you’ve got a deep-pocketed primary investor that’s willing to build a first-class facility, and the other markets that you’re competing with don’t? Then all of a sudden Sacramento looks much more attractive.”
The good news? There’s no immediate rush. Manfred has said he wants the expansion situation figured out by the time his term ends in January 2029. That leaves time — a final deadline that’s a bit more than two and a half years out — for Sacramento to find an investor.
Building the ballpark
This is where Sacramento’s bid is strongest.
It has land, courtesy of the 50 acres from Mark Friedman near the riverfront in West Sacramento that could offer views of the downtown skyline.
The bid also has support from the Sacramento Kings and Vivek Ranadive, who owns Sutter Health Park and the land next to Friedman’s, which will be used either for the ballpark itself or surrounding development.
West Sacramento has pledged $1 billion in investment through tax increment financing, existing hotel taxes and “additional sources,” which haven’t been specified.
There’s also $500 million in commitments from two Native American tribes, the United Auburn Indian Community and the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, each committing $250 million.
All of which paints a friendly picture for a presumptive owner, which could make Sacramento a turnkey operation if given the go-ahead from Major League Baseball. Ownership and a ballpark plan are the two most important aspects of expansion.
Has the A’s being in Sacramento helped?
There was never a quid pro quo between MLB and Sacramento where the city would be rewarded with an expansion franchise for housing the A’s between their departure from Oakland in 2024 and planned move to Las Vegas in 2028.
But the A’s presence does give Sacramento a leg up: there are data points to pull from that other potential markets don’t have. Questions like: What do ticket sales look like? What’s the interest of corporate sponsorship? Does the area of grassroots support?
McCarty gave Sacramentans an explicit call to action Thursday: go to more A’s games, perhaps as they host the New York Yankees this weekend, and continue to demonstrate strong interest.
There has been momentum on that front. Last season, the A’s reported seven total sellouts at Sutter Health Park. This year, they’ve reported nine already, with 50 home games remaining in West Sacramento including high-profile opponents like the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers still to come.
The A’s being in Sacramento gives MLB real information, whereas Salt Lake City could only answer those questions in hypotheticals.
What would the expansion process look like?
Industry insiders have said that once the commissioner agrees to expand the league, he will task an owner or another prominent MLB figure to organize a committee to vet expansion candidates. The cases will then be presented to the rest of the owners and voted upon.
MLB is far from that stage.
The current collective bargaining agreement with the players is up in December and negotiations are expected to be contentious. A work stoppage in 2027 could be looming, which would put expansion on the back burner.
Owners are expected to propose a hard salary cap for the first time since 1994, which turned into a players’ strike that canceled the World Series. Fans are hoping for a more balanced product where the top spending teams, like the Dodgers who have won the last two World Series, don’t have the same advantage as teams with middle-of-the-road payrolls. Players, meanwhile, want teams to be able to spend as much as they want, for obvious reasons.
But the good news about expansion is both the players and the owners can get behind it. It grows the revenue pie and creates more jobs for both major- and minor-league players.
So once a new CBA is hammered out, expansion talk should get moved to the forefront. But it’s likely that conversation doesn’t begin until 2028.
Why Sacramento?
Sacramento’s worthiness of professional baseball isn’t in question. It’s a baseball market rich with interest and a history or producing players.
“I moved back home here because this is where I wanted to raise my son and my family,” Dusty Baker said during Thursday’s Sacramento Pitch news conference. “Because as a kid growing up around here, baseball was it. ... And we had some of the baddest dudes in baseball. And we were proud of that.”
From a fan perspective, the Kings draw well despite making the playoffs just once in the last 20 years. The Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto media market is No. 20 in the country, bigger than seven markets that already have a MLB team. The Sacramento River Cats Triple-A team have led minor league baseball in attendance 10 times in the 26 seasons since their inception in 2000.
There’s also a potential vacuum with the A’s leaving Northern California and moving to Las Vegas in 2028, at which point the San Francisco Giants will be the only team left in the region. And there’s a chance the Giants vote against Sacramento as an expansion site because the Giants want to continue controlling the market.
But there’s precedent against that the last time MLB expanded, in 1998. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, now the Rays, went online despite the existence of the Florida Marlins, who joined as an expansion club five years earlier. The existence of one Florida team didn’t prevent baseball from adding another.
On the other side, there is some negative precedent to a temporary site trying to get an expansion franchise. San Juan, Puerto Rico, hosted 22 home games for the Montreal Expos in 2003 and 2004 before they moved and became the Washington Nationals, which officials thought would serve as an audition for a full-time expansion team. San Juan never got an expansion franchise and isn’t considered a viable expansion candidate in the current cycle, even with baseball enormously popular in Puerto Rico.
Suffice to say, Sacramento has a lot going for it and its worthiness of MLB is real. But now Sacramento has to get an owner and offer more than its competition.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” McCarty said at Thursday’s news conference. “So today, we begin the race. Every day moving forward, we will continue to build momentum, strengthening our case and proving why Major League baseball makes sense right here in Sacramento.”
