The Oakland Athletics are playing home games this season in Oakland. They are planning (hoping?) to be the Las Vegas A’s by the time we get to the 2028 season. That leaves three seasons in between that remain up in the air. Last week, we heard that the city of Oakland is going to offer the A’s a five-year extension on the lease of Oakland Coliseum. That is still far from an ideal scenario, however, with the bad blood between the A’s, the city and the local fan base, and the team has already publicly balked at the cost.
Another option that has been seriously floated would be Sacramento. The capital of California isn’t too far away from the Bay Area while also being a new locale, possibly providing the proper buffer zone needed for any area fans in the transition period. It’s also possible the A’s could retain their local broadcasting fees if they moved to Sacramento as opposed to what might happen if they moved in the interim to, say, Salt Lake City.
Team officials are, in fact, meeting with the city of Sacramento Wednesday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, a day after the A’s said they are “far apart on the terms needed to agree on an extension” to stay in Oakland.
The Sacramento stadium, Sutter Health Park, opened in 2000 and seats around 14,000 including outfield lawn open seating. That’s significantly less than the average MLB stadium, including the Coliseum, which holds 63,000. That said, the A’s are averaging fewer than 6,500 people in the stands through six home games so far this season.
Casey Pratt of ABC 7 Bay Area also reported that the A’s plan to use staff that’s already in place for other professional sports teams in Sacramento, including the NBA’s Kings and the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. According to Pratt, that would mean layoffs for existing A’s employees.
As with anything regarding this A’s home ballpark saga, however, everything is fluid.