ATHLETICS TO PLAY NEXT SEASONS IN SACRAMENTO
A's will play at Sutter Health Park, home of Giants' Triple-A affiliate
This season will be the A's last in Oakland, after all.
Following a years-long effort by owner John Fisher to move the team out of the Coliseum, the A's announced Thursday morning that they will play from 2025 through 2027 in the Sacramento area at the home of the Giants' Triple-A affiliate after their lease at the Coliseum expires at the end of this season.
The A's will have an option to play a fourth season at the Sacramento River Cats' home of Sutter Health Park, with a capacity of 14,000.
The A's, who moved to Oakland from Kansas City in 1968, expect to open a new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip in 2028 to complete their relocation there, though they have yet to break ground as construction contracts have not yet been signed.
The news of a pending deal was first reported Wednesday night by Sacramento radio host Dave Weiglein after the team had scheduled meetings with Oakland and Alameda County officials Tuesday and Sacramento representatives Wednesday.
The team stated after the meeting in Oakland that the sides were still “far apart” in negotiations after the city presented an offer in which the A's would pay $97 million to stay at the Coliseum over the next five years. Under the proposal, the A's would be able to leave after three years, but would pay the full amount. Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement Tuesday night that the city would await a response.
The organization, which blamed the city of Oakland for the failure to see through the A's proposed stadium and ballpark district at Howard Terminal, had reopened negotiations with Oakland officials to extend the lease. Thao publicly drew a hard line on those talks, saying she would require a guarantee from Major League Baseball that an expansion team would come to Oakland, and that the city would retain the A's team name. Thao and the city softened those demands somewhat for Tuesday's meeting.
Fisher and A's team president Dave Kaval, the faces of the relocation, also had talks with Salt Lake City officials about playing the intervening period in that city.
The club and Oakland officials held at least two other formal meetings in recent weeks that were described as
productive, but ultimately the negotiations to keep the team in Oakland failed.
Fisher released the following statement via the A's website Thursday morning:
“We explored several locations for a temporary home, including the Oakland Coliseum. Even with the long-standing relationship and good intentions on all sides in the negotiations with Oakland, the conditions to achieve an agreement seemed out of reach. We understand the disappointment this news brings to our fans, as this season marks our final one in Oakland. Throughout this season, we will honor and celebrate our time in Oakland, and will share additional details soon.”
“Oakland offered a deal that was fair to the A's and was fiscally responsible for our city,” Thao said in a statement. “We wish the A's the best and will continue our conversations with them on facilitating the sale of their share of Coliseum site. The City of Oakland will now focus on advancing redevelopment efforts at the Coliseum.”
Moving northeast to the state's capital will keep the A's within driving range of Oakland, allowing fans who remain loyal to continue attending games while the Vegas stadium is constructed.
Sacramento, meanwhile, can now audition for what the city has always coveted, according to one sports economist: another major professional franchise to pair with the Kings of the NBA.
“It's a market that's probably not as unhappy with Fisher as Oakland,” said Nola Agha, a University of San Francisco professor who studies stadium construction and previously wrote an analysis of the A's development plans at Howard Terminal. “It's a rational move for the A's to remain nearby; whether it pays off, we'll see.”
About a quarter of Sutter Health Park's listed total capacity is an outfield lawn area where attendees can sit on patio chairs or picnic blankets. It is a far cry from the 63,000-seat Coliseum, where the A's have at times tarped off the upper deck due to low attendance. The A's finished last in MLB in attendance each of the past two seasons.
In an email shared to an online forum, former River Cats representative Gabe Ross said in 2006 that the Sacramento park was constructed with only minorleague baseball in mind.
Ross, a former assistant general manager and team spokesperson, wrote at the time that “in the unlikely case that we would want to expand the ballpark to accommodate a larger capacity, the stadium would need significant adjustments but likely not need to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch.”
River Cats representatives did not immediately respond Thursday to an interview request.
Agha, meanwhile, noted that over the past four decades, major professional sports teams have actively sought smaller stadiums to create a perception of scarcity among ticket-buyers and establish “gravitas and the illusion of excitement in a crowd.”
A major complication for the A's in leaving Oakland is their local broadcast contract with NBC Sports, which reportedly pays them $67 million in annual revenue, though the move to Sacramento may offer them a chance to keep at least a portion of that. The Sacramento Kings also air on NBC Sports California.
For much of the A's 57-season run at the Coliseum, ownership has sought relocation, stretching as far back as 1970, when former owner Charlie Finley reportedly had discussions about moving the team to Toronto. Later came Chicago, Denver and the South Bay — whether San Jose or Fremont.
Now, that ambition will become reality and the A's will become the third major-league team since 2019 to leave Oakland.
Last month, the Oakland Roots and Soul soccer teams received approval from the Coliseum Authority to play their 2025 home games at the stadium. They won't have any competition for dates.
On the field, the A's began the season with a dreadful homestand, going 1-6 against the Guardians and Red Sox with MLB's secondworst run differential at minus-29. They begin a series in Detroit Friday, then head to Texas next week. Their next game in front of the Coliseum fans will be April 12 against the Washington Nationals. After that, they'll have 73 games left in Oakland.