Oakland Athletics Officially Announce Move to Sacramento Before Las Vegas Relocation
After years of stadiums deals falling apart and fans protesting ownership, the A's have decided to play in Sacramento before their relocation to Las Vegas.
The Oakland Athletics officially announced Thursday that they would be playing in Sacramento from 2025 to 2027.
The Athletics locked in their relocation to Las Vegas in 2023, after years of failing to reach stadium deals in the Bay Area. But while their lease at the Oakland Coliseum was set to expire at the end of 2024, their new park in Sin City wasn't going to be completed until 2028.
Team executives reportedly met with representatives from both Oakland and Sacramento this week in order to find a place to play in the interim. When the time to make a decision arrived, the team decided to temporarily set up shop in California's capital rather than spend any more time in Oakland.
Sutter Health Park will serve as the Athletics' home base starting next season, until they move to Las Vegas. The deal is for three years, but it includes an option for a fourth depending on the timeline on their relocation.
Including fixed seats, the outfield lawn and standing room, Sutter Health Park has a capacity of 14,014.
The Sacramento River Cats – the San Francisco Giants' Triple-A affiliate and former Athletics minor league partner – currently call Sutter Health Park home. The team is owned by Sacramento Kings owner and chairman Vivek Ranadivé.
The statement announcing the deal included quotes from Ranadivé, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, Athletics owner and managing partner John Fisher and Greater Sacramento Economic Council president and CEO Barry Broome.
"We look forward to making Sutter Health Park our home through our move to Las Vegas," Fisher said in the statement. "We extend our appreciation to the Kings and the City of West Sacramento for hosting the A's while we work to complete our new ballpark in Las Vegas."
Fisher did not mention Oakland, its residents or anything about the team's fanbase.
Those fans – who spent the past few years begging Fisher to either stay or sell the team – have gone unrewarded, with their team now scheduled to pack up shop in a few months' time. The Athletics' already dreadful attendance is unlikely to recover in 2024, considering the organization is leaving its supporters in the dust.
Still, the Athletics have called Oakland home for 57 years, and the number of home games their fans will be able to attend is now officially dwindling.
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