A's Make a Slew of Announcements, Including a Ticket Offer

The Athletics made a slew of announcements on Friday, with the biggest on-field news being the signing of right-hander José Leclerc, while off-the-field, they also confirmed that the elephant patches will be a thing of the past with the team's move to Sacramento.

Instead, they will be wearing the number 24 all season to celebrate the life of Rickey Henderson, and also a new patch showcasing Sacramento's Tower Bridge, which fans will be able to see past the right field wall.

In our Sacramento Erahttps://t.co/qPxlJWK68Z pic.twitter.com/waU1IKWWSO
— Athletics (@Athletics) January 17, 2025

Those were meant to be the big takeaways from the team's announcements on Friday, but being a marketing major back in college, there was something else at play here.

The A's also announced a "ticket purchase opportunity" for the first home game ever in Sacramento (against the Chicago Cubs no less) as well as their series against the San Francisco Giants that happens to fall on July 4-6.

Why these dates in particular? Because there is no way that these games don't sell out, especially when you consider that the capacity of the ballpark--lawn seats and all--is just above 14,000.

The first game in Sacramento would sell out no matter who the A's are playing, but in adding the Cubs to the equation, ticket prices wll presumably be fairly costly. It's history, after all.

The games against the Giants will also be a hot commodity, given that their minor-league affiliate also plays at Sutter Health Park, and the longstanding rivalry between the two clubs. You throw that series on Fourth of July weekend, and it's going to sell out almost instantly. Those tickets will also be costly.

So in making the tickets available for just these four games available, the A's are ensuring that they can drive up the prices a bit, because these will be some of the most clamored for games on the entire schedule. That's the first phase of this plan: capitalism.

The second phase is that shortly after the tickets go on sale, they'll be gone. Sold out. This is completely expected, given the ballpark capacity, but it will be another reason for the team to point and say "look at how excited people are that we're in Sacramento!" Positive headlines will ensue from all over the internet.

These types of stories will be fairly common in 2025, given the team's arrival in Sacramento and the "intimate" nature of Sutter Health. Most games are expected to sell out because of these two factors, but this ticket purchase opportunity really reads like a blatant attempt to get more positive stories about the franchise out there.

After the last couple of seasons since they announced their plans to head to Las Vegas, the A's could certainly use the positive headlines, but it's also important to keep in mind that sometimes they're completely manufactured to make it look like something more than it is.

These are expected outcomes that will be hailed as John Fisher making the right decision in leaving Oakland. Last season the team drew 11,386 fans per game, or nearly a sellout in Sacramento, and that was as they were going out the door forever. Imagine how many more fans they could have drawn if Fisher had decided to spend just one offseason in Oakland like he has in the first winter for Sacramento.

But that wouldn't fit the narrative.