A's claim Sacramento is frontrunner for temporary home

The A's are attempting to manufacture leverage in their negotiation to stay at the Coliseum

The Oakland A's need a place to play baseball games after this season with their lease at the Coliseum set to expire and their proposed ballpark in Las Vegas scheduled to open in 2028 if all goes well. That leaves three seasons from 2025-27 where the A's would be homeless. 

On Thursday, the team met with Oakland and Alameda County officials about a potential lease extension that would bridge that gap. By all accounts, the meeting went well and there are plans for more talks on the matter.

Friday afternoon Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the mayor's office and MLB were having preliminary talks about Oakland being granted an expansion franchise in exchange for giving the A's a place to play for three seasons, a move that would allow the team to continue to collect $70 million per year from their TV deal. 

Then, Friday evening, Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported that according to a source that has been briefed on the team's search process, Sacramento is the frontrunner to land the A's from 2025-27.

This is blatantly a negotiation tactic. Of course MLB doesn't want to give an expansion franchise to Oakland. That would cause a lot of questions surrounding why the A's would have been allowed to move in the first place only for the city to get a new team a few years later. 

The piece in The Athletic doesn't mention why Sacramento is considered the frontrunner. If the A's actually wanted to create leverage, they would have touted Sacramento immediately after they toured the facility there a month ago. Instead, they flew directly to Salt Lake City and remained silent. 

One big drawback for the site would be that A's fans could easily make it up to Sacramento to continue to cause headaches for Major League Baseball. While that's also true for Oakland, there may be less pushback from the Player's Association if they're in a big-league park. 

The reason this negotiation tactic doesn't matter is that the city and the fans don't care if the team stays for an interim period. In fact, they'd prefer it if they did find another home, unless of course staying meant an expansion team. 

Oakland stands to make more money without the A's in town, too. Leigh Hanson, Mayor Sheng Thao's chief of staff, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last month, "Luckily we make more money with one exhibition soccer game at the Coliseum than we do throughout the entire A’s season. So they won't be missed."

The A's pay around $1.5 million in rent to play at the Coliseum and they keep all of the concession and parking revenue for themselves. This "leak" that definitely came from the A's side is meant to provide the team with some leverage in their negotiation to stay at the Coliseum, but there is no world where they're going to have much if any leverage. 

The team burned the city. They burned the mayor. They burned the fans. Everyone wants them to leave if they're going to go to Las Vegas. Giving them somewhere to play for three additional seasons only helps the A's, which is why Oakland holds all of the leverage. The city doesn't lose out if the A's leave town. The Oakland Roots and Soul will move right in. The Oakland Ballers will be playing baseball at historic Raimondi Park. The Town will be fine. 

It's the A's that need Oakland, not the other way around. The team burned bridges across the community as they pivoted to Las Vegas. Commissioner Rob Manfred has belittled the mayor and the city. Now they need a favor, and to get what they want, they'll have to actually give something up. 

A decision on where the A's will play is expected in weeks, not months.