A's Ownership Takes Tour of Sacramento Ballpark

Oakland A's seem dead-set on becoming the Triple-A's

Just a couple of days ago, it was revealed that the Triple-A ballpark in Sacramento could be the landing spot for the Oakland A's in the interim years between 2025-27 once their lease at the Coliseum runs out, but before they hope to open their ballpark in Las Vegas. 

On Thursday, Casey Pratt of ABC 7 tweeted out that he'd heard A's owner John Fisher was reportedly touring the Sutter Health Park facility in Sacramento. This was quickly followed up by Andrew G. Haubner of the CBS station in Sacramento, who tweeted out the photo on the left. 

If you zoom in on the photo, it reads, "Sacramento welcomes John, Ross, Sorina, Dave, and Sandy." That would be A's owner, John Fisher, Ross Bowen, the A's finance director, Sorina Casian-Botez of Sansome Partners, Dave Kaval, the A's president, and Sandy Dean, also of Sansome Partners. 

Fisher is a founding partner of Sansome Partners, who according to their website, "makes long-term investments in high-quality businesses and assets." The purpose of their inclusion here would likely be to evaluate the financial impact of what would need to be done to the ballpark and if it would be a wise investment to move forward. 

The questions that still need answers are whether this is their first visit to Sutter Health Park, and what kind of a reception they'd be expecting from the fans in Sacramento. While the River Cats are now a San Francisco Giants affiliate, they were under the A's banner from 2000-2014 so there are a good amount of A's fans that live in the area.

A lot of those fans also root for the Sacramento Kings, who nearly had their team ripped away a decade ago. If the A's do end up in Sacramento, there is going to be a lot of soul searching going on for baseball fans in the area. On the one hand, supporting the A's could show Major League Baseball that they're a big-league town. On the other, they would be actively helping the A's leave Oakland and land in Las Vegas. 

If Sacramento doesn't pan out, then they may have another backup option with the Los Angeles Angels affiliate in Salt Lake City according to Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

That move would be equally as confusing, because Las Vegas is home to a decent number of Angels fans, and helping the A's land there may not be good for the Halo's bottom line in the long run, especially with a new bullet train scheduled to open from L.A. to L.V. the same year as the A's hope to have their ballpark open. 

Regardless, it appears as though A's ownership is scrambling to find a suitable home for the next three seasons at the very least. MLB's schedule for the 2025 season is set to be released to the public in about six months, but before that time it needs to be distributed internally. Wherever the A's land, they'll need to make upgrades to the facility they're in to make sure it's ready for Major League Baseball. 

It's funny, because just a couple of weeks ago the A's rejected a Pioneer League team from playing one single game at the Oakland Coliseum, but now they are roaming around the country looking for a Triple-A ballpark to take them in for at least three years.