1 day Ago By Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle
WEST SACRAMENTO — Two hours before his team took the field for the first-ever MLB game in California's capital, Sacramento Athletics owner John Fisher spoke to a small group of reporters about the team's first home opener without an Oakland affiliation since 1967, when the franchise was in Kansas City. Asked why this was the choice, rather than remaining in the Coliseum and Oakland – the team's home for the previous 56 years – Fisher pointed to former Mayor Sheng Thao's last offer, which started at $97 million for five years plus rights to the team's name and colors plus the promise of an expansion team, later reduced to $60 million for three years with a requirement MLB would give the city a year to find owners and investors for an expansion team. "Number one is that our lease was ending in Oakland and there was not really a legitimate offer on the table to extend, that became sort of clear," Fisher said.
"We started looking at alternatives and we always thought that Sacramento is a great sports town." The A's considered Sacramento, Salt Lake City or even the minor-league park in Las Vegas. The NBA's Kings' success and the fact that team's owners own the River Cats and would partner with the A's to bring Sutter Health Park up to major-league standards, or as close to them as possible, also made a big difference, Fisher said.
Chronicle sources claimed that had the city offered terms similar to those the Raiders got to extend their Coliseum lease before moving to Las Vegas ($7.5 million annually) they would have stayed, saving more than 700 jobs in Oakland, some of them part-time and seasonal. Along with leaving their longtime home and angering generations of fans, the A's have chosen to have a less than straightforward relationship with their temporary home; they have a Sacramento patch on their uniform and a Las Vegas patch, but won't use Sacramento in their official name.
(The Chronicle is referring to them as the Sacramento A's.) "We made it clear to everybody that Sacramento was an interim place for us, that we were super excited to come here, and frankly, to help the community demonstrate that Sacramento deserves a major-league team, and that the fans here love baseball and will love our team, but we're going to Vegas," Fisher said. "We're expecting to start construction shortly, and so, you know, we felt like the right path forward was to call ourselves the Athletics in this interim period and then the Las Vegas Athletics when we move to the strip.
" Asked if after failing to get a stadium built in East Bay he had considered selling the team, Fisher said, "From the beginning, I've been committed to having this team be successful for the next 50 years. I really saw that as an important part of what I stood for and what I wanted to achieve for this team, and really everything that I've done, the work that we did in the Bay Area, that we did in in Oakland, and ultimately moving things forward in Las Vegas and here in Sacramento, we're part of where I think the team needs to go to be successful." Construction has not begun in Las Vegas and the team has been looking for but has not announced any new investors as they prepare to build a $1.
75 billion domed stadium that is likely to see its costs rise with tariffs hitting the construction industry. Nevada taxpayers are contributing $380 million. The A's filed for a construction permit in Clark County last week and the hope has been to get shovels in the ground in June.
Asked if this summer remains possible, Fisher said, "I hope so." In the meantime, here his team is playing next to the Sacramento River (finally, a waterfront ballpark!) with Tower Bridge beyond right field. Asked what he'd say to the locals about playing here only briefly and without using the town's name, Fisher said, "It's professional baseball, it doesn't get any better than this.
You know, it's the Athletics against the Chicago Cubs in front of 14,000 people – people are saying, 'Oh, that's a minor-league ballpark.' I'm like, 'This is the most intimate, positive experience that anybody can have in Major League Baseball today, to be this close to the action, to be able to see our team. "Our team, they're young, they're exciting.
.. and we're playing against the Chicago Cubs in the first (major-league) baseball game held in Sacramento.
That's what I would say, I would say, 'This is awesome, and it's a beautiful day.'" Could the crowds include some of the fans he chose to leave behind, 70 miles away? "I think we'll have some fans for sure from the East Bay," he said. "Sacramento, as a market, is 2 million-plus people, so there are a lot of people here who are going to come out to support us.
But you know the reality is if you're from the East Bay, it's a little over an hour to drive here, as long as you're staying out of rush hour. I think those fans who want to continue to support the team and watch the team will come out and do it." Or at least still support their longtime town.
An hour before game time, the chant that went up from the crowd was, "Let's go Oakland, let's go Oakland.".
