WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The next Athletics’ home game will take place in the Sacramento region.
It’s an end of era for the franchise as the A’s played their final game at the Oakland Coliseum, a place they called home since 1968.
The A’s will call West Sacramento home for three seasons when they’ll host games at Sutter Health park, home of the Sacramento River Cats — the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. The team will be simply known as the Athletics or A’s and won’t have a city identifier.
Sutter Health Park will be the A’s temporary home as they wait for their planned move to Las Vegas in 2028. The A’s have an option to play for a fourth season in case their proposed stadium on the Las Vegas Strip isn’t ready on time.
West Sacramento will be the fourth city the franchise has played in its 123-year-long history. Following the A’s final game at the Coliseum, here’s what led up to temporary move to the Sacramento area.
Team proposes Oakland ballpark
With the A’s in pursuit of a new venue, the team came with a proposal in 2018 to build a new waterfront ballpark. The proposed ballpark would’ve been built with adjacent mixed-use development in Oakland’s Jack London Square neighborhood, according to city documents.
The proposed stadium, known as the Howard Terminal project, would’ve been a 35,000-seat venue with development including 3,000 units of affordable housing, office and retail space and a 400-room hotel.
The Howard Terminal project was the last of several proposals to keep the team in Oakland, but reportedly stadium plans were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A’s began relocation possibilities
In 2021, the A’s began exploring the possibility of relocation with permission from Major League Baseball due to the slow progress of the Howard Terminal project.
As the A’s began looking for relocation sites, the Oakland City Council approved a non-binding agreement for the proposed ballpark in July 2021.
In 2022, the proposed project’s Environmental Impact Report was approved by Oakland city officials. Subsequently, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission voted to remove the port priority use of the Howard Terminal to allow development for a ballpark and housing units and office space.
Plans were in limbo by late September 2022 when the A’s missed a city deadline to finalize the stadium plan and keep the team in Oakland, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Speculation of leaving Oakland began when the A’s acquired land for a new stadium in Las Vegas. Oakland city officials ended discussions with the A’s over the Howard Terminal project after the team bought land.
How Sacramento became a destination
With the A’s lease at the Oakland Coliseum ending after the 2024 season, the team was in need of a temporary home before their planned move to Vegas.
The A’s and Oakland city officials weren’t close to a deal of a lease extension, leading to team executives eyeing potential host sites including Sutter Health Park and Salt Lake City.
As executives visited the site, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg expressed the city could showcase its potential as a possible MLB destination if the A’s chose to play at Sutter Health Park.
“It is all part of offering more to the people that live in this region, but also to make us a tourist destination as well,” Steinberg said. “That is good for the community. It is good for the economy. Sports is a big part of it, not the only part, but a big part of it.”
Local impact on the move
As the River Cats will share the field with the A’s, construction began in summer 2024 to give the minor league ballpark some upgrades.
Renovations are being made to the Solon Club, Legacy Club and Gilt Edge Club, bringing new amenities to the ballpark.
The city of West Sacramento is also looking to expand near the ballpark with a 300-unit office and apartment building that is under construction. A hotel is being built next to the CalSTRS building and land around the stadium parking lot will also be filled in.
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