The Sacramento area needs an MLB style venue.
Is Sacramento or West Sacramento on the radar of Major League Baseball’s owners in the race to land an expansion franchise? West Sacramento is in its second season of housing John Fisher’s Athletics franchise in a minor league stadium. Depending on what happens with the collective bargaining talks and if there is an owners’ lockout or players’ strike, this could be the last full season that Fisher’s team will play in the West Sacramento stadium. Fisher is scheduled to use the stadium through the end of the 2027 season and then he is off to Las Vegas. But there is some hope that MLB will eventually return to the California capital market. There is a problem though, there is no baseball stadium plan or plot of land available and at the moment, there is also no owner.
“I think MLB is going to give a hard, hard look at Sacramento with only one team in Northern California,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty. Finding an owner might not be as difficult. People who might be interested in buying the MLB’s San Diego Padres franchise might be interested in putting a team in West Sacramento if they don’t get the Padres business. West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero is on board the let’s bring an MLB expansion franchise to town train. Sacramento could be competing with a number of cities to get one of two expansion teams that could be available. For a long time, it was thought that Nashville was a leader in the race but is there public money available for a baseball park after Nashville and Tennessee taxpayers have put up money for a football venue and a soccer stadium. Utah is ready to put up money for a baseball stadium in Salt Lake City. Other cities in the mix might include Vancouver, Montréal, Raleigh, Charlotte and Orlando. MLB is not expanding anytime soon.
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Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
