As team owner John Fisher and Major League Baseball continue to sort out where the Athletics will play after the 2024 season, the city of Oakland reportedly has a price if MLB wants it to help out the A’s moving forward.
While MLB officially approved the A’s relocation to Las Vegas, the new ballpark won’t be constructed until 2028. To make matters worse for Fisher and league officials, the Athletics’ lease for the Coliseum expires after the 2024 season.
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Las Vegas has already expressed tepid support for the Athletics’ move and there are no plans to let them relocate in the next three years. As a result, Fisher and team officials have been looking around California to find a temporary venue for the Athletics after the 2024 season.
Oakland would be an option if the city agrees to extend its lease a few more years with the A’s. It would do nothing for attendance coming off a season that saw the Athletics finish with the worst attendance in MLB, becoming the only team to finish under 1 million in total attendance across 81 games. However, the city has set out its demands to make that happen.
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According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the city of Oakland informed MLB that it will only host the Athletics for the 2025 season and beyond if they are guaranteed by league officials that the city will get an expansion team.
It’s an effort by city officials to secure the future of baseball for its residents, wanting to fill the long-term void that will be left when the A’s relocate. It’s also a request that comes amid MLB’s plans for expansion, which can only happen after the A’s officially relocate to Las Vegas.
However, per Nightengale, MLB officials informed Oakland there is no chance of that happening. Given the league’s history of siding with Fisher in the back-and-forth between the A’s and the city over building a new stadium, MLB is sticking by its history of believing Oakland can’t deliver a new ballpark for a new team.
As a result, Sacramento remains the favorite to host the Athletics. The capital of California does have a ballpark, Sutter Health Park located in West Sacramento. The home of the Triple-A Sacramento Rivercats, Sutter Health Park has a maximum seating capacity of 14,000, including standing room only. As for Oakland, the 2024 A’s season may be the last time there will be MLB games in the city for a long time.
