Sacramento throws first pitch for MLB expansion

Sacramento steps up to the plate, ready to play ball.

Leaders from Sacramento and West Sacramento officially announced Thursday their bid for a Major League Baseball (MLB) expansion team. The “Sacramento Pitch” campaign has already secured $1.8 billion in public and private investments.

The expansion team is planned for West Sacramento’s Bridge District with plans for a 50-acre mixed use development and a modern ballpark. West Sacramento currently houses the Athletics who are slated to leave for Las Vegas before the 2028 season.

The Sacramento Pitch organization was formed to help land the expansion team and has many prominent committee members including the chair Mark Friedman, the founder and chairman of Fulcrum Property Group, Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty and West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero.

“As you know, MLB has not yet formally announced an expansion effort, but when they do, Sacramento will be ready,” Friedman said at Thursday’s press conference. “We spent the last year working quietly behind the scenes to build the partnerships, the investments, and the long-term vision in order to compete effectively for an expansion franchise.”

The rest of the organization committee includes President and CEO of Greater Sacramento Econmoic Council Barry Broome, Visit Sacramento CEO Mike Testa, Sacramento native and former MLB player Derrek Lee, World Series Champion Dusty Baker, COO of the Sacramento Kings Matina Kolokotronis, Chairman of United Auburn Indian Community John Williams, and Chairwoman of Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Regina Cuellar.

Friedman said the majority of the private investment came from two of “Sacramento’s most enduring communities,” the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and the United Auburn Indian community.

“We are honored to have them as partners in this effort,” he said. “Their investment is not simply a financial transaction, but it's a recognition of their history, because Sacramento is not just their hometown, it's their homeland.”

MLB is expected to expand from 30 to 32 teams by the time league commissioner Rob Manfred retires in 2029. 

Mayor McCarty recognizes it’s going to be a long process, but he said they’re setting the foundation today.

“We announced a local ownership group and laid out the financing and made our case,” he said. “This is the beginning of our quest, and we know we're competitive, but we're putting together a proposal that's going to be available to pull it off for Sacramento.”

Renderings of the proposed MLB ballpark in the Bridge District in West Sacramento.The Sacramento Pitch

Although private investors were announced, there was one thing that was not clear: who would actually own the team? 

McCarty said they’re still evaluating who the lead owner would be, but there are options. He said he wants more people in Sacramento to come watch more Athletics games live because it’ll increase their chances of landing a team here.

“We're looking at what makes the most sense for us and the lead investor, as well as supporting baseball today,” he said. “That's one thing that we have the other cities don't, we have an MLB team here today.”

Baseball legend and Sacramento-area native Dusty Baker told CapRadio he would love for the fans of Sacramento to have their own baseball team.

“It's a good city, we got a good downtown, we got area of space; it's growing,” Baker said. “This is a wide base, and we have loyal fans in this area, because I've seen it with the Giants, I've seen it with the A's.”

A national MLB expansion landscape

Sacramento’s bid will now compete against a number of other cities looking to secure the next MLB expansion team, with some having worked on their pitches for years.

Maury Brown is a senior contributor for Forbes and a national baseball reporter. He told CapRadio’s Andrew Garcia on Insight the bidding process will include a variety of factors, from television market size and population, to a region’s corporate base.

“The ownership would need to cobble up $2 billion, maybe $2.5-$3 billion for the expansion fee and have some money in reserve,” Brown said. “They don’t want to have clubs come online and potentially go right into duress… they want to be able to cover up to three years in losses.”

Brown said markets in the Western U.S. that are in the mix for a new team include Portland and Salt Lake City, the latter of which he considers a frontrunner. 

But Brown said Sacramento’s bid has a major advantage — the land acquisition by its developers.

“Having that available and being able to target that, have it fully entitled and ready to go right now, is a huge win for Sacramento,” he explained. “That’s largely been a challenge for some of the markets… so I think that they’re in a surprisingly good position early on.”

Brown also said Sacramento having only one major-league pro sports team — the Kings — could also be an advantage, as it prevents the media market from being diluted. 

Going forward, Brown said establishing any new team — regardless of location — is still far off. “They haven’t even announced an expansion committee, so we’re a ways off from an announcement,” he said.

Brown said MLB will likely form a committee to field bids once negotiations with the players union wrap up in 2027, adding that more cities could throw their hats in the ring. He said while Manfred wants to vote on expansion teams before he retires in 2029, fans would still need to wait years to set foot inside the park — in the Capital City or elsewhere. 

“Those ballparks would probably not come online until somewhere around 2033,” Brown said. “If things go as cleanly as possible, that would be the most direct timeline.”