John Fisher's Sacramento Miscalculation

A's owner John Fisher decided that moving the team an hour and a half up north to West Sacramento would be a better fit for the long-term success of his franchise than to endure "Sell the team!" chants for three or four more seasons.

Fisher's club is staying at Sutter Health Park rent free and is still getting a pretty hefty RSN deal from Comcast Sports California to broadcast their games, so it's the best of all worlds for him. A team in a new city will draw capacity crowds each game, and he'll be able to charge exorbitant prices to come see his team!

Well, it isn't quite working the way that Fisher had envisioned. The A's have drawn attendance figures in the 9,000s as many times as they've drawn 10,000 or more, maxing out at 12,119 on Opening Night against the Chicago Cubs, while a number of comped tickets were also available for player's families and team executives.

The team has also drawn 8,832 once, on Saturday against the Chicago White Sox, and 9,008 on Thursday against the Texas Rangers. Overall, the club is averaging 9,836 fans per game, well below a capacity crowd, which is around 13,500.

Some of the locals have said that they're withholding judgement until the weather warms up and school lets out, which is completely fair. At the same time, this is the A's first season in West Sacramento, and if they're struggling to pack a minor-league park a month into their stay, then this whole adventure could be in trouble.

Why the A's are struggling to draw fans

There isn't one single answer for why the A's are struggling to bring fans out to the ballpark, because a number of people will have different answers, but they all tie to the same point.

At recent family gatherings, I have had people tell me that the Athletics have sold out for every game, because the A's were very loudly saying that they had sold out of season tickets. I had to explain that the A's stance was a marketing technique. They could have announced sellouts of season tickets in Oakland, too, if they limited the quantity available.

In West Sacramento, they're hovering around 6,000 season tickets sold, and judging by some of the games I've attended that have had the same areas in the ballpark empty, those season ticket holders may not be attending each and every game.

So the first misstep was not communicating that tickets would still be available to the public, because a number of people I've spoken with didn't even bother looking for tickets once they heard that announcement.

The other big issue has been the pricing of these early games. The A's were expecting nearly capacity crowds for nearly every game this season, and that just hasn't been the case. They haven't broken the 11,000 fan threshold since the first game, which means plenty of seats are being left unsold.

The odd part here is that the ticket sales people know how many tickets they're moving, and if they're coming up short then they should have been offering promotions to get people in the door. This is something that they've been implementing more in recent weeks, with flash sales like "2 for $20 for select games."

This also has a chance to upset the season ticket holders that paid well above $10 for their seats.

In business, when you're not getting your desired outcome, in this case a sellout crowd, then it's because the prices are too high. The A's median ticket price for 2025 is the highest in baseball. Of course, with fewer tickets available, that's simple supply and demand. There's a reduced supply, so they figured they'd up the price to get the most money from the seats they had available.

But that demand hasn't been there, so why weren't the prices lowered sooner? For any ballpark, the goal is to draw fans to watch the baseball game. If you're not attracting the fans, then you should be trying new things to get them out to the ballpark.

Tickets can be cheap, because once they're in the door, fans will by merchandise and concessions. But if you charge too much at the gate, then you miss out on those added purchases, too.

After my dad passed away in December, my family and I had planned to do a baseball game celebration in his honor. I figured that a Saturday game against the White Sox (the worst team in baseball a year ago) would be great, because the weather wouldn't be too hot yet. Lawn seats were around $100 per person, so it was going to cost us close to $1,000 as a group to get in.

We decided to just not go instead, and we haven't bothered looking to reschedule.

This is all about knowing your new market, what they can afford, and what they're willing to pay for these games. A family of five isn't going to drop $500 to get into the game to sit on grass when they could just attend a Sacramento River Cats game the following week for $11 per person. The A's brand isn't worth that upcharge.

It's certainly not worth the added fee when you consider the circumstances of the A's being in Sacramento in the first place. They were pulled away from their long-time home in Oakland, all while the owner blamed the fans for not coming out to the games as the reason for his decision. Then, he arrives in a new city and wants his new potential patrons to fork over gobs of money to see his team take the field.

John Fisher hasn't done the hard part, which is the community building. He hasn't earned people's trust. He doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.

If he was in tune with the people of Sacramento, he would have realized that a large portion of them would be turned off by the team's unwillingness to put "Sacramento" across their jerseys and in their team name. Why should the city take pride in his franchise when he's seemingly too embarrassed to shout out Sac Town?

Instead, the team goes by "Athletics" or "A's" and every opposing broadcast in every game this season has mentioned how ridiculous that is, which is a bad look for Sacramento.

This has always been a weird call, since producing "Sacramento A's" merchandise would be a new way to sell hats and shirts and jerseys to not only local fans, but to people looking to cash in down the road when the team ends up moving out of Sacramento.

It's pretty hard to not sell out a minor league park in your first month in a new city, but Fisher has somehow found a way. That's not Oakland A's fan's fault though.

The blame for the fans not showing out in Sacramento rests squarely on Fisher's shoulders. Investing in the team is more than spending some money on the roster. It's about not being the butt of every joke. Showing competence. A little pride in where you play wouldn't hurt either.