West Sacramento Mayor Discusses Possible Expansion

With the Athletics set to move to Las Vegas for the 2028 season, the future of Major League Baseball in the Central Valley is uncertain. 

After the A’s move to Sin City, would expansion to Sacramento be a possibility? Earlier this week, Martha Guerrero, the mayor of West Sacramento, joined Kevin Gleason and Allen Stiles on Sactown Sports’ “The Drive Guys” podcast to discuss what that would take. 

“We’re working together with a coalition of businesses and interested people who want to make this happen,” Guerrero said. 

MLB is expected to expand sooner rather than later, and considering how Sacramento embraced the A’s during a transition period, it would make sense for them to get consideration for an expansion club when the A’s finally make their move.

“I would say that the opportunity for us to be able to demonstrate that there is an increased demand for the presence of a Major League Baseball team,” Guerrero said. “We are a baseball region, we do love sports, and we do have a need to have another sports team out here. We’re going to show that, especially this next year.”

With that being said, there will be a few hurdles that need to be cleared to make it happen. First, Sutter Health Park is a great ballpark for minor league baseball, but it would be unsustainable for a major league team to play there long-term.

As a result, a new stadium would have to be built with a substantially higher capacity. For the time being, though, the Athletics need to make the most of Sutter Health Park and build it up. 

“We need to make sure we have a strong venue here to have a strong Major League Baseball team presence,” Guerrero stated. “We’re doing that by convening with different groups to establish corporate sponsorships. We need to boost that here at Sutter Health Park.”

Second, the Athletics would likely need to have a major boost in attendance to show MLB that there is truly potential in the Sacramento market. The A’s averaged 9,487 fans per game in a stadium that can hold 14,014. It’s hard to imagine that the league would be thrilled by a 68% attendance rate; as a result, that’s another of Guerrero’s main priorities. 

It'll likely be quite a while before we find out if the city of Sacramento will be one of the lucky cities granted an expansion franchise, but regardless, the A's will spend two more full seasons in California's capital city. The Sacramento expansion rollout is expected to begin in earnest starting in May.

The full interview with Guerrero can be found on SacTown Sports' YouTube channel.

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