As the last week of the first season of the Athletics’ multi-year stay in Sacramento begins, it’s safe to say owner John Fisher’s attempt to flee Oakland and find a safe haven before landing in Las Vegas is going, well, poorly.
The first year of three — or maybe more — in West Sacramento at Sutter Health Park has seen the A’s stay in the headlines for mostly troublesome and embarrassing reasons, from the first night until the final few weeks of the season.
On the field, the A’s put together a solid second half, but a 1-20 stretch in the early summer killed any hope of a playoff run and led to another sell-off at the trade deadline. From the perspective of big league players, the stadium and its many flaws were clearly frustrating for the home team and even left some stars pining to return to the downtrodden Coliseum; visiting stars have publicly torched the faults of the minor league ballpark.
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There have also been myriad issues off the field. Sacramentans have felt disrespected by the A’s refusing to embrace their temporary home city in their branding. Season ticket holders have felt the club drastically overpromised the amount of interest in tickets, and lower-than-expected attendance figures have cratered the resale market with tickets as cheap as $3 on game days, leading to resentment and bitterness. Some of the local businesses are feeling similarly, too.
The sun sets on Sutter Health Park and the Tower Bridge in Sacramento, Calif., on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Fans watch the Athletics play the Minnesota Twins from the lawn inside Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
(Left to right) Stu Clary and Mike Davie distribute ‘sell’ shirts to Oakland A’s fans before a reverse boycott game at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. on June 13, 2023.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
The embarrassing moments have kept piling up. There’s the glorified tool shed that hosts A’s press conferences. The petty attempts to stop “SELL” merchandise from appearing on their telecasts. The calamity of errors at the team’s Hall of Fame ceremony earlier this month.
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It isn’t clear how Fisher views these incidents in Sacramento. After opening week, most of his public comments have been focused on Sin City. The uncomfortable moments at the ballpark that he tried to avoid in Oakland in the final years have instead followed him up I-80. As has been quite clear, the locals in town aren’t letting their excitement over seeing MLB stars in their home area lead to gratitude for the owner.
“F—k John Fisher. John Fisher’s a piece of s—t,” Lewis McGeorge of Roseville told SFGATE at an A’s game earlier this summer while rocking a “Sacramento hates you too” hat.
Joseph Ferraro is an A’s fan who grew up in Stockton and lived in Oakland for a while but moved to the Elk Grove area recently. While wearing a “F–k Vegas” A’s jersey at a game this summer, he told SFGATE of Fisher: “He takes the easiest way out in everything. The cheapest, the sleaziest way out. He doesn’t answer to anything either.”
Ferraro even made sure to include some scorn towards Vivek Ranadive, the billionaire owner of the Sacramento Kings and River Cats who is allowing the A’s to stay in town until Las Vegas is ready for the team.
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Owner of the Sacramento Kings NBA franchise Vivek Ranadivé looks on prior to the game between the Chicago Cubs and the Athletics at Sutter Health Park on Monday, March 31, 2025 in Sacramento, California.
Lachlan Cunningham/MLB Photos/Getty Images
“The Kings owner that brought him in here, he deserves it. Being best friends with John Fisher, this is what you get,” Ferraro said. “This is what the Kings get too. They just cursed the Kings — like, the Kings aren’t winning anything. That’s a terrible owner. He’s a terrible, terrible person for dealing with John Fisher. You’re best friends with him, you’re best friends with a rat. That makes you a rat.
“He’s gonna run his team the same way — not caring about championships, selling hope. Those guys are selling hope, that’s it. He’s probably selling hope more than the A’s, for sure. John Fisher ain’t selling hope. He’s just selling $3 tickets right now to me.”
Even the few A’s fans who do want to support the team in Sacramento don’t want to give Fisher their money. Anjie Branca is the manager at Sacramento Sports & Souvenirs, which made city-branded A’s gear long before the team haphazardly began to do so. She said the Old Sacramento store has sold far more of that merchandise for one reason.
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“People don’t want to put money into his pocket so much. So when they buy the stuff that we’ve made, that money’s not going in his pocket. It’s just going in our pocket,” Branca told SFGATE. “And that makes a lot of people happy — true A’s fans.”
Asked if the store emphasizes that point while trying to make a sale, Branca replied simply: “It doesn’t need to be emphasized. His reputation precedes him.”
Principal owner John Fisher of the Athletics speaks during a ceremonial groundbreaking for the USD 1.75 billion, 33,000-seat domed stadium for Major League Baseball’s Athletics at Sutter Health Park on June 23, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Justine Willard/Athletics/Getty Images
That might be why many of the businesses around the ballpark told SFGATE the fans coming to support the teams facing the A’s have been a bigger boost to their bottom lines than A’s fans. And it’s why so many of those businesses circled the Fourth of July weekend visit from the San Francisco Giants as the real money-making opportunity.
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In Ferraro’s eyes, that shouldn’t have surprised anyone in Sacramento. And it should be what the next host city for the A’s gets prepared for.
“No one in Sacramento should trust John Fisher, and it’s funny that the people in Vegas are trusting John Fisher,” Ferraro said. “They have no idea what they have in store for them. He’s not gonna care for the team. He’s gonna sell tickets, just like he is like this — the team’s gonna get sold out by the other team’s fans.”
Alex Danoff, of Oakland, shows off his sign protesting the A’s potential move to Las Vegas, during a game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Tuesday June 13, 2023.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
And if those fans stop coming? Leon Hunt, an A’s fan from Rocklin, thinks there’s a chance that even the minor league stadium could end up looking as empty as the Coliseum did in the final Oakland years.
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“The novelty is gonna wear off,” Hunt told SFGATE. “They just need to have a reason for people to be here. I think if the A’s were playing well, I think you’d have more fans here.”
That won’t change things for some. To no one’s surprise, many of the fans SFGATE spoke to called on Fisher to sell the team, and either send the A’s back to Oakland or let them stay put in Sacramento. (How’s that gone locally? Sacramento Bee columnist LeBron Hill already called on Ranadive to kick the A’s out of town because it’s harming the “culture of Sacramento.”)
A sign marks the future spot of home plate during ceremonial groundbreaking for the USD 1.75 billion, 33,000-seat domed stadium for Major League Baseball’s Athletics at Sutter Health Park on June 23, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Justine Willard/Athletics/Getty Images
But as construction seems to be moving along in Las Vegas, and the A’s plan to play games in Sin City next summer, staying in place likely isn’t in the cards. It’s leaving Ferraro — and many others like him — ready to be completely done with the A’s.
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“I feel bad about when I was a kid and made the decision to be an A’s fan, because they’re never gonna win anything with him as an owner,” Ferraro said.
Meanwhile, back in Oakland, the independent and locally owned Oakland Ballers had the greatest regular season in Pioneer League history, then came back from down 0-2 in the championship series to win all three games at home and take home the league title in front of a sold-out crowd of Oaklanders. Even the fire department got involved in the celebration.
How’s that for cosmic karma: All it took for Oakland to win a baseball title was John Fisher leaving town.
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SFGATE sports reporter Gabe Fernandez contributed to this report.