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Eight-year-old Jackson Jacobs, of Sacramento, has a miniature bat signed by New York Yankees third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera before a 2025 game against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
The region will be competing with cities across the country that have made headlines for years with efforts to court the league.<\/p>\n
But local officials were energized by the Athletics\u2019 three-year commitment to the region, believing it could serve as an audition of sorts. And Kings owner Vivek Ranadiv\u00e9 pitched Manfred on Sacramento during a visit to Sutter Health Park ahead of the A\u2019s arrival last year. Manfred responded that he would not \u201cforget the 10 million people,\u201d referring to the population of the greater region, The Bee previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n McCarty has backed West Sacramento as a site for an expansion bid. He said Wednesday that his support was based, in part, on groundwork the city has laid.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve already been leading on this,\u201d McCarty said. \u201cSo it was easy for us to fall in place and support them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A very different environment\u2019<\/p>\n Cities, Laurel said, typically negotiate their shares of property tax when they are formed. In the 1980s, the early leaders of West Sacramento \u2014 what was a historically industrial area, then struggling with disinvestment and infrastructure woes<\/a> \u2014 had reason to negotiate with Yolo County for a higher percentage of the property tax revenues.<\/p>\n Cities that incorporated after West Sacramento tended to get lower shares of property tax, as those revenues became scarcer in the \u201cpost-Prop. 13 environment,\u201d Laurel said, referencing the 1978 initiative that capped annual increases.<\/p>\n \u201cThe counties would bargain harder,\u201d Laurel said. \u201cBut at our time of incorporation, it was a very different environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the most common mechanisms that California cities use to encourage major developments \u2014 for instance, an enhanced infrastructure financing district \u2014 use increases in property tax revenues to repay developers\u2019 costs for building infrastructure, such as streets and sewer connections.<\/p>\n So for a city, access to a larger portion of the property tax dollars can lend more powerful incentives.<\/p>\n West Sacramento\u2019s property tax share is more than 40%, Laurel said. Until 2037 the effective rate will be closer to 28%, as the city pays off debts related to a separate, previous set of incentives.<\/p>\n In Sacramento, the average is around 21%, according to a city spokesperson, though the exact rate varies across the city.<\/p>\n The Bridge District\u2019s success<\/p>\n Local leaders also cited the significant work the city has done over the decades to build out once-industrial areas with housing and mixed-use development.<\/p>\n Mayor Martha Guerrero pointed to the transformation of the city\u2019s riverfront<\/a> as an example.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we have a success story, over the past few years, of making good things happen in West Sacramento,\u201d Guerrero said. \u201cI really think Major League Baseball wants to see a reliable, steady local government who is ready to get to work, and has the experience to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n The city has long planned its Bridge District for the types of developments that are built around major sports venues, Laurel said. The area around Sutter Health Park has more flexible entitlements that would allow for the construction of entertainment, housing, hotels, retail and office space. The area could accommodate more than 10 million square feet of development, he said.<\/p>\n In West Sacramento, McCarty said, the combination of interested property owners and existing financing infrastructure, \u201cputs them way ahead, if you\u2019re evaluating the two locations.\u201d The benefits for Sacramento\u2019s downtown restaurants and hotels will be strong, regardless.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be a big boon to both cities,\u201d McCarty said. \u201cWe\u2019re in the beginning stages. And we\u2019ll be ready to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n West Sacramento\u2019s Bridge District was an industrial area bisected by a number of rail tracks in 1999, before the construction of the baseball stadium now known as Sutter Health Park. ERHARDT KRAUSE Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
![\"Athletics](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SAC_6868_DRH_250704_AsAtmosphere.JPG\" "\\"SAC_6868_DRH_250704_AsAtmosphere.JPG\\"")
Athletics and San Francisco Giants fans wait for the Sutter Health Park gates to open before the teams play each other for the first time in West Sacramento on July 4, 2025. DANIEL HEUER Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
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