\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of markets in the United States \u2014 in North America, quite frankly, Canada and Mexico \u2014 that would like to have Major League Baseball,\u201d Manfred said Wednesday in a televised interview on ESPN.<\/p>\n
Sacramento\u2019s group, which has dubbed itself the \u201cSacramento Pitch,\u201d says it has assembled $800 million in land and private investment, and envisions building a stadium in the same area the A\u2019s play now, West Sacramento. It\u2019s technically a separate city from Sacramento and in a separate county, and sits a short walk across the Sacramento River.<\/p>\n
Friedman said the United Auburn Indian Community and Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians are committing $250 million each. The group also says it has access to $1 billion in public money.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s common for municipalities that are courting teams to offer up taxpayer money, economists also frequently suggest<\/a> it\u2019s bad math to subsidize pro sports teams.<\/p>\n Help wanted<\/p>\n Overall, Sacramento still has a long way to go, and significantly more capital will be needed from a yet-be-identified lead investor. That individual is expected to come from outside the market, and will need to arrive with perhaps billions more at the ready. There will be a hefty expansion fee the other owners charge a team that newly joins MLB.<\/p>\n In 2021, Manfred floated fees in the range of $2.2 billion.<\/a> This was after Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets for $2.4 billion, but before the San Diego Padres sold at $3.9 billion<\/a>\u00a0in May to a group led by Kwanza Jones and Jos\u00e9 E. Feliciano.<\/p>\n Friedman, who once owned a share of basketball\u2019s Sacramento Kings, said that, while the Kings and owner Vivek Ranadiv\u00e9 plan to invest in the new MLB project, they don\u2019t want to head up the operation.<\/p>\n Fifty acres in West Sacramento are targeted for a new stadium and surrounding mixed-use developments, in an area that includes the ballpark the A\u2019s play in now. The Kings own that stadium, Sutter Health Park, as well as its regular tenant, the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A club of the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n \u201cWe may elect to build a new stadium next to the existing stadium, and then tear that one down, or we may choose to tear down the existing stadium and build a new one on the same site,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cWe just haven\u2019t gotten to the design part of this, and are waiting until we bring the lead investor on, because that person will undoubtedly want to place their stamp on what the project looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n The current would-be investors in a Sacramento ballclub believe that publicity and a wide search will ultimately help their goal for someone with deep pockets.<\/p>\n Without a lead buyer at this point, Sacramento could trail other cities\u2019 expansion efforts, but Barry Broome, head of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, framed the search as an advantage.<\/p>\n \u201cThe competing markets already have their lead investors,\u201d Broome said. \u201cWe think we can attract a higher-standard lead investor. It would be a veteran ownership group that already owns a major-league sports team or two, that have clear track records \u2026 versus local owners that don\u2019t have a global footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n The goal is to find an investor by the end of the calendar year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe already have people calling us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be able to compete with Salt Lake\u2019s proposal, and we will exceed Portland\u2019s proposal and other competitive markets.\u201d<\/p>\n A changing scene<\/p>\n That Sacramento is in the conversation at all reflects how much the area has grown over time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I tell people a lot of the time is, there\u2019s not one specific great reason why you wouldn\u2019t have been to Sacramento, but once you get there, you fall in love with it,\u201d former big leaguer Derrek Lee, a Sacramento native who hit 331 home runs over a 15-year big-league career, said. \u201cIt\u2019s just grown so much, it\u2019s hard to even describe. The El Dorado Hills out to Roseville, we have real suburbs now, which didn\u2019t really exist when I was growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n Three decades ago, there were rumors that one ownership group vying to buy the A\u2019s, then based in Oakland, would try to move the team to Sacramento. Kevin McClatchy, a Sacramento native and member of the McClatchy publishing company, was part of that ownership group, which wound up buying the Pittsburgh Pirates instead.<\/p>\n Now out of baseball, McClatchy denies that he wanted to bring the A\u2019s to Sacramento in the 1990s. But the possibility of a team in Sacramento feels more realistic to him now.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the Kings have somewhat shown people that Sacramento can easily support a professional franchise, but I think it\u2019s come into focus more recently,\u201d said McClatchy, who is lending his expertise to Sacramento\u2019s bid, but does not plan to come on as an investor. \u201cThings have changed dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n The West Sacramento region boasted a population estimate of 56,216 people, according to 2025 U.S. Census data,<\/a> while the capital proper had 536,449 people<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n Though attendance is up at Sutter Health Park, it still lags behind MLB\u2019s other 29 clubs. (Ezra Shaw \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n How MLB\u2019s owners would judge the city and media market is to be seen, including how much weight they would put into the attendance figures produced by the A\u2019s or even the River Cats. This year, the A\u2019s are averaging 10,676 tickets sold nightly, about 1,200 more than 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you can compare the support for a team that\u2019s a Triple A team, or a major-league team that\u2019s on loan, to a team that is going to be part of Sacramento\u2019s identity,\u201d McClatchy said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great baseball town, and probably I would even say a better baseball town than a basketball town.\u201d<\/p>\n To be seen, too, is whether baseball\u2019s owners want to again navigate California politics. While many fans have questioned the sincerity of the effort that A\u2019s owner John Fisher and MLB made to keep the A\u2019s in Oakland, MLB officials also grew frustrated by the process.<\/p>\n To Kevin McCarty, mayor of Sacramento, the situations are distinct. He called Sacramento \u201cshovel ready.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of excitement that I get around Sacramento is amazing,\u201d McCarty said.<\/p>\n Public money<\/p>\n Martha Guerrero, mayor of West Sacramento, said the public funding for an MLB team would primarily come from tax increment financing, which relies on property taxes, with smaller amounts coming from hotel fees and other sources.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s unique here in West Sacramento is our share of property taxes is much higher than most jurisdictions,\u201d Guerrero said. \u201cWhat we do is we borrow against future growth from the property-tax value to fund the public infrastructure and other improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n Guerrero said she doesn\u2019t expect that the matter would be voted on.<\/p>\n \u201cI get what people may say, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s a billion dollars you can grab and put somewhere else,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s an economic development tool that we\u2019ve been using for years, and we take careful consideration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt does not impact our general fund.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275916218-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n