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Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob stands before their game Oct. 24, 2019, against the Los Angeles Clippers at Chase Center in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Ezra Shaw<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
A key aspect to Sacramento\u2019s pitch to land a Major League Baseball expansion franchise<\/a> will be finding a primary owner willing to foot an expansion fee expected to be north of $2 billion and take a controlling stake in the club.<\/p>\n One prominent name has been linked to Sacramento previously but is not in the running: Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who recently bid on the San Diego Padres and has expressed interest in buying the Angels and A\u2019s in the past, was approached by Sacramento officials and declined to be part of their expansion campaign, according to three people with knowledge of the situation but who were not authorized to comment.<\/p>\n Lacob, those three people said, would prefer to buy a pre-existing team while expansion, which is likely years away, wouldn\u2019t meet his timeline. Key to the Sacramento campaign\u2019s success will be finding a primary investor, which hasn\u2019t been locked down, they said.<\/p>\n Sacramento officials on Thursday launched the \u201cSacramento Pitch\u201d campaign, a formal announcement that Sacramento will pursue a permanent MLB team, joining Salt Lake City, Portland and Vancouver as western cities in the running. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has made it clear that he wants his expansion agenda to be outlined, with cities decided, before his term is up in January 2029.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s event included the announcement of a fully entitled 50-acre site in West Sacramento\u2019s Bridge District which currently serves as the parking lot for Sutter Health Park, the 26-year home of the Sacramento River Cats Triple-A team and temporary home for the Athletics ahead of their planned move to a new Las Vegas ballpark in 2028.<\/p>\n Officials also announced $2 billion in \u201cpublic-private\u201d funding, $1 billion from West Sacramento via tax increment financing, hotel taxes and \u201cadditional sources.\u201d<\/p>\n But not mentioned in the announcement was the underlying need for a primary financier who would likely be responsible for paying the $2 billion expansion fee and taking on primary ownership. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have options,\u201d Sacramento mayor Kevin McCarty said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. \u201cWe\u2019re talking (to) a number of lead investors. We\u2019re evaluating what makes sense for Sacramento, for our bid and for them. This is a big transaction for somebody.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing that I think is important for us today is we\u2019re laying the foundation as far as a shovel-ready site where the stadium will be, the public-private partnership with the city of West Sacramento, and not significant for local investors that add up to nearly a billion dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n The public-private partnership officials discussed includes the potential stadium site owned by Mark Friedman, the chair of the \u201cSacramento Pitch\u201d campaign; the Sacramento Kings, who own Sutter Health Park and the River Cats; and two Native American tribes, the Shingle Springs Miwok Indians and United Auburn Indian Community Indians.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re basically looking at this as a $4 billion effort,\u201d Friedman told The Bee, noting that was the price the Padres sold for earlier this month. \u201cObviously, MLB hasn\u2019t established what the franchise fee will be, but we think it will cost about $2 billion to build the stadium, and then the franchise fee will be on top of that. So our goal is to raise $4 billion so we can compete effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n A rendering released Thursday shows a Major League Baseball stadium on the West Sacramento waterfront near the Tower Bridge. Violet PR <\/p>\n
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