{"id":349988,"date":"2026-06-06T23:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T23:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349988\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T23:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T23:13:13","slug":"sacramentos-mlb-dream-is-costly-are-regional-leaders-leveling-with-us-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349988\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento\u2019s MLB dream is costly. Are regional leaders leveling with us? | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week later, Sacramento\u2019s attempt to land a Major League Baseball expansion team<\/a> still seems improbable, considering the multi-billion dollar expansion fee needed to secure a team.<\/p>\n

At the May 28 press conference to unveil an effort called Sacramento Pitch, I asked Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty about reports that it could cost several billion dollars just for the fee of acquiring an MLB franchise.<\/p>\n

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The mayor cut me off. \u201cIt\u2019s to be determined\u2014that\u2019s a speculation,\u201d McCarty said. \u201cThey haven\u2019t stated the expansion number yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, well, no one may have stated numbers yet to our mayor, but someone in baseball is stating numbers to journalists.<\/p>\n

CBS Sports has reported that the franchise fee for a new team will start at $2 billion.<\/a> Yahoo Sports has reported<\/a> a similar figure,<\/p>\n

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the number could reach $3 billion.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time MLB is ready to expand \u2014 after collective bargaining, and most likely after new media rights deals in 2028 \u2014 baseball insiders suggest the expansion fee itself could be around $4 billion,\u201d wrote Bill Shaikin of The Los Angeles Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Sacramento is trying to enter a game played by billionaires and despite all the pomp and circumstance of last week\u2019s announcement, Sacramento hasn\u2019t secured a billionaire who wants to buy a Sacramento.<\/p>\n

If MLB adds two additional teams in 2029, which would bring the league to 32 teams overall, Sacramento\u2019s primary could be Salt Lake City. Guess what they have? A billionaire family whose corporation, the Larry H. Miller Company, is spearheading Salt Lake City\u2019s bid. (Now deceased, Larry H. Miller built one of the largest privately owned companies in the West and once owned the Utah Jazz of the NBA. His family is carrying on his work).<\/p>\n

This is why Sacramento\u2019s press conference last week was annoying. It was all show, no substance: no lead investor, $800 million raised \u2014 barely a start.<\/p>\n

McCarty\u2019s dismissive attitude signaled a lack of understanding\u2014or willingness to address\u2014how much money it will actually take to get this done.<\/p>\n

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For context, the New York Mets sold for $2.4 billion in 2020, while the Washington Commanders of the NFL fetched a record $6.05 billion in 2023. The numbers being discussed for MLB expansion reflect not only the desirability of owning a team but the economic realities of modern sports business.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not enough to dream big; leaders must grapple honestly with the scale of investment involved. If we gloss over these realities now, we risk repeating the mistakes of other cities that have overpromised and underdelivered on professional sports ventures.<\/p>\n

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The expansion fee is the bare minimum required for entry. When leaders like McCarty dismiss tough realities as speculation, it only harms Sacramento\u2019s bid for the major leagues.<\/p>\n

The stakes are too high for wishful thinking. Sacramento\u2019s future as a potential MLB city depends on transparency, planning, and a willingness to have hard conversations now\u2014not after it\u2019s too late to turn back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week later, Sacramento\u2019s attempt to land a Major League Baseball expansion team still seems improbable, considering the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[13130,3834,3674,121,123,122,15965,6455],"class_list":["post-349988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-kevin-mccarty","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-utah-jazz","tag-washington-commanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}