{"id":31160,"date":"2025-07-23T12:12:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31160\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T12:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:12:18","slug":"for-mlbs-as-major-league-baseball-is-now-in-a-minor-league-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31160\/","title":{"rendered":"For MLB’s A’s, Major League Baseball is now in a minor league park"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 56 years and four World Series titles<\/a> and that \u201cMoneyball<\/a>\u201d book about how brilliantly cheap they were, Major League Baseball\u2019s Oakland Athletics are, well, no longer the Oakland Athletics. <\/p>\n

The A\u2019s finally made good on their decades-long threat to leave the Bay Area if they didn\u2019t get a new stadium. The charmingly deteriorating Oakland Coliseum, nicknamed baseball\u2019s \u201clast dive bar,\u201d used to have a colony of feral cats<\/a> living beneath it. <\/p>\n

The plan is that come 2028, the A\u2019s will become the Las Vegas A\u2019s, <\/a>in a glittering new 33,000-seat stadium right on the strip. <\/p>\n

But until then, the A\u2019s are playing Major League Baseball in a minor league park \u2014 14,000-seat Sutter Health Park, in Sacramento, California, about 90 miles east of Oakland. <\/p>\n

On a June Saturday night in West Sacramento, about 8,300<\/a> <\/a>people<\/a> watched the A\u2019s take on the Cleveland Guardians \u2014 60% of Sutter Health Park\u2019s capacity<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s fewer empty seats than an A\u2019s game in Oakland Coliseum the past few years. <\/p>\n

But a stadium with more fans isn\u2019t necessarily a louder one. When a little boy leads the signature \u201cLet\u2019s go A\u2019s\u201d chant on the jumbotron, the crowd response is noticeably muted. <\/p>\n

The A\u2019s have banned the drums and vuvuzelas that were the rowdy hallmarks of the Oakland days. The vibe in Sacramento is more, \u201cHey look! There\u2019s a baseball game going on\u2026 That\u2019s nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis definitely feels like Triple AAA,\u201d said Scott McDonald, who along with his two sons were watching the A\u2019s warm up along the right field line. \u201cSmall, intimate, but the Coliseum was a lot [more] raucous, you know a lot more fun.\u201d <\/p>\n

Raised in an Oakland suburb, McDonald grew up going to the Coliseum. Like a lot of old school Bay Area fans in attendance, he felt a tinge of guilt buying a ticket. <\/p>\n

\u201cI swore them off, and I said I wouldn’t come once they moved,\u201d said McDonald. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Part of the lure? McDonald\u2019s two boys can lean over the wall and basically touch an A\u2019s player. In a cozy minor league ballpark, there really are no bad seats. <\/p>\n

And you don\u2019t have to pay through the nose to avoid the nosebleeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually tickets were pretty cheap, like $33, and we\u2019re in the front row,\u201d said Giovanna Magana, who used to tailgate with her family outside the Coliseum. <\/p>\n

To start the season, ticket prices were among the most expensive in baseball. But now, the secondary market on sites like Stubhub can be very cheap. <\/p>\n

Although if you\u2019re expecting minor league bargains at the concession stand, you may be disappointed. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo a house double cocktail is about $28 and regular house cocktail, just one shot, is $15,\u201d said Magana. \u201cI don\u2019t remember the drinks being this expensive, or the beer.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some of those higher prices are for fancier beers. The beer garden near the left field pavilion now features some upscale Bay Area craft offerings.<\/p>\n

Melissa Pighin and Chris Ryan used to spend an inning or two at the beer garden during minor league Rivercat games here. They like the upgraded selections, like Pliny the Elder. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do wish there was more, like, local Sacramento beers here,\u201d said Ryan.<\/p>\n

Ryan was born and raised in Sacramento, and considers himself a lifelong A\u2019s fan.<\/p>\n

Both he and Pighin are excited the team is here in their city. They just wish the A\u2019s seemed as excited to be here too. <\/p>\n

Before the season, the A\u2019s announced their official name would not include the word Sacramento. Neither would the jerseys. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like they\u2019re just using us,\u201d said Ryan. <\/p>\n

Lots of Sacramentans feel this way. They\u2019re also offended by the huge Visit Vegas ad on the left field wall. <\/p>\n

Which may be why A\u2019s home game attendance and the buzz inside the ballpark are sagging.<\/p>\n

Sure, the team is in last place. But Sacramento\u2019s NBA team, the Kings, has been bad for decades and still draws raucous sellouts. <\/p>\n

In the absence of anything that says Sacramento on it, the hottest item at the OnDeck merchandise store is the $40 T-shirt Staci Peck just bought. <\/p>\n

A local landmark is emblazoned in green and gold on the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tower bridge,\u201d said Peck. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the only thing that shows the A\u2019s colors and the A\u2019s logos coming to Sacramento.\u201d <\/p>\n

The A\u2019s have said there\u2019s no mention of Sacramento on their merch because they want to be respectful to Sacramento. The organization doesn\u2019t want to mislead fans into thinking this is anything but temporary. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that there’s always more we can do, and we welcome feedback as we continue building stronger ties,\u201d a spokesperson for the A\u2019s wrote via email. \u201cThe support we\u2019ve received from Sacramento has been incredible, and we remain committed to giving back to this community that has embraced us so warmly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peck, though, is holding out hope for something more permanent. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think they’re going anywhere,\u201d said Peck. \u201cI say, build them a stadium and move here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 56 years and four World Series titles and that \u201cMoneyball\u201d book about how brilliantly cheap they were,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[4818,1558,363,99],"class_list":["post-31160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-athletics","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}