Sacramento hopes to make its pitch for expansion after the Athletics leave for Las Vegas

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty pointed to the fans filling up Sutter Health Park before the Athletics took on the New York Yankees in a recent series, including several wearing jerseys with Sacramento on the front.

A region that has often been considered minor league in comparison to bigger California markets like the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego is relishing its role as a way station for the vagabond A’s and hopes one day to have a Major League Baseball team to call its own to go along with the NBA’s Kings.

“It would mean everything,” McCarty said. “I think we’ve always fancied ourselves as a big league city. Having a team here in Sacramento would mean a lot to our city, bring a lot of economic groups to both sides of the river.”

The region is making what it has dubbed the “Sacramento Pitch” to be considered for expansion, announcing late last month a commitment of $1 billion in public funding and nearly $800 million more in private investment to the effort.

There are still major parts missing in the plan. Most notably, the search for a lead investor to own the team has just started with several candidates expressing interest. There's also uncertainty about if and when MLB plans to expand, and where Sacramento stands on the list of possible candidates.

“What we have is just only one major league team here. So we have definitely room for having another team," West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero said. ”We have a strong media market, the population is growing. We have a good economic growth here as well. We have the potential to develop a strong market for a Major League Baseball team here."

Sacramento has one major team in US's 20th biggest market

Sacramento is the 20th biggest television market in the country and is the largest with only one team in either MLB, the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS and WNBA. There are about 2.7 million people in the metropolitan area that is still viewed by some as an offshoot of the more glamorous San Francisco Bay area.

The region is getting a trial run as a major league city as the temporary home of the A’s, who are playing their second of three planned seasons in West Sacramento after leaving Oakland and waiting for their new stadium to be built in Las Vegas. The A's are set to play one more season here before the move, and the team is already playing two series this week in the Las Vegas area.

Attendance has risen from 9,487 fans per game last season to 10,820 through 28 home dates this season, with 12 announced sellouts in a ballpark that can fit a little more than 12,000 fans a game. But local officials are confident a full-time team would have even more support at a new stadium built right next door to the existing Triple-A park.

“From our perspective, landing Major League Baseball is really a market demonstration statement about who we are,” said Barry Broome, the President and CEO of Greater Sacramento Economic Council. “We do love baseball. Everybody deep down inside prays we’ll get a phone call from (A's owner) John Fisher and he says, ’Psych, I’m staying.' No one wants to admit they pray for that every day. But we love the Athletics. It’d be awesome, but we didn’t. They’re going to Vegas, so we have to bring in our own team which is fine with us.”

Sacramento has $1.8 billion in commitments for a new stadium

The group in Sacramento has raised $800 million in land near the current minor league ballpark and private investment and has access to $1 billion in public funding that comes mostly from property taxes in the area.

While economists have expressed doubts about the value of public investment into stadiums and McCarty himself voted against funding Sacramento's NBA arena when he was on the city council, he believes this plan makes more sense.

“That was more of an impact on the general fund,” he said of the plan that led to building Golden 1 Center that opened in downtown Sacramento in 2016. “This one I think is the fairest deal for taxpayers and partners to do big projects that we have on the books.”

There's no timeline yet for MLB expansion

MLB's first priority is negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with the union. Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that MLB has told interested cities that a decision on whether to expand won't come until the CBA is complete.

Among the other cities vying for a team if it does happen are Charlotte, North Carolina; Montreal; Nashville, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon; and Salt Lake City. Sacramento's biggest competition would likely be the other cities out West.

“I think the size and scope of the market is really our key advantage,” Broome said. “We’ve also demonstrated we have a turnkey stadium deal now. That can happen under the mayor and the city manager’s signature. We don’t have to pass a bond or anything like that. It took us four months to raise $800 million. I think people underestimate Sacramento. There’s a lot of money in this town. There is a lot economic power in this town. We can do this.”