Mandatory Photo Credit: The Pitch media packet and rendering from Hart Howerton

By Jeremiah Salmonson

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The greater Sacramento area officially threw its hat in the unofficial MLB expansion ring on Thursday, announcing a new entity called The Sacramento Pitch to lead the effort in luring MLB to expand to West Sacramento.
“We come together to celebrate 175 years of a love affair for baseball and officially launch our campaign to bring a major league baseball expansion team right here to Sacramento,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said at the press conference.

However, does the city have what it takes to make this bid real, and who are the players behind it?

This expansion desire isn’t a recent development or something that was hastily put into existence. The Sacramento area has been working for a while on exploring an expansion opportunity after the Athletics leave for Las Vegas after the 2027 season.

“We spent the last year working quietly behind the scenes to build the partnerships, the investments and the long-term vision in order to compete effectively for an expansion franchise,” Mark Friedman, founder and chairman of the Fulcrum Property Group, said at the event on Thursday.

It’s clear that Sacramento views itself as a real player in the MLB expansion sweepstakes, whenever that actually happens. With MLB facing a potential lockout and work stoppage following this season at the end of the current CBA, who knows when the expansion talks will actually formalize in MLB. However, it has seemed to be the writing on the wall that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred would like to have the new teams in place by his departure at the end of his term in 2029. So, for the sake of clarity, let’s remove the current uncertainty of MLB from the equation and just evaluate the financial backing, the proposed site and the momentum that Sacramento has appeared to generate.

The Funding, for Now

The Pitch says it has assembled $1.8 billion in public and private financing.

This will be in part from a contribution from the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians in addition to an undisclosed amount from the United Auburn Indian Community. An article from the Sacramento Bee’s Annika Merrilees confirms the commitment and adds that a spokesperson from the tribes says each party will contribute $250 million to the effort.

The Pitch also states that the main contribution from the city of West Sacramento will come in the form of an EIFD.

I asked Friedman in an interview how the deal would work, and he explained the situation to me.

“The formal mechanism is called an EIFD, which is an enhanced infrastructure financing district,” Friedman told me Thursday. “But basically think about it as a property tax rebate. The city will rebate to us the share of property taxes that are created by the new development as a way of facilitating it. The taxes are only generated by the property — it doesn’t affect anybody else in the community, and it only relies on revenue that the project itself generates.”

That sounds like private financing with a city rebate to come later as the project generates revenue. Unlike a lot of projects that rely on county-issued bonds, like the A’s deal in Las Vegas, this deal seems to have a different structure.

The Site

The site itself seems to be the strongest part of the Pitch and its structure to bid for an MLB franchise during expansion. The 50-acre site that is under and adjacent to the current Sutter Health Park is fully entitled and zoned for a stadium project, often the most difficult part of any new stadium deal.

“It’s easier [getting funding/building] than the entitlements,” Friedman told me. “But in this case, we have a site that’s ready to go. It’s fully zoned, it’s entitled, we already have a stadium here — and that is more than half the battle in California. It’s getting the approvals to do a use of a particular area.”

The site would be picturesque. It’s one of the more ideally located spots in all of the city, and the Sacramento skyline would serve as the backdrop, much as it currently does for Sutter Health Park. As for how the actual design and layout of the park would be, we aren’t at that point in the process, but Sutter Health Park would most likely be gone as a result of any such project.

“The stadium takes about 17 acres,” Friedman said to me in my interview with him. “We haven’t gotten to the official design stage, but it could either be on the existing site [Sutter Health Park], next to it, or a combination of the two. We’ve got to go through a full planning effort to figure out what the sightlines look like and where the parking ought to be located before we finally settle on a formal location.”

Sacramento Appetite

At the conclusion of the press conference on Thursday, the crowd in attendance led a Sac-ra-mento chant that lasted for about a minute. There’s a tangible buzz and excitement around the area about a potential expansion opportunity with MLB. Unlike the A’s temporary move here, the idea of ownership is a new thing and a fresh baseball start in the city has garnered a lot of public support, at least at this launch event.

“We’re a bigger market than seven current major league baseball teams,” Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, said during the press conference. “What’s going to put this over the finish line is the changing mindset inside our own community — shifting away from the naysayers to the doers. This is the doers’ town now.”

Former MLB player and Sacramento native Derek Lee was also excited about the launch of the bid for an expansion team.

“We’ve [him and Dusty Baker] been in all 30 big league cities, and this is a major league city, no doubt. This is a big deal. Let’s change the mindset. Let’s get it done.”

The city does seem to be a big league town. From solid attendance for the River Cats over the years, along with good attendance for the A’s in their temporary stop in the city, to regularly selling out Golden 1 Center for the Kings, the appetite for professional sports in Sacramento is real.

“Sacramento has always supported professional sports,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said. “For four decades, this community has stood by the Kings — sellout after sellout — building one of the NBA’s most loyal fan bases.”

West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero echoed the sentiments of others in her remarks to the crowd.

“For more than 25 years, baseball has been a part of West Sacramento’s identity,” Guerrero said. “The River Cats became one of the most successful and best-attended franchises in minor league baseball, helping demonstrate the long-term viability of professional baseball in the Sacramento market.”

In my opinion, the viability of MLB expansion is not only viable, it’s likely to be successful if it happens.

The No. 1 obstacle standing in the way of the city achieving its goal is not being able to find a financial ‘whale’ and majority owner with the cash to make it happen and the popularity to win over the other owners’ favor in the inevitable expansion vote. 

In the end, that search will define the success of this ambition for the region of Sacramento.

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