With Major League Baseball typically sharing a tentative schedule for the next season with teams early every year, the Oakland A's were supposed to have figured out by the end of December where they'll play in and beyond before moving to Las Vegas in That didn't happen. A mid-January deadline passed. Soon enough an end-of-January target will, too. Even after the A's secured the deal to leave Oakland permanently, the franchise's near-term future remains in limbo. It's not just the MLB-low payroll or the lack of significant improvement of a roster from a team that went last year.
It's something as fundamental as not having a home following the expiration of their lease with the Oakland Coliseum after this season. Here is what you need to know about where the A's stadium plans currently stand, according to multiple people involved with the process to find the team a home. It's pretty simple: local TV money. But if the A's aren't in Oakland, the regional sports network is no longer bound to pay the rights fee.
The delicate balance between maximizing TV money and securing a temporary home is complicated by the strict nature of the Comcast deal. Even a move to play in a Triple-A park in Sacramento, about 85 miles northeast of Oakland, would not be covered under the A's current contract. Clearly TV money was a secondary consideration for the permanent move. But a temporary one, even if the A's negotiate a new deal with Comcast or another regional sports network, could be for a fraction of what they're set to receive now.
That very conundrum -- and the leverage Comcast holds -- is gumming up a resolution. The two cities at the top of the list, according to sources: Sacramento, the home of the San Francisco Giants' Triple-A affiliate, and Salt Lake City, which would love to use the A's as proof of concept that it warrants an expansion franchise in the future.
Both cities have NBA franchises that regularly sell out all of their home games. Sacramento offers an easier short-term solution -- mayor Darrell Steinberg told the San Francisco Chronicle he is "over the moon about the possibility" -- while Salt Lake City is, for MLB, the longer-term play. Sacramento's Sutter Health Park seats more than 10, -- and, with standing-room-only tickets and lawn seats, can go up to 14, The ownership group in Salt Lake, which previously controlled the Utah Jazz, is building a new Triple-A stadium for in South Jordan, Utah, that could seat up to 11, Should they move to Salt Lake City, sources said, the team could land a new deal, though because that television territory currently belongs to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, it would add an extra layer of negotiation.
