Earlier this spring, the Athletics announced that they would relocate from Oakland to Sacramento at season's end, taking up a multi-year residency at Sutter Health Park before eventually moving into their planned new ballpark in Las Vegas, Nevada. One of the prevailing questions at the time of the A's announcement was how much effort they would put into improving Sutter Health Park between then and Opening Day 2025. After all, while Sutter Health Park is the home of the Triple-A River Cats, there's a world of difference between the minor-league and big-league standard.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred addressed that matter on Thursday afternoon, speaking to reporters following the league's annual spring owners meetings.
"They are actually constructing a separate building adjacent to the stadium that will be the home clubhouse," Manfred told The Athletic's Evan Drellich, among others. "They're renovating the visiting clubhouse. There's going to be new artificial turf installed. They are upgrading the camera capability, so they get major-league quality broadcasts out of Sacramento. There's some revenue-associated renovations: some club seating and video boards that are being done in the stadium."
Manfred claimed that the Athletics have received seat deposits from around 13,000 people so far; the stadium is currently selling "priority access" to tickets to fans who put down a $100 per seat deposit on a season ticket membership. Sutter Health Park's capacity is about 14,000, including the outfield berms.
The commissioner also addressed the idea that owner John Fisher would need to sell any shares in order to finance the Las Vegas ballpark project. "In terms of selling pieces of the club, I don't think that John has a necessity of effectuating any of that in order to meet this timeline," Manfred said. For context, the Athletics reportedly hired an investment firm in late April to help secure an additional $500 million in funding. In exchange, investors would be rewarded with a minority ownership share of the Athletics.
