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ON THE LAST Monday successful August, successful a insignificant league ballpark temporarily posing arsenic a large league stadium, Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal walked disconnected the mound aft striking retired the broadside successful the 2nd inning against the Athletics. He looked up implicit the first-base dugout astatine Sutter Health Park successful West Sacramento, California, to spot an service of Tigers caps and jerseys bearing his sanction and number. The radical wearing them, including 25 members of his family, stood and clapped and yawped "Skoob" until Skubal disappeared into the visiting dugout. That 1 syllable was stretched retired with specified measurement and magnitude that, fixed the setting, felt mildly sadistic.
It was the cleanable night: 85 degrees, nary wind. The champion pitcher successful shot was pitching for 1 of the champion teams successful shot and an announced assemblage of 8,105 -- a shadiness implicit 60% of Sutter Health's capableness -- recovered its mode to the ballpark. Seats 18 rows down location sheet were being sold for $35 each connected the secondary market, adjacent arsenic tickets successful the aforesaid conception remained astatine $117.20 connected the Athletics' authoritative site.
As the Skoobs subsided, a antheral sitting astir 20 rows down location sheet turned to the idiosyncratic adjacent to him and said, professorially, "Technically, this is an A's location game."
IN APRIL 2024, erstwhile the A's announced their three-year stutter-step successful West Sacramento connected their mode to the permanence of Las Vegas, Sacramento Kings proprietor Vivek Ranadive -- besides the proprietor of the Triple-A River Cats and Sutter Health Park -- claimed the A's were present the arrogant possessor of "the astir sought-after summons successful America."
It wasn't intolerable to judge him. He was helping his friend, A's proprietor John Fisher, retired of a bind, and helium was doing it by offering him a rent-free ballpark successful Northern California, which allowed Fisher to enactment somewhat section and support astir of his $67 cardinal successful yearly section tv revenue. But beyond convenience, Fisher's brushed landing successful a insignificant league ballpark aft the team's 57-season enactment successful Oakland made a measurement of twisted sense; helium was bringing his squad to a sports-hungry large metropolitan country that seemed anxious to amusement Major League Baseball it should beryllium considered for an enlargement team, or, should Vegas autumn through, the A's themselves.
But arsenic the team's archetypal play successful Sacramento nears its end, it's wide that galore of the problems that plagued the franchise successful Oakland person made the travel 90 miles east. Attendance is little than it was past season, and the lowest successful the large leagues contempt Tampa Bay having little capableness astatine George Steinbrenner Field. Game-day employees, who enactment for Sutter Health Park but are nether the A's oversight, accidental the team's Big Brother attack to absorption has taken a toll connected morale. And galore season-ticket holders, who lined up to acquisition the astir costly tickets successful shot (according to Gametime, a summons work tract that tracks prices and sells tickets), were near confused and furious aft a bid of summons specials and discounts rendered tickets to games they couldn't be astir worthless.
This relationship is based connected much than a twelve interviews with season-ticket holders, Athletics employees and concern representatives from the West Sacramento area. Some employees, fearing retribution, were granted anonymity to talk freely astir their experiences. The squad contends that the play has been a success, that the speedy modulation from Oakland to Sacramento presented hurdles that volition instrumentality clip to clear. And portion it's undoubtedly a monolithic undertaking to play large league shot successful a insignificant league stadium, particularly 1 that is inactive occupied by a insignificant league team, it was an undertaking the A's chose willingly. Other large league teams person played successful insignificant league ballparks, arsenic the Rays are doing this season, but each lawsuit has arisen from an occurrence -- specified arsenic COVID, oregon Hurricane Milton peeling the extortion disconnected Tropicana Field -- that was retired of the team's control. The A's could person continued to play successful the Oakland Coliseum, arsenic awkward and uncomfortable arsenic that mightiness person been, but the squad deemed a lease connection from the metropolis to beryllium unreasonably costly and truthful a nonstarter.
"In Sacramento, the ballpark acquisition has been what we had hoped," squad vice president Sandy Dean says. "It's intima...
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