It’s not as easy as you might think.
A couple of weeks ago, MLB and the Oakland Athletics announced that the A’s would be temporarily relocated 85 miles up the road from Oakland, in Sacramento, for at least three years (with an option for two more), until their permanent move to Las Vegas is all ready to go… if it ever is.
The latter is a story for another time. Today, I’m going to demonstrate that having the A’s and the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats (an affiliate of the Giants) share Sutter Health Stadium for three years could be quite the logistical problem.
I went through the 2024 schedules for both teams. The A’s and River Cats are home on the same day 35 times this year. Now, of course, the 2024 schedules were not made with any of this in mind, and I’d think they’d take greater care to avoid conflicts in 2025… if they can. MLB, though, isn’t necessarily going to be able to simply make out the A’s schedule just so they can be home when the River Cats are out of town, because the A’s schedule also affects other MLB teams.
But let’s say they can cut that number in half, to around 18. That’s still a LOT of conflict dates. That means that on any of those dates when both teams are in town, one has to play a day game, the other a night game — and they have to leave enough time in between games to get the ballpark cleared of fans and cleaned up and re-set for another game. It’s the same thing the Cubs have to do any time there’s a split doubleheader, as there will be at Wrigley Field tomorrow. It takes about 90 minutes for Wrigley Field to be cleared of fans and cleaned up and get staff for the second game (who are not always the same people as for the first game!) In place so they can re-open. That’s why the club announced gates would open for the night game tomorrow “60 minutes before the game begins, subject to change and based on the completion of game one.” (emphasis added)
The logistics for this are somewhat complicated, though the Cubs generally do a very good job of it for split doubleheaders. Now imagine having to do that 18 (or more!) times a year.
There is one case of two MLB teams sharing a stadium in relatively recent times. In 1974 and 1975, the Mets and Yankees shared Shea Stadium while the original Yankee Stadium was being renovated. The teams did this without a single conflict date over the two years, though I should point out that scheduling was quite a bit easier in those days with no interleague play. Even with that, the Yankees and Mets at times had to make road trips as long as 14 games in those two seasons.
Even with that, there were logistical issues, as noted by then-Yankees PR man Marty Appel:
The two franchises could not share office space; the Yankees needed their own. I was the Yankees’ publicity director at the time, and driving to a dentist appointment one weekend just after the ’73 season, I noticed a flat-roofed, one-story building along the northern side of the Grand Central Parkway. I made note of it and explored it further the following week. It was a New York City Parks Department office building – the Parks Administration Building – and during the New York World’s Fair of 1964-65, it had served as fair headquarters. Robert Moses occupied the large office on the western flank, with a private entrance. I wrote a memo to our general manager Lee MacPhail, and within weeks, New York City (which was taking over ownership of the new Yankee Stadium), made arrangements for that to be our office space for two and a half years. It was not quite walking distance to Shea – about ¾ of a mile – but it was convenient and spacious enough. (In those days, the front office staff numbered about 30 people).
There were other logistical matters to negotiate. Whose ground crew would prepare the field? Whose electricians would run the scoreboard? Whose ushers and ticket takers? What clubhouse would the Yankees occupy?
The River Cats alone have far more than 30 front office staff.
And the clubhouse issue isn’t as simple for the A’s and River Cats. For the A’s, MLB has to build clubhouse and workout facilities that are at least close to what MLB players get in other ballparks, particularly for the home team. In this case the A’s are going to be there all summer. And it gets HOT in Sacramento during the summer. The average high temperature there for most of July is in the low to mid 90s. I’d think the MLB Players Association would have something to say about MLB players playing day games in the peak of summer. So that means the Triple-A guys would get stuck with the afternoon games in the hottest months when there are conflicts.
And remember, all of this has to be pretty much settled by the time the MLB schedule for 2025 comes out, which is likely going to be around the All-Star break (it was last year, and I don’t see any reason they’d change that for ‘25).
You can see in the aerial view of Sutter Health Park that there is some vacant space surrounding the ballpark. Some of that is apparently going to be taken up by about 4,000 temporary seats that will increase the capacity to around 14,000. But some of the rest of it will be taken up by all the things that a MLB park needs. Even at the Field of Dreams in Iowa, a temporary ballpark used for only two games, one in 2021 and one in 2022, there were tons of extra things brought in for MLB — clubhouses, media accommodations and other things that a minor league park might not have but a MLB park would need.
One thing is for sure: If they pull this off, the A’s will likely play a lot of games on Mondays, since the minor leagues generally have Mondays off.
I’ve been skeptical of the entire “we’re moving” thing since John Fisher and Dave Kaval announced it. They seem to be doing this in a “seat of the pants” type of way and I’m still not convinced they will ever land in Las Vegas.
Next spring and summer in Sacramento? I’ll believe it when I see it.