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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's major league dreams will have to wait a little bit longer.
The Oakland Athletics announced Thursday morning that they will play at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento between 2025 and 2027 before moving to Las Vegas. The site is also home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats in the Pacific Coast League, a team primarily owned by the same owners as the Sacramento Kings in the NBA.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the A's had considered other options, including the Salt Lake Bees' new ballpark being constructed in South Jordan's Daybreak community and an extension at the Oakland Coliseum.
"We extend our appreciation to the Kings and the city of West Sacramento," A's owner John Fisher said in a statement. "(We) look forward to making Sutter Health Park our home until our new ballpark opens in Las Vegas."
The team's deal at the Oakland Coliseum expires at the end of this season and they plan to build a new stadium at the site of the Tropicana hotel-casino on the Vegas Strip, which closed earlier this week before it's demolished later this year. The new stadium is expected to open in time for the 2028 season.
This three-season gap left the A's with some logistical challenges. Team executives toured the Daybreak stadium construction site in January as they looked for interim sites. Multiple media outlets reported that Oakland had offered a $97 million lease for the team to remain in the Bay Area for three to five additional years, depending on when the new Las Vegas stadium is complete.
Yet Sacramento emerged as a leading candidate by late Feburary, largely because of the city's proximity to the team's existing television market. In a statement Thursday, the Larry H. Miller Company, owner of the forthcoming Daybreak stadium, acknowledged that "economic reasons tied to an existing television contract" gave Northern California an edge in the discussions.
Sactown Sports radio host Carmichael Dave first reported a deal had been reached Wednesday night. The Sacramento deal includes an option for the A's to remain in California for an extra year if the Vegas stadium isn't ready by 2028, according to ESPN.
Fisher said the team will "honor and celebrate" Oakland in different ways this season. The A's, which debuted in Philadelphia 123 years ago, moved to Oakland in 1968 after a stint in Kansas City, Missouri from 1955 to 1967.
Meanwhile, the A's decision sets off a chain reaction in Utah, as the Salt Lake Bees will move to the Daybreak stadium in 2025 and Salt Lake City will continue finding a new use for the 30-year-old Smith's Ballpark. Had the A's picked Utah, the Bees would have remained in Utah's capital for three more seasons.
The Miller Company, which also owns the Bees, announced last year that it would move the team out of Smith's Ballpark to a new stadium it would build on land it owns in Daybreak. Construction began in the fall.
Bees coaches and players believe the relocation will be bittersweet, even if the team will remain in the Salt Lake Valley.
"This ballpark holds a lot of fond memories for me as a player and as a coach," said Bees manager Keith Johnson, during the team's media day last week.
Salt Lake City launched Ballpark Next hours after the new stadium was announced. The project is still in progress, but Salt Lake City planning director Nick Norris said Tuesday that he believes the Ballpark Next process "will ramp up pretty soon."
City planners appear to have narrowed down the options for what will be next for the area. Per a set of draft principals released earlier this year, it may remain a stadium or the space could be turned into an amphitheater, health and fitness facility, community recreation center or plaza — unless the Salt Lake City Council finds another use for the city property.
The City Council scheduled a May 7 public hearing on a plan to rezone a few blocks surrounding the property, transforming the area to be more residential through possible new mixed-use developments. Council members could vote on the measure later in May.
Of course, pro baseball could return to Salt Lake City through Major League Baseball expansion. The Miller Company organized a coalition of Utahns called Big League Utah last April; the company pledged $3.5 billion earlier this year toward future development in and around the Fairpark neighborhood, which may or may not include an MLB stadium.
It's unclear if or when MLB will expand, though several other cities have entered the race for a team.
Utah lawmakers passed a bill this year also setting up the framework for a future stadium, should Utah land a team by mid-2032. It offers $900 million in state funds toward the facility.
"Our proven and ready ownership group and broad-based coalition is fully committed to bringing an MLB expansion team to the Power District on Salt Lake City's west side," Miller Company officials said Thursday. "We are grateful and encouraged that Utah was viewed as a potential host and solution for the Athletics, and we will continue to demonstrate that we are the ideal MLB expansion market."
