According to a report from John Shea of the SF Chronicle, the Oakland Athletics are apparently considering the Triple-A park in Sacramento as a potential home for the team in the interim between when their lease at the Coliseum runs out after 2024 and when they're predicted to open the new park in Las Vegas in 2028.
Athletics' President Dave Kaval has reportedly said that the stadium in Sacramento does not technically fulfill their obligation to NBC Sports California that requires the A's to play in Northern California for a certain number of games in order to receive their share of local television broadcast money.
However, that does not mean that the A's couldn't strike a deal with the RSN that would potentially lower their payout between 2025-2027 but keep the A's on the local broadcast network. By all accounts, the A's desperately need the television money to operate. Fisher has claimed unrealistic operational losses, and losing the entirety of that money would make it extremely difficult to continue to finance his portion of the new stadium.
According to the report from Shea, the Athletics are also considering playing a portion of their games in Oracle Park in San Francisco. It's possible that the Giants would be amenable to some sort of partnership, but it would be an arduous three seasons for all parties.
We'll have to see how it plays out because I don't personally see that working, but you never know what lengths these guys will go to. The A's are clearly doing everything in their power to get out of the Bay Area, despite any potential negative ramifications that will come from it. And from a Giants perspective, I'm sure they can't wait to have the entire region to themselves, so they would have some incentive to help the A's get out.
As far as the minor league parks go, that's feels like another problem entirely. We know that the A's had considered the Aviators park in Nevada, though playing in a 10,000-seat outdoor stadium in the middle of the desert summer seems like a massive challenge.
The River Cats stadium in Sacramento also seats roughly 10,000 people, though it isn't smack dab in the middle of the desert. I can't imagine they'd have much luck drawing crowds to that stadium. Athletics fans aren't going to travel to Sacramento to watch live games, and the River Cats are the Giants Triple-A affiliate, so there's some potential fandom issues there as well.
Whatever happens, we can count on the Athletics taking as long as possible to announce any future decisions, so we're probably in the dark on this one for the foreseeable future.