Sacramento reportedly at the top of the Athletics' list for temporary home

According to a report from Evan Drellich of The Athletic, Sacramento's Sutter Health Park is the leading candidate to host the Oakland Athletics during the 2025-2027 seasons.

This news comes on the heels of Thursday's report that the Athletics met with the city of Oakland and Alameda county about potentially renewing the lease agreement at the Coliseum site for the next three years.

It's extremely important to note where this information is coming from, and why Drellich is reporting it. According to Drellich's column, the source is referred to as an A's spokesperson, and a person briefed on the A's search process.

I think two things can be true in this instance. The first is that the A's have a lot more to lose in the negotiations with the city and county than the other way around. The Mayor's office has already come out and said that they won't miss the A's when they're gone and are essentially ready to move on to trying to get an expansion franchise into the city.

Because of that, this information is almost certainly being put into the airwaves as a means for the team to try to regain some leverage in their negotiations with Oakland and Alameda County. The A's have blown past multiple deadlines during this relocation process already and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has started to speak up about the timeline.

The Athletics need to get their stadium situation figured out as soon as possible, with the qoute from Manfred being "within the next couple months".

On the flip side, Sacramento does seem to be the most logical place for the A's to play for the 2025-2027 seasons. As it stands, the A's won't have access to their contracted $70m per year in local television revenue if they play anywhere outside the Bay Area.

Sacramento does not fall within the television territory but it's been reported that the A's would likely be able to renegotiate the agreement with NBC Sports California for a reduced payout should they end up playing at Sutter Health Park.

The downside there is that the team would be getting a reduced payout for the TV rights deal but unlike negotiating with the city of Oakland, they wouldn't be giving up anything else in return. By returning to Oakland the A's would at the very minimum be subject to a significant rent hike, though it has been suggested that the city and Alameda County would be asking for several other concessions from the team.

As much as I think the A's should stay in Oakland and try to work out a long-term solution in the city, if they're genuinely going to leave the smartest move is to head to Sacramento, deal with the revenue hit, and allow Oakland to move on.

That said, John Fisher and Dave Kaval aren't exactly adept negotiators or shrewd businessmen so the potential for chaos is still quite high.