WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Van Thompson walked through the busy concourse shortly before first pitch and sang along to the national anthem, a white Athletics ball cap in hand covering his heart.
Susan Falcon took her dog out on the other side of town near a bustling coffee shop and raved about the positive vibe the A’s have brought to California’s sports-crazed capital city in such a short time.
On the fly, former minor league pitcher Jarod Pavese packed up two of his three daughters and the boyfriend of one and headed north from Southern California’s Riverside County for a last-minute spring break trip to cheer their Chicago Cubs in the series finale.
“It was very spontaneous. We try to be as spontaneous as we can but not really,” 17-year-old high school senior Gianna Pavese said, sitting with her boyfriend Gavinn Schulze, dad and 12-year-old sister Kat in row 10 of section 104 on a sunny spring day. “It’s really exciting. It was just spur of the moment.”
Despite some kinks still to be worked out, the A’s relocation is providing fans who might not regularly go to games a big new opportunity to see the big leagues live.
After its 57-year Oakland run ended last September in a painful split for fans — many of them lifelong A’s supporters — the club has insisted this stay in West Sacramento will be temporary until a new stadium in Las Vegas is supposed to be ready in 2028. The A’s even declined to adopt the Sacramento in its official name while here for the next three years — they are simply the Athletics, with no city attached.
That hasn’t squashed curiosity or enthusiasm so far.
Bryan Haywood of Bozeman, Montana, attended his first-ever major league game at age 46. He and friend and fellow Montanan Chris Anderson of Livingston made the trip to Sacramento.
“It was amazing,” Haywood said.
Thompson lives in Sacramento and is a big fan of the NBA’s Kings. He wanted to show his support for the new team in town.
“I came with an A’s fan,” he said. “I’m a Kings fan, I just came to support the cause.”
Falcon has spoken to plenty of people who plan to cheer the A’s, or already have for years and finally get to do so from right nearby.
“Sacramento loves the A’s, they’re elated, they’re so excited, they’re going to wear the colors, they’re going to show up, they’re going to do everything,” she said. “They will be there.”
Business partners Dan Niccum and Ken McGuire are crossing their fingers the A’s never leave their new Northern California home. They plan to hold onto their four second-row seats however long the club stays. Niccum doesn’t expect the A’s to relocate to Las Vegas anytime soon — because “it’s a pipe dream what they’re doing in Vegas right now” — even though the A’s say that will be for the 2028 season.
“They’re here for at least four or five years, and so we’re here for the duration,” Niccum said. “We are excited to be here.”
How visiting teams feel about playing in a minor league park and how it tests the patience of A’s players over time remains to be seen. There were 12 home runs hit, eight by Chicago.
Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, for one, hardly wants to be one to speak out negatively about the A’s new Northern California home. Swanson prefers to be supportive of the situation, to see the glass half-full and just be grateful to play at this level. Even if there are many kinks to be worked out after the initial homestand at Sutter Health Park, where the visiting team’s clubhouse is through an opening in the center-field wall.
Swanson’s dear friend since their college days at Vanderbilt is A’s pitcher Tyler Ferguson, so the Cubs infielder has heard plenty about the progress at Sutter Health Park.
Attendance for the initial three-game set at Sutter Health Park in West ...
