West Sacramento Makes A Billion Dollar Tax-Payer Gamble To Keep Major League Baseball Around

After hosting Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Athletics for a third of their season with plans to do so until 2028, Sacramento announced its wager of one billion dollars of taxpayer money to bring an MLB team to the city for good.

In what is being called “The Sacramento Pitch,” the city plans to raise $ 1.8 billion to fund a stadium and team. $800 million of the proposition would come from land and tribal investments, while the remaining billion would come from tax-increment financing from the stadium, parking, and hotels currently or soon to be in the area. 

West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero seemed unbothered by the large-scale gamble when discussing the plan.

“Over 40 years, the ballpark district will lead to $1.77 billion in new revenue for the entire city, Yolo County, and our schools,” Mayor Guerrero stated in the announcement of the bid. “One billion of that will be dispersed to the City of West Sacramento and reinvested into the ballpark district. This one billion investment would be generated solely by activity in the ballpark district.”

The area around the proposed stadium will use taxpayer dollars to fund the tax-increment financing that is discussed in “The Sacramento Pitch.” While Mayor Guerrero mentions that they will not tap into the general fund and no taxpayer vote will be necessary, concerns are still being raised about whether public resources are being committed indirectly. Future increases in property taxes may be used for stadium upgrades down the line if the ballpark is built in West Sacramento.

This tension between economic development promises and the public’s part in the project is what led officials to propose the stadium initiative in the first place, as they attempt to structure financing in a way that appears fiscally neutral while still making the project viable.

West Sacramento’s proposition was born after the current MLB commissioner expressed his desire to expand the league to 32 teams before he retires in January of 2029. Sacramento is among Salt Lake City, Nashville, and Portland as potential cities looking to add a team. 

Currently, the capital region is home to the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats, as well as the former Oakland Athletics, who are waiting to relocate to Las Vegas in 2028. The support for baseball for a major league team that isn’t even theirs sparked the plan.

“The momentum around the team is growing, attendance is increasing, and community enthusiasm is building because people are starting to think that if we do a lot for the Athletics, we’re also demonstrating to Major League Baseball that Sacramento is ready,” president and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council Barry Broome told Fox News.

Regardless of how ready Sacramento believes they are for a baseball team, gambling close to $1 billion in tax-increment financing is not always the safest way to spend a city’s money.