The Sacramento Pitch: What Happened Today, and What It Means

May 28, 2026 | Sacramento Solons Revival Project

Today was the day.

After months of building momentum, two sold-out seasons of live MLB baseball at Sutter Health Park, and a civic conversation that has been growing louder since last spring, the Greater Sacramento region formally launched its campaign for a Major League Baseball expansion franchise. The campaign is called The Sacramento Pitch. And what was unveiled this morning in West Sacramento was not a wish list, a rendering, or a press conference built on optimism alone. It was a plan backed by money, land, infrastructure, and people who have skin in the game.

This is what Sacramento has been waiting for. Not just since the A's arrived in 2025. Since 1903.

What Was Announced

The Sacramento Pitch is a formally organized campaign with a steering committee, a chair, a stadium site, and committed capital. Mark Friedman, founder and chairman of Fulcrum Property Group, is leading the effort as chair. Mayor Kevin McCarty and Mayor Martha Guerrero of West Sacramento serve as honorary co-chairs. The steering committee includes Barry Broome of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, Regina Cuellar of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Derrek Lee, and Dusty Baker.

That last sentence deserves to sit for a moment. Dusty Baker, World Series champion player, manager and Sacramento native, stood at a podium in his hometown today and said this city is major league ready. Derrek Lee, 2006 NL batting champion, and fellow Sacramento native said he has been to 30 major league cities and Sacramento belongs among them. These are not ceremonial figures. These are people who know what a major league city looks like because they have played in all of them. They chose Sacramento to make that statement.

The financial picture is the most significant thing announced today. Nearly $2 billion in public-private investment is committed to the effort. The Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and the United Auburn Indian Community have committed major cornerstone investments toward the riverfront development, bringing not just capital but deep regional roots and long-term institutional commitment to the project. A major national construction firm with MLB ballpark experience is already committed to the project. These are not letters of intent. These are organizations and institutions putting real resources behind a real plan.

The stadium site is in the River District just south of Sutter Health Park; fully entitled and development-ready. The Bridge District and West Sacramento riverfront would become a regional destination anchored by the ballpark, with housing, restaurants, entertainment, and economic activity generating $1.77 billion in projected returns for the city, Yolo County, and local schools with zero impact to the city general fund. The revenue generated by the district funds the investment. That is the public-private partnership model that MLB has said it wants to see from expansion candidates.

The Greater Sacramento Economic Council confirmed what the attendance data has been suggesting: Sacramento will be a larger market than seven existing MLB cities. Seven teams already playing in smaller markets than ours. The question was never whether Sacramento is ready. It was whether Sacramento could prove it. Today was the proof.

Mark Friedman said it plainly: "When MLB moves forward on expansion, Sacramento will be impossible to ignore. We have the market, the site, the capital."

Mayor McCarty said it even more plainly: "We are while other cities promise what they can be."

Why This Matters Beyond the Numbers

Every other Western expansion candidate presented something today that Sacramento did not need to present — a future. Salt Lake City has $900 million in committed public funding and a shovel-ready site, but no games have been played there. Portland has bipartisan state financing and a waterfront location, but the ownership gap remains. Vancouver has enthusiasm and a city council motion. These are serious bids from serious cities and they deserve honest acknowledgment.

But Sacramento presented something different today. Sacramento presented a present tense.

The Athletics have played two seasons at Sutter Health Park. Opening Day 2025 sold out. Opening Day 2026 broke the park's all-time attendance record with 12,410 fans. Season ticket waitlists existed heading into year two. The A's introduced Sacramento-branded jerseys and Sacramento Saturdays programming because the market demanded it. MLB itself confirmed that if the A's make the playoffs, games will be held at Sutter Health Park. These are not projections. They are facts already on the record.

When Mayor McCarty says "we are while other cities promise what they can be," he is not being dismissive of the competition. He is stating the structural reality of Sacramento's position in this race. No other expansion candidate is currently hosting Major League Baseball. No other candidate has live attendance data, live market behavior, and a live stress test running in real time. The Sacramento Pitch was built on top of evidence that no other city in the expansion conversation can replicate.

That is why today matters beyond the numbers. The numbers are significant. The commitment is real. But the deeper argument — the one that was made in this space back in April, the one that has been made in comment sections and policy memos and civic essays throughout this spring, is that Sacramento is not asking MLB to take a chance on an untested market. It is asking MLB to look at the evidence it has already generated and make the obvious decision.

What Comes Next

Today is the beginning of the official process, not the end of it. MLB has not begun its formal expansion review. Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated his intention to finalize expansion before he retires in 2029, which means the decision timeline is somewhere between now and three years from now. The CBA expires after the 2026 season and a contentious labor negotiation could compress or expand that window.

What Sacramento needs to do between now and that decision is sustain everything that made today possible. Keep showing up at Sutter Health Park. The A's play through 2027 and every sellout, every record crowd, every Sacramento Saturday is another data point in the argument. The stress test is still running.

The Sacramento Pitch organization needs to formalize the ownership group. The tribal investment and the building trades commitment are significant anchors, but MLB will want a named lead general partner with the financial gravitas to anchor the franchise long-term. That is the single remaining gap in the bid and it is the one most worth watching in the coming months.

The civic conversation needs to stay loud. What happened in Sacramento today was covered by Sports Business Journal, Forbes, New York Times, KCRA, CBS Sacramento, and regional outlets across Northern California. The national baseball media is paying attention. The next step is making sure that attention translates into sustained narrative pressure on MLB's expansion decision-makers — that when the league evaluates the Western candidates, Sacramento's story is the one that has been told most clearly, most specifically, and most consistently.

That is what this project has been trying to do since April. And today, for the first time, the official machinery of the campaign is moving in the same direction.

A Personal Note

The Sacramento Solons Revival Project launched on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026. The first post went up on Instagram to an account with zero followers. The first policy memo went to both mayors' offices the same day. Mayor Guerrero responded within three hours. Mayor McCarty's office responded not long after.

The work was done in advance because the moment demanded it. Not because anyone asked for it, not because there was a job title or an organization behind it, but because Sacramento deserved someone to make the case specifically and loudly before the window closed.

Today the window opened wider than it has in 64 years.

The Sacramento Solons played their first game in the Pacific Coast League in 1903. They were displaced not by failure but by the arrival of the same league that Sacramento is now formally pursuing. The name belongs to this city. The history belongs to this city. The market data belongs to this city.

The Sacramento Pitch has launched. The case has never been stronger. The work continues.

The Solons are coming home. 🏛️⚾

The Sacramento Solons Revival Project is an independent civic advocacy effort founded and led by JD Gregg, a Sacramento native and CSU Sacramento Political Science graduate. Follow the project at @solonsrevival on Instagram and Threads, and read the full expansion case at sacramentosolonsrevival.com.