So you have decided to heed the call to adventure. Good for you.
If you need to recall what the Guide is or who I am, please refer to the included links.
Trouble in River City
The Guide has the following to say about going to a game at Sutter Health Park:
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This Guide was created to analyze major league ballparks and the logistics involved in getting there and back. It is this author’s opinion that the Athletics already have a valid Guide Entry: “Farewell to Baseball’s Last Dive Bar.”
I have been critical
of venues such as Guaranteed Rate Field/Rate Field, loanDepot Park, Tropicana Field, Truist Park, and Angel Stadium for various justifiable reasons, mostly because millions of dollars have been poorly spent on venues seemingly only designed to line ownership’s pockets, wholly at the expense of the unfortunate fans who visit.
One might expect this Guide entry to put the torch to Sutter Health Park with similar gusto.
However, we have a conundrum best explored through metaphor. To drive this point home, I am using myself as a guinea pig. Imagine that the Dodgers sent Billy Gasparino and David Finley to evaluate my worthiness as a relief pitcher at their own initiative. Rather than offer me a job in the front office or as an attorney, I get cold-called to suit up on the mound upon meeting me.
Alarm bells should be going off for everyone involved.
I am in my forties. I am not an athlete by any measure. I am not in any sort of positive physical shape. I nearly got knocked out by a slide in Milwaukee around Memorial Day. I have been throwing a knuckleball for almost forty years, but it should be instantly obvious to everyone involved that something has gone terribly awry and that everybody’s time, including my own, is being wasted.
Someone should be getting yelled at.
Do you yell at the hypothetical people who started this process? Absolutely; they could and should be doing just about anything else, including goofing off on the job, which would be an infinitely more productive use of their time. Do you yell at me, the potential reliever who has been asked to do his best with the option to live a dream, a dream that we all share? Honestly, maybe a little.
Remember, in this scenario, I did not offer my services. I was approached. Who wouldn’t try if given the opportunity? Join the 2026 Dodgers; that’s like being asked to become the thirteenth disciple and the sixth Beatle at the same time.
That said, one should expect to have enough self-awareness to at least ask why, lest it be some elaborate, mean-spirited prank. In this scenario, it’s not as if I played or managed college ball and then suddenly jumped to the majors with nothing in between. What kind of egotistical moron would do that?!?
With the above as prelude, Sutter Health Park is a fine home for the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. Yes, you can walk from one end of the ballpark to the other in a single concourse with little effort; it’s a minor league park.
This Guide would take a much more relaxed view of going to minor league facilities for their intended purpose (if I were to go to Ontario, Tulsa, or Oklahoma City someday), asking the important questions, such as:
- “Is there baseball here?”
- “Could one watch baseball here?”
- “…did the stadium catch on fire while watching baseball here?”
Admittedly, that last question is a reference to Brockmire, a vulgar, hilarious love-letter to baseball in the guise of a four-season comedy. Oddly enough, I reevaluated my opinion of Joe Buck as a direct result of this series. And yes, the minor league park did catch fire near the end of the first season. (I won’t spoil how or why.)
But if you insist that I evaluate an out-of-place venue, pressed into service not because of a natural disaster but greed, we will roughly follow the Guide’s format. Here is all you need to know about going to a Dodgers/Athletics game in West Sacramento.
Baseball’s Moped (1. Is it worth going?)
If the Dodgers weren’t there, it’s relatively cheap, have at it. If the Dodgers are there, no, unless you have personal reasons compelling you to go.
As the joke goes, mopeds are fun to ride, but you don’t want your buddies to watch you do it. Normally, I review a ballpark over an entire series. Much like the hypothetical scouts evaluating my fitness as a potential reliever, this exam need not be belabored. We’re not here to embarrass the undeserving.
If you want to experience Sutter Health Park (“SHP”), play the intro clip above. Congratulations, you have experienced 80% of what it’s like to see a game at SHP.
For the remaining 20%, for this upcoming Dodgers series, you will need to pay at least $150, stand in the hot sun (think 90°F/32°C) or a heat lamp, get a literal Ball Park hotdog, and have your car parked in a dirt lot after paying an additional $30-40. Oh, we’ve got trouble — about going to a game in River City!
It would be comforting to think that a sly trickster like Professor Harold Hill came to Sacramento, technically West Sacramento, to hoodwink the locals into letting the now-vagabond Oakland Athletics use the town’s minor league ballpark for a few years as an open tryout to demonstrate the town’s viability as a major league venue, while the team’s “permanent” home in Las Vegas is built.
John Fisher, heir to the Gap, Inc. fortune, is not Harold Hill.
Throughout most of this process, he has been unintentionally funnier than Benny Hill: a blight upon both Oakland and Las Vegas and someone who likely could not find his own hindquarters with the aid of a map, GPS, and both hands.
If you think I am being too hard on him, and you have not read the volumes of text I have written about the man, perhaps his recent interview with Evan Drellich of The Athletic will persuade you:
“I think people needed to hear from me,” said Fisher, whose A’s played in Oakland for 56 years, through the 2024 season. “Not hearing from me, I think, led to frustration from, frankly, the media. Like, who is this guy? Is he hiding? Who’s the real John Fisher?”…
“The news today is not contained within a certain zip code,” Fisher said. “In the sense that people in this community were seeing information coming out of the press in the Bay Area, I felt for sure it was important that they could hear from me … (so they) could understand, why did we make the decision to leave Oakland? But even more importantly, why were we coming to Vegas?”
Eventually, Fisher is also going to need a really strong collection of baseball players. Tourists arriving on the Strip for a handful of nights will have to decide whether to watch acrobats at a Cirque du Soleil show or catch a ballgame.
“Winning is important in every market. It is especially important in this market, in that there’s so many other things for people to do,” Fisher acknowledged. “It’s not enough to just say, ‘Look at our great stadium in this great location, beautiful view, and the food’s great.’ You have to have a product that’s on the field that is compelling, and compelling means winning.”
[Emphasis added.]
If Mr. Fisher is going to make the jokes this easy, I refuse to play. I will give Mr. Fisher credit in one regard: he did open his wallet once the Athletics came to Sacramento and bolstered the roster a bit… before trading Mason Miller. Granted, he did not have to pay rent, got the local team to upgrade their facilities, and faced the possibility of the MLB Players’ Association filing a union grievance if he did not spend on his roster.
Locals were excited upon hearing that the Athletics were coming to town, but after the initial fanfare died down, it became clear the team was going to pretend it had as little to do with the region as possible. Sacramentans got the hint and started staying away. While the percentage of the filled ballpark capacity is higher now, it’s a misleading statistic when one compares the vast differences in capacity between SHP and the now-abandoned Oakland Coliseum. A finger of a shot glass is less impressive than a splash of liquid in a 16 oz. glass.
Unsurprisingly, no tours are offered at SHP, but weirdly enough, one can get a First Game Certificate, which one can sign up for at Guest Services. Mine took four weeks to arrive digitally, which raises even further questions in a “is graphic design their passion?” manner.
In 2025, the Athletics did just about everything possible to keep Sacramento at arm’s length, only having Sacramento on a single patch one could buy at the impossibly cramped gift store. Now, at least the team has uniforms with Sacramento on them. The team refuses to be called anything but “The Athletics,” which is a dumb slap in the face to the citizens of Sacramento. If one is expecting a different posture than in Oakland, one might be best served to wait until the A’s arrive in Sin City.
Once again, Mr. Drellich of The Athletic:
To Fisher, the local fan is “definitely a different customer” than the one who drops into the city for two nights.
To gain the trust of the former, the A’s are trying a grassroots approach: community outreach, donations to youth baseball leagues, and so forth. If a Dodgers fan living in Vegas has a 10-year-old who becomes an A’s fan, eventually, Fisher believes, the parents will jump on the same bandwagon.
“Over time we’re going to convert the people here who support the Brewers, who support the Dodgers, who support whatever the team,” Fisher said.
The A’s want to show they’re not “just another team from California that moved to Vegas,” Fisher said, making a reference to the Raiders’ relocation, but that they’re going to be “Vegas’ team.” He acknowledged that process would take time, however.
[Emphasis added.]
The Brewers fan in Vegas is the hypothetical person I’d like to meet. As for Dodgers fans in Vegas, all I can say is good luck with the conversion. Considering the efforts demonstrated so far in Sacramento, I would not hold my breath as to any competent outreach in Las Vegas.
Friends don’t let friends go to SHP (2. How should I get there?)
Los Angeles-based travelers could drive for eight to ten hours or fly into nearby Sacramento International Airport in what will feel like eight to ten hours, especially if one is flying from Los Angeles International. As with most regional stops (think Fresno, Milwaukee, St. Louis, or Cincinnati), it’s more expensive to fly to regional airports than to fly directly to major hubs. Regardless, the airport is on the outskirts of town, and one would be best served by getting a rental car for one’s visit to Sacramento.
SHP is about an hour to 90 minutes from San Francisco, so one could conceivably drive to Sacramento or take the Capitol Corridor rail service, which connects buses from San Francisco to nearby Emeryville (home of Pixar!) and is connected to Oakland, and get to downtown Sacramento by rail. The problem is that you will end up on the wrong side of the river from the ballpark.
Another thing to keep in mind for the first-time traveler is that there are some major freeway interchanges very close to the ballpark, as the freeways generally either empty into or exit downtown, or start heading into the mountains via U.S. 50. There are 5,000 parking spots near the ballpark, and the rideshare pickup is down the street. Combine these facts, and you have standstill traffic immediately after games. I sat with my windows down and read until the madness passed.
While Sacramento has modest public transportation for a city its size, it is worth repeating that SHP is just across the river in West Sacramento. Unless one is staying nearby, which is difficult for this venue, one is typically driving or enduring traffic in a rideshare to get to the ballpark.
No, you cannot stay with me. (3. Where should I stay?)
The Sacramento River divides West Sacramento and Sacramento. As you can see, there are a plethora of hotel options in Sacramento, and traffic is funneled towards the iconic Tower Bridge, which would make getting to Sutter Health Park rather easy.
One could stay in Old Town Sacramento (think by the Delta King Hotel on the map below), which has the venerable California State Railroad Museum, if you like trains. One could walk to Sutter Health Park from Old Town Sacramento, but again, the infrastructure is centered around the car, so be mindful and be careful.
The West Sacramento side has fewer options, but they are cheaper. However, the same problem arises: pedestrian access is more hypothetical than practical for this ballpark; the car rules West Sacramento. The area near Sutter Health Park on the West Sacramento side is more industrial, giving way to suburbs. There’s more to do in Sacramento than on the West Sacramento side, but the prices are more forgiving on the stadium side of the river.
Typically, the team’s accommodations are governed by the Collective Bargaining Agreement and are usually at a luxury hotel like the Ritz-Carlton or Hotel Pfister in Milwaukee. Sacramento does not have a Ritz-Carlton, and I sincerely doubt the team is driving the 60 to 90 minutes one-way from San Francisco. My best guess is that visiting MLB teams have been using the hotel across the street from Golden1 Arena, where the Sacramento Kings play downtown, but I will be curious how the Dodgers navigate this hurdle.
Tickets are how much?!? (4. Where should I sit?)
Ah, the center of the shrubbery maze. You should watch these games from home. Otherwise, do you want to pay playoff ticket prices for a regular-season game in July? If yes, proceed. If not, you can skip to the end. There is absolutely no sugarcoating this one, so let us rip the bandage off in one motion.
$200 to $500 is an acceptable range of ticket prices for the NLCS or later, or a really good seat behind home plate anywhere in the league, but for a game in a minor league stadium? Utterly ridiculous and insulting.
I don’t blame the stadium or the regulars who call SHP their home away from home; I blame the avaricious ghouls perpetuating this fraud upon this region and the other cowards who own teams that enable this farce to continue.
Tickets for the Sacramento River Cats, the usual tenant of the ballpark, range from $11 to $44 the night before the Dodgers come to town. Those $11 tickets are for a seat on the lawn on the hill in right field.
But one might say that comparing the Triple-A River Cats to the Sacramento Athletics is unfair. Fair enough. The Miami Marlins start a series on July 3, immediately after the Dodgers’ series ends. Those tickets range from $28 to $250, with lawn seats on the hill being the cheapest option.
In our series, the $193 ticket is for a single seat on the first base side. Seats on the lawn were selling for around $150 from the team before the seating in this area of the event sold out.
For night games, if you have already committed to going, sit wherever you like. A recommendation from me cannot sink or salvage a doomed endeavor. But if you are going during the day, I do have one critical piece of advice.
I sat in section 108, Row 26, Seat 18 with a buddy from law school in seats that cost $40/ticket for my visit in 2025. It was Mason Miller bobblehead day. I needed pictures for this feature. The game started at 1 pm. Every row in front of me was in direct sunlight for virtually the entire game. The two rows behind me were also in the shade for the entire game. Unless you are sitting in the back, sunscreen and a hat are the orders of the day.
Now what? (Conclusion, as the question of a return trip in 2029 is likely moot.)
Here’s the kicker: I am quite fond of Sacramento. I spent three years going to law school at the now-University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. I graduated eighth in my class, which, honestly, I am a little sore at because one modestly shaky first semester kept me from cracking the top five.
I have friends who still live in Sacramento and who still regularly attend River Cats games. Is Sacramento a major league city? No, and that’s okay. It’s too small, too hot, and has inadequate facilities to host a major league team. The Athletics being in West Sacramento is a vanity project for a basketball owner who seemingly got bored with driving his NBA franchise into the ground.
As a minor league park, Sutter Health Park is fine. As a major league venue, it’s anything but.
I live about an hour from Sutter Health Park, and it would cost me $600 to $ 1,000 to attend these three games as a fan, unless I was willing to sit on the cramped hill overlooking right field. For that amount of money, I was able to go to the following venues, including airfare and hotel, during my travels so far:
- PNC Park, 2021
- American Family Field, 2021
- American Family Field, 2022
- Kaufmann Stadium, 2022
- Busch Stadium 3.0, 2021
- Guaranteed Rate Field, 2024
- Oakland Coliseum, 2017 to 2023
- Oracle Park, 2018 to 2024
Have I made my point yet? I don’t want to enable John Fisher’s folly. I would hope that this anti-Guide entry is the sole time I actively try to discourage you from enjoying Dodgers baseball in person. I could find nice things to say about the lesser major league venues on this list. If you need a final reminder of whose pockets you’ll line if you go to Sutter Health Park when the Dodgers visit, for a final time, Mr. Drellich:
Fisher maintains that the premise [that he could have stayed in Oakland and preserved his reputation], however, is off. He took the A’s out of Oakland and to Las Vegas, he said, for reasons that were not financial.
“Number one, I didn’t believe that money was going to solve the problem,” Fisher said. “Among other things, there was a high likelihood that we would have gone to a referendum, and referendums for sports teams don’t generally work out so well in California. And losing that referendum would have meant we were done. Like, not, ‘Oh, you can just start from this position, move forward’ — done completely.
“We had just run out of time, and we worked with Oakland for years and spent an enormous amount of money,” he continued.
“And the other thing was, honestly, that what we were doing, it was really important to me that this be a partnership. And that the partnership needed to be with the community and ourselves, and money can’t pay for a successful partnership.”
[Emphasis added.]
What does John Fisher know about spending his own money? He’s built a career spending other people’s money.
