For the next three years — 2025 through 2027, all inclusive — the Oakland A's will be playing their home games at Sacramento's Sutter Health Park, which has a capacity of 14,014. Then, in 2028, it is expected that the A's will move to Las Vegas, where they will play in a domed stadium to shield them from the triple-digit heat.
But what if sellout crowds are the rule rather than the exception before they move to Las Vegas? Could this lead to the construction of a retractable-roof stadium in California's capital city? (In July, its hottest month, the average high temperature in Sacramento is 93 degrees, but the average low temperature is 59 degrees, meaning that in the summer months, most home games can be played at night).
Moreover, eight cities which currently have smaller populations than Sacramento have MLB franchises (Cleveland, Kansas City, Tampa, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Miami). Not only that, but the NBA's Kings have called Sacramento home since 1985 — proving beyond the merest statistical shadow of a doubt that California's capital city can support a professional sports franchise.
Since Las Vegas has been guaranteed a team, Sacramento can get a team too — and there already is an online franchise called the Charlotte Bats, suggesting a chance of expanding the number of Major League Baseball teams to 32, with four four-team divisions in both leagues, with the four division winners plus two wild card teams in each league making the playoffs
In both leagues, each team can play their three division rivals 13 times each, two teams from the three divisions within their own league seven times and the other 10 such teams six times, and all but one of the teams in the other league three times, with the Mets and Yankees, Dodgers and Angels, Cubs and White Sox, etc. having four such meetings. This is pretty much the same schedule format that prevails now.
As for the playoffs, the two division winners with the best records can have first-round byes — and the other two division winners can play the two wild card teams, with the third-best division winner playing the worse of the two wild card teams and the worst division winner playing the best wild card team.
After the results of the wild card series are known, the field can be re-seeded, with the top seed guaranteed to face the lowest-seeded first-round winner, with the second seed (who also had a first-round bye) facing the highest-seeded first-round winner.
In the event that Sacramento and Charlotte do get new teams, the two leagues can be realigned as follows:
AL East — Baltimore, Boston, N.Y. Yankees, Toronto.
AL North — Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota.
AL South — Colorado, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Texas.
AL West — Las Vegas, L.A. Angels, Sacramento, Seattle.
NL East — N.Y. Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington.
NL North — Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St. Louis.
NL South — Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Miami.
NL West — Arizona, L.A. Dodgers, San Diego, San Francisco.
Obviously, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wants more teams — as does NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who also wants more games, as well, and that's why Manfred did not stop the A's from moving.
As the Andrea True Connection (whose genre can be easily guessed) sang in 1976, "More, more, more/How do you like it, how do you like it?"
The smart money says that most fans will like it.
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