Who will be left on the sidelines as A’s baseball marks new chapter in Sacramento sports?

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For baseball-mad Sacramento, gone will be the I-80 pilgrimage to Oakland as big league baseball will soon be just a short drive away to West Sacramento.

The A’s — the name “Oakland” conspicuously missing and “Las Vegas” yet to be airbrushed in its place — will play three seasons starting in 2025, with an option for a fourth campaign, across the Tower Bridge at West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park before setting sights for Sin City in 2028.

But when the Athletics take the field next season in their temporary home, who will get to see baseball’s biggest stars in action, and who will be left out?

“It’s a big concern,” said Timothy Poole, founder of the Sacramento youth mentorship nonprofit Hooked On Fishing Not Violence.

Poole worried aloud whether Black and brown kids, like the ones he’s reaching in Sacramento’s underserved neighborhoods and their families, will be left on the sidelines once games come to town.

“We had that problem with the Kings for a minute until they started donating tickets to the nonprofits,” Poole said.

Game tickets soon flowed to the community-based organizations, Poole said, but families who weren’t members of those groups were invariably shut out.

“Our major concern was for those who want to see the sport,” he said. “Say I have a son who plays for (south Sacramento’s) Airport Little League. My gift to him is to see a major league ball game, but I can’t afford to take my son. That’s his dream. How do we make it affordable for our people?”

Poole’s question takes on greater significance in a sport where the percentage of Black American major league players has reached historic lows.

Standouts like Dodgers’ all-star Mookie Betts, New York Yankees’ slugger and Linden native Aaron Judge and Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton shine. But Black players made up just 6.2% of rosters on Opening Day in 2023. That was down from 7.2% in 2022 and was the lowest percentage since 1955, eight years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color bar in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jerry Manuel, the former major league infielder and manager, now coaches and mentors a new generation of Black ballplayers through his Jerry Manuel Foundation youth baseball charter school.

“It’s a great opportunity to show major league baseball that Sacramento can be a player. We’re auditioning for a spot regardless of ticket prices,” he said. “I would hope that this is something that everyone in the city can attend and I’ll do everything I can to get Black and brown kids to the ballpark. Baseball is part of our DNA here.”

What will it cost to see the A’s?

A day at a major league ballpark is no cheap date.

Tickets in 2023 ranged from $209 on average to see the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tickets were $144 on average to see the San Francisco Giants. The least expensive were the Miami Marlins, whose tickets were $69 on average, according to the market research site Statista. The A’s were in the middle of the pack last season, but still tickets to see the Athletics were $100 on average in 2023.

How much A’s tickets will cost next season is still uncertain. Team officials on Thursday said information will be available after the 2025 schedule is released later this summer.

Add parking, concessions and souvenirs for a family of four and prices can climb into the hundreds of dollars.

Athletics’ owner John Fisher’s promise Thursday of bringing the big leagues to “this very intimate, the most intimate ballpark in major league baseball,” is a double-edged sword. Better views of the action, but fewer seats and chances to see the green-and-gold on the diamond.

Poole hopes the new team in town will work to make their new home accessible to Sacramento’s fans, wherever they live.

“There should be some kind of outreach to kids in South Sacramento, West Sacramento, wherever in Sacramento. There’s a lot of poor, great talent that need the nudge, if we can get the major leagues to give them the push,” he said. “We want then to see the game.”