Athletics announce plans to play the next 3 seasons in minor league park near Sacramento

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Athletics will leave Oakland after this season and play temporarily at a minor league park near Sacramento until their planned new stadium in Las Vegas is built.

The A's announced the decision to play at the home of the Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 on Thursday after being unable to reach an agreement to extend their lease in Oakland during that time.

Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé, who also owns the minor league River Cats, said the region has the potential to become a “mecca for sports.”

“We have an incredible community and a passionate fan base — the best fans in the world," Ranadivé said. "Today's announcement marks the next chapter of professional sports in Sacramento.”

Ranadivé joined A's owner John Fisher and local officials to announce the news at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, where the A's will play for the next three seasons. The stadium is right across from the historic yellow Tower Bridge that connects the city with downtown Sacramento.

It is in an area where new restaurants, bars and apartment complexes have opened up in recent years and is about a mile from the state Capitol and the NBA arena where the Sacramento Kings play. The stadium has 10,624 fixed seats and can currently hold 14,014 fans with lawn seating and standing room.

Ranadivé hopes the move is a step toward the Sacramento region eventually hosting a permanent MLB team.

Fisher said West Sacramento was among several locations, including the Oakland Coliseum, considered for the team’s temporary home.

“Even with the long-standing relationship and good intentions on all sides in the negotiations with Oakland, the conditions to achieve an agreement seemed out of reach,” he said in a statement, adding that he understands the move will disappoint many fans.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement that the city “offered a deal that was fair to the A’s and was fiscally responsible for our city.” Thao said the city will now work on acquiring the A's rights to the Coliseum site and focus on redevelopment efforts in the area.

Paul Freedman, co-founder of the Oakland Ballers, called the news of the move heart-breaking but said he is proud that fans will still be able to root for the newly-formed minor league team.

“Today is a tough day, but you can’t be beaten if you never give up," Freedman said in a statement. "Let’s build something great together.”

The A’s announced their intention last April to move to Las Vegas, and MLB owners unanimously approved the application to relocate in November.

The team is baseball’s most transient. Las Vegas will be the fifth home for a franchise that started as the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901-54, then played in Kansas City through 1967 before moving to Oakland.

The decision angered the fans in Oakland and the team’s previously low attendance dropped precipitously with the club drawing a league-low 832,352 fans to the outdated Coliseum last season. The A’s drew 13,522 fans on opening night this year with a few thousand others protesting Fisher in the parking lot, and failed to reach 7,000 fans in any of the next six games.

But Thursday's news is welcome for baseball fans around Sacramento. West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero said the move will help put the city “on the map” and bring in new business for local bars and restaurants.

“We're going to make this beautiful, intimate place a welcoming, embracing environment,” she said. “We are so excited for this historic day because it's been a dream of West Sacramento to have a major league team here.”

The stadium will likely need additional work to upgrade clubhouses, batting and other facilities in order to host a major league team.

“The MLBPA has had preliminary discussions with MLB about a range of issues related to the temporary relocation and we expect those discussions to continue,” the players union said in a statement.

The team will be simply known as the Athletics, or A’s, without a city designation during the stay in Sacramento.

The River Cats will still play in their stadium the next three years and share it with the A's.

By staying in Northern California, the A's are hopeful of keeping a large share of their local television rights held by NBC Sports California, which is worth a reported $67 million a year.

With the A's leaving Oakland after this season, the Coliseum complex that once was also home to the NFL's Raiders, the NBA's Warriors and the NHL's Seals will have no major sports teams.

Those teams combined to win 10 championships while in Oakland — four each for the A's and Warriors and two for the Raiders. The only cities with more combined titles in MLB, the NBA and NFL since the A’s arrived in Oakland in 1968 are Los Angeles, Boston and New York.

AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow in Oakland, Calif. and AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed to this report.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

John Fisher, owner of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, announces that his team will leave Oakland after this season and play temporarily at a minor league park, during a news conference in West Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2024. The A's announced the decision to play at the home of the Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 on Thursday after being unable to reach an agreement to extend their lease in Oakland during that time. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

John Fisher, owner of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, announces that his team will leave Oakland after this season and play temporarily at a minor league park, during a news conference in West Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2024. The A's announced the decision to play at the home of the Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 on Thursday after being unable to reach an agreement to extend their lease in Oakland during that time. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, center, shakes hands John Fisher, owner of the Oakland Athletics, before the start of a news conference where Fisher announced his team will leave Oakland after this season and play temporarily at a minor league park, during a news conference in West Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, April 4 2024.The A's announced the decision to play at the home of the Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 on Thursday after being unable to reach an agreement to extend their lease in Oakland during that time. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Sutter Health Park, home of the Triple A team Sacramento River Cats, is shown in West Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Oakland Athletics announced the decision to play at the home of the Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 on Thursday after being unable to reach an agreement to extend their lease in Oakland during that time. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

A group of fans and protesters gather in the parking lot outside the Oakland Coliseum before the Oakland Athletics played against the Cleveland Guardians in a baseball game on opening day, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. The announced attendance was 13,522 — about half of the crowd at last year’s home opener of 26,805. Many who bought tickets did not actually enter the stadium, with fan groups organizing a boycott in the parking lot to protest the team’s planned move to Las Vegas. (Benjamin Fanjoy/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

The Oakland Athletics take batting practice before opening day baseball game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, March 28, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Ninela Radicevic still can't comprehend that her daughter is never coming back.

The 11-year-old Ana Bozovic had just arrived to her school in central Belgrade last year when another pupil, 13 at the time, came in and opened fire at anyone standing in his way.

Bozovic, two other girls and a school guard were killed immediately in the corridor. The teenage shooter then went on to a nearby classroom and turned his gun on the pupils and the teacher inside.

A total of 10 people were killed. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later.

The shooting stunned Serbia. The Balkan nation was no stranger to violent crime, but mass shootings are rare and one hadn't taken place at a school before.

Further shock followed just a day later, when a 20-year-old man went on a shooting rampage outside the capital. He killed nine and wounded 12 others, mostly young people.

For Radicevic time stopped on the morning she lost her little girl. She believes the entire country too had to grind to a halt after such an unthinkable crime. Instead, she told The Associated Press, “everyone rushed to forget.”

Her eyes torn with grief, Radicevic spoke to the AP at the family home in Belgrade. Photos by her side show a wide-eyed girl with long brown hair, who loved sports and dancing, and kept medals from competitions above her bed.

“We forget tragic events too quickly,” Radicevic said. “This habit of pushing everything under the carpet has to end.”

People, she said, "had to recognize the importance and the tragedy of that moment."

Bozovic’s room in the apartment remains intact — a world map is hanging on the wall and her stuffed animal toys are on the bed. A huge framed photo poster of her standing upside down in her judo outfit fills the room. The desk is still as she left it, paper drawings and messages are hanging from the wall.

Radicevic, a 49-year-old clinical researcher, has led an effort to keep the memory alive of all the children killed in Belgrade's Vladislav Ribnikar school and the two villages near the capital, so something like that won't happen again.

“All we (parents) have been doing is fighting to make sure that May 3rd is not forgotten, to give some meaning to our children’s sacrifice,” said Radicevic, who also has a 17-year-old son. “They are the victims. But victims of what?”

Many in Serbia have been asking the same question before the grim anniversary on Friday that will be marked with an all-day commemoration ceremony near the school, including art installations, discussions with experts and video films about the victims.

The program is dubbed “Awakening,” an apparent call for self-reckoning and introspection in a nation that is yet to come to terms with its role in multiple wars in the 1990s and the culture of violence that has prevailed ever since.

The slain children's parents have been closely involved in the preparations. They have fought to have the school closed and turned into a memorial center, organized protests and remembrance events, and testified about their ordeal to promote awareness among the public.

“The fact that children returned to that same school only a week later, also on a Wednesday, for the same set of classes, tells you that the state wanted to quickly create a sense of normalcy," Radicevic said.

“What had to happen is that Serbia had to stop that May 3rd regardless of the state support,” she insisted. "We had to stop, to think, to find out what we had done wrong, to say OK, we have made mistakes, let’s accept it and see how we continue from tomorrow, how this society will get better.”

Serbia's populist government launched a gun crackdown, collecting about 80,000 weapons and rounds of ammunition. State-backed support teams offered counseling, and police officers were deployed outside Serbia's schools for security.

The shooters were both apprehended. The teenage boy's parents went on trial, charged with teaching their underage son to shoot and for not securing the weapons at the family home.

The trial against the village shooter and his father has yet to start in May in the central town of Smederevo, more than a year after the massacres in Malo Orasje and Dubona that left the two villages paralyzed with mourning and sadness.

Shock and anger because of the shootings last year triggered months of street protests demanding resignations of top officials and a ban on mainstream media that spew hate speech and intolerance. A year later, critics say not much has changed.

Psychology professor Dragan Popadic, however, believes it has. The trauma, he said, created a sense of fear and insecurity that hadn't been there in the past and prompted activism. But people aren't ready for a more radical insight, Popadic added.

“These cases of violence are only tips of an organism that was born in the 1990s and which has grown and strengthened,” he said. "Until we deal with the organism itself ... we won’t be able to comprehend the situation we are in.”

Radicevic said Serbia missed a “last chance for a catharsis." Most people were just relieved that “it wasn't mine (their child)" and moved on, she said.

“A week later other children went to see where it (shooting) had happened," she said. “I am sorry, but I think that is not normal.”

In this photo taken on Saturday, April 27, 2024, framed photographs of Ana Bozovic, a slain elementary school student, are on display in her family living room in Belgrade, Serbia. The 11-year-old Ana Bozovic had just arrived to her school in central Belgrade last year when another pupil, 13 at the time, came in and opened fire at anyone standing in his way. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

In this photo taken on Saturday, April 27, 2024, Ninela Radicevic, 49, the mother of Ana Bozovic, a slain elementary school student, sits in her living room in Belgrade, Serbia. The 11-year-old Ana Bozovic had just arrived to her school in central Belgrade last year when another pupil, 13 at the time, came in and opened fire at anyone standing in his way. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

In this photo taken on Saturday, April 27, 2024, a framed photograph of Ana Bozovic, a slain elementary school student, sits above her bed in Belgrade, Serbia. The 11-year-old Ana Bozovic had just arrived to her school in central Belgrade last year when another pupil, 13 at the time, came in and opened fire at anyone standing in his way. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

FILE - Flowers and toys are placed for the victims near the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

FILE - Police officers guard the Vladimir Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

FILE - People light candles for the victims near the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

FILE - People hold candles for the victims near the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)

FILE - A woman hugs a girl near the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)

FILE - Police officers block the streets surrounding the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

FILE - Police block streets around the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)