By admin By adding nine words to California’s state code, a bill recently signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom eliminates an obstacle in West Sacramento’s campaign for a permanent Major League Baseball team.
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Though the league has yet to launch a formal process to expand, it is expected to do so in the coming years, and cities across the country have rallied public and private funding, passed legislation and identified possible stadium sites in preparation to court MLB. West Sacramento entered the competition in May with $1.8 billion in public and private commitments, including an estimated $1 billion in public investment from the city.
SB 226, authored by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento, clears a path for a large part of that funding by explicitly allowing the use of a certain type of special taxing district to support the construction of sports and entertainment facilities.Cabaldon served as mayor of West Sacramento for 20 years, during which he helped create the conditions in 2000 for West Sacramento to become the home of the River Cats, now a minor league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.
“We wanted to be sure, absolutely sure, that this particular question was not subject to a frivolous lawsuit,” Cabaldon said. “We just needed to be airtight.”
Before Cabaldon’s bill, which Newsom signed on Sept. 30, the law was silent on whether this type of special taxing district’s funding could be used for a stadium. Ignoring such ambiguity left open the possibility of a future legal challenge, said Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council.
“We can’t make a mistake and win Major League Baseball,” Broome said. “We learned a lot from Major League Soccer. If anything wasn’t perfectly tightened down, it came loose.”
The region’s campaign for an MLB expansion team is backed by land commitments from developer Mark Friedman, who is chairing the steering committee for the effort, and $250 million commitments each from the United Auburn Indian Community and the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. But critically, the effort lacks a lead investor.
Potential investors, Broome said, are “kicking the tires.” But there are uncertainties ahead, including MLB labor negotiations, which will address the contentious question of a player salary cap and could result in a prolonged work stoppage in 2027. And there are several qualifications that a lead investor must meet, Broome said, like a good relationship with organized labor and the ability to gain the league’s confidence.
“We have to have a very credible ownership group,” Broome said. “Money isn’t enough.”
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The city’s estimate of $1 billion in public investment is based largely on expected increases in property tax revenue generated by the proposed stadium site and nearby properties, said West Sacramento City Manager Aaron Laurel. It could also include revenue from other sources, such as parking fees, hotel tax revenue generated on game days or a portion of the sales tax revenue generated by the stadium.
“Our projection is that we can reach that billion-dollar total that the other markets are putting forward,” Laurel said, “but in a way that still provides a financial advantage to the city. None of this revenue would be created without the stadium itself and the surrounding development, and a portion of the revenue it creates would still go to the city for regular services and other benefits.”
West Sacramento could begin forming the type of special district mentioned in the bill — an infrastructure revitalization financing district, or IRFD — within the next year or so, Laurel said. The process would require a series of public meetings and approval by either the residents or landowners in the proposed district, depending on how many residents live within its boundaries. Laurel said it would include the stadium site and some nearby vacant properties that would become part of the larger development.
“For especially West Sacramento residents or anyone who’s looking at this from a valid concern of, ‘Is the city taking any risk for doing this district?’ or ‘Is it creating any risk on other city funds?’ The answer is unequivocally no,” Laurel said. “It’s only being funded by the value of property tax that is generated by the stadium, by the surrounding development.”
Due to peculiarities of history and tax law, a special district to fund a major project, like a baseball stadium, could be more powerful in West Sacramento than in other cities. When the city incorporated in 1987, struggling with infrastructure problems and disinvestment, its leaders were able to negotiate with Yolo County for a higher share of property tax revenues. As those revenues became scarcer in the years after Proposition 13, which capped annual increases, counties tended to bargain more fiercely, and cities tended to get smaller shares, Laurel previously said.
“This will be a competition with other states and other places,” Cabaldon said during a Senate committee hearing in August. “We want to minimize the likelihood of mischief that would potentially threaten the entire financing of the project.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline “Sacramento region’s MLB bid gets big boost from small change in California law.”
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