Raise a glass? Sacramento bar patrons have a few thoughts on A’s move to town
As the Oakland A’s move to West Sacramento, bar patrons and bartenders celebrate. Three baseball fans at Cheaters Sports Bar in East Sacramento expressed their support for the Oakland A's move to West Sacramento, which is set to take place for three or four seasons. The bar patrons expressed concern that tickets would be difficult to obtain in a stadium with less than 11,000 fixed seats, a significant drop from the Coliseum's 63,000. However, they also expressed optimism about the economic benefits of the move, particularly for businesses downtown. Greg Dougherty, a bartender at the bar, said the move would be a great economic boon for the capital region and would be beneficial for local businesses. Chris Guerrero, owner of CJ's Pizza Bar & Grill in Rocklin, also expressed concern about potential friction between Giants and Dodgers fans.
发表 : 4 周前 经过 Ariane Lange 在 Sports
Three baseball fans sat on the stools at Cheaters Sports Bar in East Sacramento in the middle of a Thursday, hours after the Oakland A’s announced the team would spend three or four seasons playing in West Sacramento.
A New York Mets game glowed on one of the TVs above them — there wasn’t an A’s fan in sight.
Closest to the door sat a San Francisco Giants fan. In the middle, a Chicago Cubs fan. To his right, a Cincinnati Reds fan. Tending bar was a neatly comported Sacramento native who, due to a brief but influential few years in Boston, incongruously roots for the Red Sox.
Nonetheless, the men agreed the major league team’s Sacramento sojourn was, in a word, “fantastic.”
Greg Dougherty, a bartender at Cheaters for more than three years, said Thursday, “The facility’s not up to standard. But they know it’s a temporary deal and, so, I think it’s great.
Dougherty said it would be an economic boon for the capital region, especially for businesses downtown. “It’s good for the city,” he said. “You go out to dinner, go out to bars before you go to the game.”
He expected that some fans, in an attempt to avoid crowds downtown, would come out to bars farther afield, too.
But, he said, “My biggest concern is: Will you be able to see the Red Sox?”
The shared apprehension for Dougherty and his regulars was that tickets would be “extremely hard to get” in a stadium with less than 11,000 fixed seats — a steep drop from the Coliseum’s 63,000, though attendance in the past several years in Oakland averaged closer to the former.
The three regulars at Cheaters didn’t want to give their full names — one said he was supposed to be at work — but were happy to support the relocation. None of them were particularly territorial about the A’s roosting across the river.
But the men did say they were worried that locals wouldn’t get a chance to get tickets, or that, even if they did have the chance, the tickets would be too expensive.
One of the men raised four kids in the capital region and used to take them to baseball games. “Back then, you could afford to do that on a construction worker’s salary, but nowadays, it’s too expensive — just for the commute and the parking, tickets and everything. So, not near as much fun.”
Farther west at midtown’s Zebra Club, Richard Prater sat at a bar and recalled building the park as a mason. “We laid 100,000 block in 30 days,” he said. He was excited to see how it accommodated the major league team, and said, “It’s a great stadium.”
Chris Guerrero, who owns CJ’s Pizza Bar & Grill in Rocklin, did not anticipate any friction between devotees of the Giants now that the A’s will be in town. “There’d be a problem with Dodgers and Giants fans,” he said.
The mood was positive at the bar when the bartender and owner, Jerry Fredette, leaned forward, eyes twinkling.
“You can see all the games here at the Zebra Club,” he said. “Write that down.”