Who owns the Sacramento Athletics? John Fisher, explained

John J. Fisher has controlled the Sacramento Athletics since November 2016, when he bought out his minority partner Lew Wolff’s 10% stake and became managing partner. Fisher and his family have owned the club since 2005, when they purchased it for $180 million. Today the team plays 75 home games in a Triple-A park in West Sacramento while construction races toward a permanent home in Las Vegas, set to open in 2028—a project that has already cost more than $400 million and reshaped the franchise’s identity.

🏟️ Ownership at a glance

Principal owner	John J. Fisher
Controlling group	Fisher family
Current group since	2005
Purchase price	$180M
Latest valuation	$2.5B
Owner’s net worth	$3.5B
Value multiple	13.9× the purchase price

Who is John Fisher

Fisher’s wealth is inherited, not self-made. He was born June 1, 1961, in San Francisco, the youngest of three children of Donald and Doris Fisher, who founded Gap Inc. He studied history at Princeton, graduating in 1983 with a thesis on Holocaust survivors in America, then earned an MBA from Stanford. Forbes rates him 2 out of 10 on the self-made scale. His estimated net worth is $3.5 billion, placing him at 1,229 globally as of August 2026.

Fisher left the Gap board in May 2022 and is a founding partner of Sansome Partners, an investment firm. Beyond baseball, he chairs the KIPP Foundation, a network of charter schools. His tenure running the Athletics has become one of the most unpopular in American sports—the team faced potential formal complaints from the players’ union over revenue sharing in 2026, and fans organized a protest inside the Oakland Coliseum on the final day of the 2024 season.

How they bought the team

Fisher and Lew Wolff acquired the Athletics on April 1, 2005, from Stephen Schott and Ken Hofmann, paying $180 million. Fisher held roughly 80% and Wolff 10%, with limited partners making up the remainder. In November 2016, Fisher purchased Wolff’s 10% stake and assumed full control as managing partner. At that time, Forbes valued the team at an undisclosed sum.

The franchise’s valuation has grown sharply since then. As of March 20, 2026, Forbes valued the Athletics at $2.5 billion, ranking them 15th among the 30 MLB teams. That represents a 13.9-fold increase from the original $180 million purchase price. The team generated reported revenues of $324 million in 2026, a figure boosted significantly by the Las Vegas stadium project despite the club’s current home being a Triple-A facility.

Year	Buyer	Amount
2005	Lew Wolff group/Fisher family (purchase from Stephen Schott and Ken Hofmann on April 1, 2005). Fisher ~80%, Wolff 10%.	$180M
2016	John Fisher buys 10% from Lew Wolff and assumes managing partner role (November 2016). Forbes valued the team at an undisclosed sum at that time.	—

What else they own

Fisher controls far more than baseball. He is a founding partner of Sansome Partners, an investment firm. He owns the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer and holds a minority stake in Celtic FC of Scotland. Since 2022, he has owned the Texas Rattlers of the Professional Bull Riders circuit, which won the PBR Team Series championship in 2023. He also chairs the KIPP Foundation board.

The Athletics themselves are now entangled with the Las Vegas Ballpark project, which has become Fisher’s largest capital commitment. Nevada is contributing up to $380 million in public funds via Senate Bill 1. Fisher is investing more than $1 billion, and the club secured $300 million in construction credits from Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bank. As of mid-2026, the steel frame was 75% complete, with roof installation continuing through October 2026 and a target completion date of February 29, 2028.

Where the games air

The Athletics are one of only six MLB teams still partnered with a regional sports network rather than MLB’s in-house Local Media production. Games air on NBC Sports California for linear television. Streaming within the Sacramento market runs through ATHLETICS.TV, available within MLB.TV at $19.99 per month or approximately $119.99 per season. In 2026, a package of games also aired on open television in Las Vegas to build the market ahead of the move. Fisher’s ownership has kept the team outside MLB’s centralized broadcast model, a choice that reflects both the franchise’s liminal status and the owner’s broader media strategy.

Facts worth knowing

The team’s official name in 2026 is simply ‘Athletics’: they dropped ‘Oakland’ and decided NOT to add ‘Sacramento’. It is the only MLB club without a city in its name.
In 2026, their second season in exile, they play 75 home games at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento—a Triple-A park they share with the River Cats—plus a six-game home series at Las Vegas Ballpark in June.
The Las Vegas stadium jumped from $1.5 billion (2023 estimate) to over $2 billion. Nevada contributes up to $380 million in public money via Senate Bill 1; Fisher puts in over $1 billion and the club added $300 million in construction credits with Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bank. The target completion date is February 29, 2028.
By mid-2026 they had spent over $400 million and the steel structure was 75% complete, with roof truss installation running through October 2026.
Fisher is worth $3.5 billion and yet the A’s were at risk of a formal complaint from the MLBPA for not spending enough revenue-sharing money.
On September 26, 2024, in the last game at Oakland Coliseum, fans organized a protest against Fisher inside the stadium.
In August 2026 the club parted ways with general manager David Forst, closing an era of more than two decades of the Billy Beane tree.

Where they stand among the 30 owners

List	Rank
By franchise value	#15 de 30
By purchase price	#19 de 27
By owner’s net worth	#14 de 21
By years in charge	#16 de 30

Amounts are nominal and not adjusted for inflation: comparing a decades-old purchase price with today’s valuation overstates the real gain.

Fisher ranks 15th among the 30 owners by team valuation and 16th by tenure—he has run the club for 21 years. The Athletics cost him $180 million in 2005 and are now valued at $2.5 billion, one of the steeper appreciation curves in baseball. Yet despite that wealth and growth, the franchise has become a flashpoint for player-management tension and fan anger, culminating in the 2024 relocation and an ongoing construction gamble in Las Vegas. Fisher sits comfortably in the middle tier of MLB ownership by franchise value, but his tenure has been anything but stable.