This isn't the first time the Oakland A's have considered playing in Sacramento

(CNN) — After the Oakland A's announced their official move to West Sacramento for at least the next three seasons on Thursday, let's take a look at the past because it's not the first time the baseball team has considered playing in the capital.

Sacramento even went so far as to begin construction on the ballpark near the Kings' former home, Arco Arena, in Natomas. It's still there today, or at least what's left of it. The only activity on the site currently is a practice facility for the Stockton Kings' G League team.

A thriving major league baseball park and soccer stadium would be built on the site. The $16 million dream of the 1980s was never realized, and now it lies abandoned and overtaken by nature.

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“Our job now is to get the A's to sit here and say, 'Man, I wish we had come here first,'” said Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council.

The move almost happened in the 1980s

The ball club almost came here in the '80s. The construction of Arco Park was in full swing.

“We built the entire foundation that would include the dugout, the drains, the kitchens, all of those things underneath to support it from the foul pole around home plate to the foul pole,” Greg Van said Dusen, former vice president of the Sacramento Kings, told Us in 2015.

We then spoke with Van Dusen about the project, as he played a key role in the great ideas for building a baseball and soccer stadium that would be connected to Arco Arena by an underground tunnel.

“I have to be honest, I didn’t even know they spent $16 million on it. “If you think about it back then, it’s breathtaking,” said Grant Napear, former Sacramento Kings announcer.

However, the money dried up and the project was abandoned.

“We just couldn’t get it done,” Van Dusen said.

The parking lot where fans were supposed to park is now full of weeds.

Fans were desperate to spend money on season tickets, tickets they never got to see. The remains of the site still remain, even a pond in place of the diamond. Turkeys roam the hills where fans should have been cheering.

Now things have come full circle: The A's are moving into Sutter Health Park.

“Hopefully there will be a solid team here,” said Vivek Ranadive, owner of the Sacramento Kings.

Could this be the start of something more lasting?