Stockton, California has been a minor league sports town for a long, long time.
The Stockton Ports have been the Class A-Advanced affiliate for the Oakland Athletics since 2005, but have been in the “farm system” for several MLB franchises dating back to their 1949 affiliation with the Chicago White Sox. They’ve actually been a part of various iterations of the California League as far back as the 1860’s.
Hockey came to the city more recently, when the Stockton Thunder were formed for the EHCL in 2005, and the Stockton Arena was constructed alongside a new ballpark on the downtown waterfront for the Ports.