Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has raised the possibility of the Oakland A's relocating from the Bay Area. He says though, the decision lies in the hands of the team's owner Lew Wolff.
Selig's comments came Thursday following a scheduled owners' meeting.
Oakland has long sought to move the team to San Jose where they would build a new stadium. However, the San Francisco Giants have prevented Oakland from constructing a ballpark in San Jose because it is part of the Giants' territory.
Both teams have been in a conflict over this issue and both have valid arguments. The Giants claim that they have invested millions of dollars in marketing throughout Santa Clara County. The A's believe that a new stadium in San Jose would increase their revenue and relieve them of the need of revenue sharing.
Oakland used to own the territorial rights to San Jose. In 1989, they ceded them to the Giants when the owners were trying to relocate the team.
Selig stated that it is up to Wolff to decide to look for and consider other sites to build a new ballpark. However, a move outside of the Oakland area would require MLB approval. Selig left open the possibility of approval depending on where the A's move.
"It depends where they'd be. They could be all over the world, for that matter," Selig said. "They need approval. We have to go through an approval process. It just depends on where they're moving to."
Historically, MLB has been reluctant to grant teams the right to relocate. The Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Nationals for the 2005 season, it was the first move of any Major League Baseball team since 1972, when the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers
If the team is unable to find a new stadium in the Oakland area the owners may be forced to sell the team. According to Bill Madden of the New York Daily News, a baseball official told him ""The A's and Rays are both in hopeless situations, and there's no place to move these teams. Hard as this might be to swallow for a lot of us, it would be in the best interests of baseball to contract both of them. You'd have a better game, and it would be two less teams we all have to subsidize."
Since 1989, Twenty three teams have opened new stadiums. The A's and Rays are the only two teams still seeking a new stadium.
In additional news, Major League Baseball had another announcement to make at the owners' meeting. The one-game wild-card playoff, introduced for the first time this year, will be televised Oct. 5 by TBS. Additionally, two division series games will shift from TBS to the MLB Network.
Owners also approved a 2-3 playoff format in the division series instead of 2-2-1. Teams with home-field advantage will host the final three games of the series. The change is a result of the wild-card round being added after schedules were set with the regular season ending Oct. 3 and the World Series starting Oct. 24.
