A's Still Awaiting Word On Possible San Jose Relocation

Representatives of the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants met on Thursday to hash out some propositions for the future of A's baseball in the Bay Area, but according to league commissioner Bud Selig, the subsequent happenings of the Green and Gold are in the hands of team ownership, not necessarily MLB itself.

Selig spoke after the meeting of owners about the situation, noting that he would agree on a move by the Athletics, but "it just depends on where they're moving to."

Per Jon Heyman on Twitter:

selig: #SFGiants and #athletics made presentations regarding a's proposed san jose stadium. no "timetable'' for resolution

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) May 17, 2012

Selig certainly placed the ball in Wolff's court, noting that its up to him to find new locations to move in the Oakland area or whether or not to pack up and move on. The A's have wanted to move to San Jose, though the San Francisco Giants legally own those territorial rights and are not wiling to give them up to Oakland.

Only two clubs since 1989 have not opened a new ballpark, the Oakland A's and Tampa Bay Rays.

For more on the A's, head over to Athletics Nation.

Can the Oakland Athletics find a way to leave their current Coliseum and get to a new stadium? The road might be long and perilous for them to get there.

Currently, the A's just want to get the issue on the minds of the MLB owners, who just don't seem to be too interested in the situation. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle files this report.

According to two major-league sources, the team plans to file paperwork to get onto the agenda before the end of the month, within the prescribed time frame for such proposals.

That will not ensure that the matter will become part of the agenda, however, according to those with knowledge of the inner workings of the owners' meetings. In fact, the A's desire to move to San Jose is not expected to be addressed during the May 16-17 event at the league offices.

To discuss the stadium vote with A's fans, head on over to Athletics Nation.

Check out the SB Nation MLB YouTube channel below and see if you'd be interested in subscribing to these videos.

The feud between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants over the territorial rights of the South Bay Area are really starting to heat up after the A's released a statement earlier Wednesday voicing their side of what they believe is the Giants bullying them out of Santa Clara/San Jose. Well, the Giants fired back and the San Francisco Chronicles's John Shea caught all the juicy details.

#SFGiants say Fisher, Wolff were aware of Giants' territories "when they purchased the A's for just $172 million in 2005." Note the "just."

— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) March 8, 2012

Hmm, that probably wasn't necessary, but the Giants don't seem to want to play soft toss here. Actually, they don't want to play ball at all:

#SFGiants say #Athletics "fail to mention (territorial rights) explicity re-affirmed by MLB on four separate occasions."

— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) March 8, 2012

San Francisco isn't going to back off that they are in the right, and that legally the A's can't touch the South Bay. Not only that, the team is sticking to their guns that it's Giants country down South, not A's country:

#SFGiants also claim Santa Clara County "represents 43% of our territory." This little feud ain't going away.

— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) March 8, 2012

It's probably only going to get uglier, let's see which team takes the gloves off first.

For more on the A's, head over to Athletics Nation. For more on the Giants, head over to McCovey Chronicles.

Three years have passed since MLB commissioner Bud Selig appointed his committee to figure out a resolution for the Oakland Athletics stadium issues, and almost nothing has come of it. And with the recent talks of the team being kept out of San Jose because of the San Francisco Giants territorial rights, the A's released a statement on Wednesday to clear up some of the confusion about their current stadium situation.

Here is the release in full:

---

"Recent articles claiming that Major League Baseball has decided that the A's cannot share the two-team Bay Area market were denied by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig last weekend.

Currently the Giants and A's share the two-team Bay Area market in terms of television, radio, sponsors and fans. Last year, the Giants opened a specialty store in the middle of the A's market (Walnut Creek). At the time, Lew Wolff commented that he was 'fine with the Giants store and wished there was an A's store in San Francisco.'

Of the four two-team markets in MLB, only the Giants and A's do not share the exact same geographic boundaries. MLB-recorded minutes clearly indicate that the Giants were granted Santa Clara, subject to relocating to the city of Santa Clara. The granting of Santa Clara to the Giants was by agreement with the A's late owner Walter Haas, who approved the request without compensation. The Giants we unable to obtain a vote to move and the return of Santa Clara to its original status was not formally accomplished.

We are not seeking a move that seeks to alter or in any manner disturb MLB territorial rights. We simply seek an approval to create a new venue that our organization and MLB fully recognizes is needed to eliminate our dependence on revenue sharing, to offer our fans and players a modern ballpark, to move over 35 miles further away from the Giants' great venue and to establish an exciting competition between the Giants and A's.

We are hopeful that the Commissioner, the committee appointed by the Commissioner, and a vote of the MLB ownership, will enable us to join the fine array of modern and fun baseball parks that are now commonplace in Major League Baseball."

---

It certainly doesn't seem like the A's are asking for much, they just want a fair share to be a competitive, lucrative franchise. It makes the Giants sound like the bad guys here, along with Selig and his cronies maliciously trying to screw the A's over and leave them to rot in the Oakland Coliseum.

The example used of the Giants store in Oakland is a perfect example of the disparity between the two, and the fact that the two teams don't share any geographic boundaries makes it even more logical to give the A's a break. Hopefully Selig and the Giants can figure out a way to help the A's become a bankable, worthwhile franchise once more.

For more on the A's, head over to Athletics Nation to get in on the action.

EDITORIAL UPDATE: Selig's office denies NY Times report

After a winter filled with hope and excitement about the progression of the Oakland A's, the news came down Sunday that MLB is likely to uphold the San Francisco Giants' territorial rights in San Jose, the location the A's were looking to build a new stadium and relocate to, according to Bill Madden of the New York Times.

Billy Beane spent his offseason blowing up his pitching staff for top prospects and picking up fan-intriguing players like Manny Ramirez and Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes in hopes of making the team a more profitable, possible playoff-contender ready to jump to San Jose in a few seasons. Now he's stuck in Oakland, but he's still hopeful about his squad:

"For the last 15 years it's been business as usual in Oakland except the cycles are closer payroll-wise versus revenues," Beane said by phone from Arizona. "We had a two-fold problem. We needed payroll room to put together an entire new outfield (after the free-agent departures of Josh Willingham, David DeJesus and Hideki Matsui) and we needed to replenish our farm system. So we traded our three best assets and got back 10 young players plus payroll room to sign (center fielder) Coco Crisp (signed for two years, $14 million) and Cespedes.

With so many decisions essentially hinging on this move, a no vote would be a terrible thing for the organization. But some aren't as concerned yet, like co-owner Lew Wollf, who certainly didn't believe the report:

"I spoke to Bud today on another matter, he didn't bring it up," Wolff told this newspaper Saturday night. "I think he would have told me if that's the case. We talked about something else. I think he would have alerted me or the Giants if he had made a decision."

The report cited no sources, but noted that a two/thirds vote of MLB ownership would have to vote yes to give the green light to the A's. But that could possibly open the flood gates on trying to take territorial rights all over the country, something the league certainly wants to avoid. The Giants' territorial rights to San Jose are part of the MLB constitution as a result of former A's owner Wally Haas agreeing to cede them in 1989 to then Giants owner Bob Lurie, who was looking into relocation at the time.

He never did, and now the A's are left dangling in the wind.

One official in the N.Y. Times report had a last-resort type effort for this team along with the Tampa Bay Rays; Contraction:

"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."

Hope it doesn't have to come to this.

For more on the A's Stadium issues or more on the team in general, head over to Athletics Nation.

Oakland Athletics Co-Owner Lew Wolff was on hand at the Rotary Club of San Jose for a Q & A session on Wednesday, which the Contra Costa Times' Joe Stiglich was in attendance. Wolff touched on a number of A's questions related to their move to San Jose, including renaming the team, buying the San Francisco Giants' territorial rights, as well as the team's stance with MLB on the building of a stadium in San Jose.

Stiglich reports that If the team moves to San Jose, they will be renamed the "San Jose A's," obviously. Wolff noted that whether it be from Philadelphia or Kansas City, the team will always keep the "Athletics" moniker. There was a even a stuffed version of Stomper the mascot on hand, fittingly wearing a "San Jose Athletics" uniform.

As for the Giants territorial rights, Wolff said "that has not been discussed with us." Stiglich wasn't buying it:

Considering nearly three years has passed since Major League Baseball began researching the A's stadium options, I'd be shocked if MLB hasn't tried to broker a financial settlement between the teams regarding territorial rights, if indeed what Wolff says is true.

Oh those darned, mystical territorial rights. Who really knows your truths?

Wolff also discussed the importance of revenue sharing, claiming they used "every penny" of the $32 million received from MLB. Wolff noted the general rule of thumb (according to him) is to use half of a team's revenue on the players payroll. That was around $67 million in 2011, so needless to say the A's really need that money.

Wolff was not pleased with his status with MLB on talks to put a stadium in San jose either:

"in the next couple months would be great...I'm not going to continue this much longer...what we want is an answer. We want a ‘Yes, you can relocate and share the territory,' or ‘You can't.' But not having any answer is difficult not just for me, but for the 130 people that work for us, for planning, for our baseball team every year."

Lastly, Stiglich noted the friendliness of the crowd in San Jose, but with Wolff's relationship soured with many a Oakland A's fan, he had this little quip to add about Wolff's Q & A:

You can't help but wonder how he would have been greeted in Oakland for a similar function.

That's some nice food for thought for A's fans.

For more on the A's, head over to Athletics Nation.

The Oakland Athletics could be making a move. Their stadium is decrepit and barely suited for use as a Major League ballpark. The A's have been seeking a new home for quite some time, and they'll probably end up having to shuffle around the Bay Area if they want to get out of their current digs.

But it's not likely that they'll be able to move into Oakland and try and revitalize the city. Angela Woodall of the Mercury News has more on the story.

With Oakland and Fremont out of the picture, and San Jose not looking so good as well, the A's look like they have no choice but to try and revitalize their current stadium and try and make them more attractive to the rest of the Bay.

To discuss the Athletics stadium issues, check out Athletics Nation.

Now that the 2011 World Series has come to a close, MLB free agency will get going Saturday evening at 9:01pm pacific. Players cannot begin to sign with new teams until Wednesday November 2 at 9:01pm pacific time, but they can begin filing Saturday evening. The process was delayed by 24 hours this year as part of the ongoing collective bargaining process between MLB and the MLB Players Association.

As the Oakland Athletics prepare for 2011 free agency, they are in a tough position due to the continually delayed nature of a new stadium. The A's have been trying to figure out new stadium plans for years and it remains in a perpetual delay at this point. The team has looked at San Jose but has to deal with the territorial rights of the San Francisco Giants.

As long as the team is delayed in getting a new stadium, their player budget will remain a question mark. The A's spent approximately $65 million last season, and it remains to be seen what that number will be for 2012. It could go up with a modest increment, or the team could further tighten up the purse strings while they figure out the stadium issue. This means they could find themselves struggling not only to land outside free agents, but even re-signing some of their own free agents.

Here are the A's free agents as we approach the start of free agency:

OF Coco Crisp
OF David DeJesus
RHP Rich Harden
OF/DH Hideki Matsui
OF Josh Willingham

While the A's try to figure out their internal free agency questions, they are in a position to potentially score some draft picks if some of these free agents walk. The fine folks at MLBTradeRumors.com put together a reverse-engineered look at the Elias Rankings used to determine compensation.

Based on their projections, Josh Willingham would be a Type-A free agent and David DeJesus is a Type-B free agent. The team has shown interest in re-signing both players, but if they were to walk, the A's would not end up empty-handed.