The Oakland Athletics have long said that the Coliseum where they play is outdated, old and is in need of an upgrade and after the Mariners and A's were forced to use the Raiders locker room to shower on Sunday after a sewer leak, it appears that the time to move has come, but it may not actually happen.
According to SI.com, the San Jose City Council has voted to sue the MLB to allow the A's to move into the city, something that they have wanted to do for years, but since the league and the San Francisco Giants have territory rights, they can block the move, which they have for a number of years. A's owner Lew Wolff has repeatedly said that he would like to move the team and now the players have joined in loudly after the swage issues came up over the weekend.
Amazingly enough, Wolff is a former fraternity brother of Selig and while that won't sway the decision, it does make things interesting. Baseball is fortunate to have its antitrust exemption upheld by the Supreme Court and this case is not without precedent. When the Nationals wanted to move to DC when they were the Expos, the Orioles objected, but eventually Selig came in and placated owner Peter Angelos with a TV deal and other things. The Raiders play at the Coliseum and they could also be affected by the move.
The sewage leak is not the reason for the move, but it might the straw that breaks the camel's back, as the players spoke out after the game about the condition of the park. The biggest sticking point is that the San Francisco Giants have territorial rights and don't want to lose fans or traffic, and the office of Commissioner Bud Selig has yet to rule against the Giants in the case. The city council for San Jose says over $100 million is lost in the process of trying to get the move completed and they also are claiming a the MLB and the rest of the league "conspired to limit competition by controlling location of teams."
From SI: The attorney on the case, Joe Cotchett, explained the rationale behind the lawsuit. From the ABC News report:
"This is all about economics. And, you have a city like San Jose, the tenth largest city in the United States, cannot get a baseball club. I can name you other cities that are pulling for San Jose for the same reason. They want the right and the chance to bring a baseball team to their city, their county, whatever it might be."
"Bud Selig appointed a commission to look at this very proposal that you just mentioned not one, not two, but four years ago. They're still studying the situation," Cotchett told ABC7 News.
