San Jose hopeful after Expos' move to D.C.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Baseball's decision to move the Montreal Expos to Washington gave officials in San Jose reason for optimism in their bid to acquire a major league team.

Oakland Athletics owner Steve Schott has said he would like to move the franchise to San Jose, but the San Francisco Giants own the rights to that area.

Baseball cleared a similar hurdle with the Expos, reaching an understanding with Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who had previously objected to having a team move just 40 miles from his Camden Yards stadium.

"We think this is awfully good news," Mike Fox, the chairman of Baseball San Jose, said Wednesday. "Now that the Montreal Expos issue has been resolved, it's time to look at the Oakland A's situation."

Earlier this year, commissioner Bud Selig visited the Coliseum in Oakland for the first time since 1989 and declared the Athletics need a new stadium soon to survive.

But Selig said Wednesday that the Expos' move has no bearing on the situation in the Bay Area because "the Washington area was not officially part of baseball's territory."

"San Jose is part of the San Francisco Giants' territory," Selig said. "... The clubs' territories really have always been treated with great respect. And so when a team is sold, and a territory exists near theirs, we don't change that. This is a completely different thing, so it is not a proper analogy, frankly."

The small-market A's, who have won the AL West the past two seasons and lost in the first round of the playoffs the last four years, had an opening-day payroll of just over $59 million this season, higher than 14 of baseball's 30 teams. The Giants were ninth with a payroll of roughly $82 million.

The A's are 19th in the majors in attendance at just under 27,000 fans per game, while the Giants are fifth at more than 40,000 per game.

A's manager Ken Macha acknowledged Wednesday there will certainly be talk about the possibility of moving the club from Oakland to San Jose.

"I'm sure that's going to be something to be viewed not just with our situation but with other teams," he said.

The A's gave the Giants territorial rights to Santa Clara County in 1992, when the Giants were trying to move to the South Bay. Baseball reaffirmed those rights before San Francisco built the Giants a fancy new ballpark on the water that has made the A's envious.

Baseball San Jose is circulating a petition and hopes to present the commissioner's office with 100,000 signatures asking to free San Jose from the Giants' territorial grasp. The San Jose City Council is also expected to endorse Baseball San Jose's request at a meeting next Tuesday.

"What we're asking is if the A's became available to allow them to move from 14 miles away from the San Francisco Giants to 54 miles away," Fox said.

Fox said there are many reasons why Northern California's most populous city deserves a major league team. San Jose is in the heart of Silicon Valley, whose numerous technology companies would provide a strong base for a new team.

"We're a major league city already," Fox said. "Look at it from the standpoint of per capita income and population base. Look at what has happened with the San Jose arena and the San Jose Sharks. The support has been phenomenal."