Hollister
– Try this on for size: Major League Baseball’s Hollister
Athletics.
Hollister – Try this on for size: Major League Baseball’s Hollister Athletics.
With reports that Los Angeles developer Lewis Wolff is close to buying the team, rumors that the A’s will move away from Oakland are spreading rapidly. The one that generated talk on Bay Area radio stations Wednesday – as well as local political circles – centered around San Benito County as a possible location for the Oakland team.
County Supervisors said they got calls from other media outlets asking about the possibility, but most said it came as a complete surprise.
“I haven’t heard anything about it,” Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, “but let me know if you do.”
At least officially, the response out of Oakland seemed to be more of the same.
“We can’t comment on any location proposals,” A’s public relations director Jim Young said. “We’ll just stand by the fact that the concentration of everyone here is on staying in Oakland.”
So is the move even conceivable?
Well, the team has to be sold first. Wolff, vice president for venue development for the Athletics, has an option to buy the team from Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann, who purchased the A’s jointly in 1995 and are reportedly floating around a price tag of $175 million.
Wolff, who met with baseball’s ownership committee Wednesday in Scottsdale, Ariz, has been reviewing the team’s financial records for the last few weeks and said he will make a decision in the next three months.
“It’s an option he’s had for quite some time,” A’s public relations director Jim Young said. “And he’s looking seriously at exercising that option – subject to approval, of course, by the current ownership.”
Wolff was brought in by the A’s in 2003 to lead the search for a new stadium, and maybe a new hometown – with Las Vegas, Portland and San Jose being mentioned most prominently.
But speculation that Wolff, a former part owner of the Golden State Warriors and St. Louis Blues, might try to move the A’s to San Jose has not gone over well with San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan.
The Giants have territorial rights to the San Jose area, and commissioner Bud Selig, Wolff’s longtime friend and former fraternity brother at the University of Wisconsin, indicated to the Associated Press that owners are not likely to give ground.
“Territorial rights don’t change,” Selig said.
However, the Giants’ territorial rights do end at the Santa Clara/San Benito county line. And Schott, whom Wolff has said he wants to keep in the ownership group even after a potential sale, is president of Award Homes, which wants to build a large subdivision in Hollister.
“We understand speculation is spreading like wildfire. But until, or if, Wolff decides to buy the team, we just don’t know. If he purchases the team, I’m sure he’ll be more than willing to share his plans.”
The associated press contributed to this story
