http://www.bizjournals.com/san.../03/23/daily101.html

Thursday, March 26, 2009, 2:40pm PDT | Modified: Thursday, March 26, 2009, 6:13pm

Lew Wolff: San Jose deserves major league

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - by David Goll

Lew Wolff, co-owner and managing partner of the Oakland Athletics, said Thursday San Jose should have a professional baseball franchise, but stopped short of saying his team would fill that role.

At a breakfast reception for the media at The Fairmont San Francisco hotel, which is owned by Wolff, the A's owner said he thinks the Bay Area's largest city "deserves" a Major League Baseball team.

Ever since Wolff dropped plans last month to build a new ballpark for the A's in Fremont, San Jose civic and business leaders have publicly declared their interest in bringing the team, which has called Oakland home since

1968, several miles further south. The city is in the process of acquiring various parcels at a 14-acre site on the western edge of downtown San Jose where a ballpark could be built for the A's.

Wolff told reporters his club will rely on help from Major League Baseball to find a site where the team can build a new stadium.

“We’re sort of in the hands of baseball now,” he said. The A’s search for a new home “is a baseball issue now more than an A’s issue...Ultimately it has to be determined by baseball, not by me.”

In this week's edition, the Business Journal reports that the estimated $80 million price tag to buy the property could be reduced by up to $25 million if a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation on Montgomery Street doesn't have to be relocated for the ballpark.

Wolff, who is also trying to build an 18,000-seat stadium just west of Mineta San Jose International Airport for another sports franchise he co-owns -- the San Jose Earthquakes -- has not held any formal discussions with city officials about the A's.

In fact, he told city officials a few weeks ago to cool their heels in their efforts to lure his team to San Jose.

"Right now, I'm interested in spring training and getting the regular season under way," he said Thursday.

The A's possible move to Santa Clara County is complicated by its inclusion in San Francisco Giants' "territory" as defined by Major League Baseball.

For the A's to move to San Jose, they would have to get league owners to waive the Giants' territorial rights to the Bay Area's most-populous county.

Earlier this month, Wolff said he has no plans to revisit the issue of building a new ballpark in Oakland to replace the 43-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

David Goll can be reached at 408-299-1853 or dgoll@bizjournals.com