Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig says he believes the Oakland Athletics need a new stadium but the team may need to solve its territorial dispute with the San Francisco Giants itself.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Selig says he has no timetable for deciding whether the A's can leave Oakland and build a new stadium in San Jose.
The Giants own the territorial rights to San Jose and have said the team would block any attempt by the A's to move to the area.
Thursday Selig said while he agreed the A's needed to leave the Coliseum, he believed the two Bay Area teams need to resolve their own issues.
"I'm always hopeful when there are debates amongst clubs, I try to lead teams in a direction of
solving their problems themselves," Selig said. "However, this group has an interesting comment
whenever they get in trouble: 'That's why you're here, commissioner.' That's what they tell me. I
don't know that that's a particularly good answer. ... We've had a lot of meetings, spent an enormous amount of time. I've just met with both clubs again and we'll continue along this process."
Selig assembled a task force to examine the dispute between the A's and the Giants but no decision or even an update on their findings has been made public.
And there is no timetable for when a decision may come, Selig told The Associated Press.
"The one given everybody believes is that Oakland needs a new stadium," Selig said. "The last time I was there, I probably shouldn't say this, but I'll say it anyway, it reminded me of County Stadium and Shea Stadium, and that's not a compliment, in either case. ... You can't ask people to compete if they have a stadium that doesn't produce any kind of revenue to give them a chance to compete. So that's a given."
The A's play did not respond to a request for a comment on Friday morning. The Oakland Coliseum is currently the last stadium in the country that hosts both an NFL and an MLB team.
