A part two to the sewage leakage story which plagued the Oakland A’s earlier in the week. Now things have taken an even more serious turn, with the A’s wanting completely out of Oakland and their old stadium and off to San Jose.
The San Jose City Counsel voted Tuesday to file an anti-trust suit against Major League Baseball and Bud Selig.
Stating the following, via Deadspin :
“This action arises from the blatant conspiracy by Major League Baseball to prevent the Athletics Baseball Club from moving to San Jose,” according to the suit. “This action challenges – and seeks to remedy – Defendants’ violation of state laws and use of the illegal cartel that results from these agreements to eliminate competition in the playing of games in the San Francisco Bay Area.”
The A’s have been eyeing San Jose for quite sometime and have even got a plot of land on which to construct a stadium, as well as naming rights, the big problem is the fact the Giants have exclusive territorial rights to San Jose and all of Santa Clara county, and can block any team from moving onto ‘their’ land.
Bud Selig being classic Mr. ‘I don’t want to get involved’ turned a blind eye to the situation and told the A’s and Giants to work things out among themselves. The Giants haven’t budged in their stance and Selig refused to put things to a vote–23 owner votes could overrule the Giants’s territorial rights.
Subsequently, Selig did a weak committee study to look further into the issue to reach a resolution. It’s been 4 years after that, and nothing’s been done.
I guess it’s safe to say that the s**t quite literally hit the fan for the Oakland A’s and their efforts to get a new stadium.