Is A’s Baseball in San Jose Really a Possibility?

With the A’s offseason dredging along, one big issue has remained top-of-mind for me? What are the chances of the A’s moving to San Jose? This is not a new conversation but one that San Jose city officials have been focusing their efforts on recently. As someone who lives near San Jose and has been engaged in some of these conversations, I can tell you that San Jose would absolutely embrace the A’s should Major League Baseball clear the way for this to happen.

San Jose has identified a site and they have done the economic analysis. In fact, according to a report titled “Economic Impact Analysis: Proposed Major League Ballpark” released on September 3, a new ballpark in downtown San Jose could create approximately 1,000 new jobs and $130 million in economic benefit to the City of San Jose.

“San Jose is ready to play ball,” said Mayor Chuck Reed. “It’s great news that this privately built and operated major league ballpark will create nearly 1,000 jobs and generate over $5 million dollars a year of revenue for local governments. San Jose would receive over $3 million each year in new tax revenue. In addition, Santa Clara County, schools and other local agencies would receive over $2 million a year in new revenue. That’s good news for local governments in these tough budget times,” said Reed. “As the largest city in Northern California and one of the most dynamic markets in the U.S., the time is right for professional baseball to turn its attention to San Jose.”

Given the success of the San Jose Sharks, it is proven that the San Jose can support a professional sports team. But no matter how much support their is privately and publicly, the fact is, the San Francisco Giants have territorial rights in the South Bay and only Major League Baseball and the owners can give the A’s the ‘green’ light to move forward with San Jose.

The ball is in Bud Selig’s hands… what’s he going to do with it?