A's Look Towards Sharks, Not Coyotes, For Potential San Jose Move

A's owner Lew Wolff says he's not looking at the Coyotes' threatened move from Phoenix as any kind of model for Oakland's baseball team, an idea that had been hinted at by the Los Angeles Times over the weekend.

Instead, it's the Sharks who are providing some inspiration for Wolff as the A's begin exploring their options in San Jose.

"The Sharks are the single most import venture of that sort to happen in that city," Wolff says.

Wolff, a former part owner of the St. Louis Blues, is a developer who has had business in San Jose for more than 40 years, and he says that the city had no name recognition whatsoever until the Sharks landed in town in 1993.

Wolff recalls once purchasing 1,000 copies of "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" in 45 rpm form to try to get some awareness for a project in San Jose. He gave out the records, "And it didn't help," he says. "But the day after the Sharks opened, everyone knew where San Jose was."

The A's are openly eyeing the city at the southern end of the Bay Area. Wolff says that the team has investigated possibilities in the East Bay to the utmost, first trying to find a way to make Oakland work and then planning a stadium in Fremont, 20 miles to the south. Land was acquired for that venture, which fell through after delays, location haggling and opposition from residents. There are those who believe Oakland could still work and proposals for that city still pop up, but the A's believe they have done all they can to find something suitable in their longtime home, and after 41 years at the crumbling Coliseum, the team is pointing southward.

Wolff points out that San Jose just passed the 1 million mark in population and is the 10th largest city in the country. It has been the biggest city in Northern California for years, though overshadowed in name recognition by San Francisco. The city's desire for its own identity, something first addressed by the Sharks, makes a major-league baseball franchise a logical step, and there is land for a possible stadium essentially across the street from the Shark Tank, HP Pavilion.

Many believe the Giants' territorial rights, cited as a hurdle to any A's move to San Jose, will be swept aside by baseball's owners in the best interests of the sport. One reason: San Jose is likely to support the A's to the extent that the team doesn't require a big chunk of revenue sharing.

The A's and Sharks are already partners. The Sharks have a stake in the San Jose Earthquakes MLS team, which is primarily operated by the A's ownership group.

But the A's and the Coyotes are in no way similar, according to Wolff. First of all, Major League Baseball enjoys an anti-trust exemption and can make all decisions about franchise locations. Second, as Wolff points out, the Coyotes are in bankruptcy, which makes their situation completely unlike Oakland's. He's watching their situation out of interest, not using it as some sort of guide. That said, he believes Phoenix has the population base to fill a hockey arena if the Coyotes' debt problems are resolved. Phoenix is listed as the country's fifth largest city.

"But to me, it's nothing to do with baseball," Wolff says."I don't see any parallels, hockey is a different market."