SAN FRANCISCO, May 24 -- The owners of the Oakland Athletics
Major League Baseball team said on Wednesday they aim to form a
professional soccer club in the San Francisco Bay area if a new stadium
can be built.

The club would replace the San Jose Earthquakes, who relocated from
California in December to become Major League Soccer's Houston Dynamo
team.

The league aims to have a new San Francisco Bay area franchise on the
field no later than 2009, commissioner Don Garber told reporters in a
telephone conference call.

The league and Athletics' owners Lew Wolff and John Fisher have agreed to
a three-year development partnership to bring professional soccer back to
the region, with the Earthquakes' former hometown of San Jose or
neighboring Silicon Valley towns as priority sites for a new stadium.

However, other locations will be considered as the region is running short
of land suitable for a new soccer-specific stadium with seating for about
20,000 fans, Wolff said.

"We are in the venue business," said Wolff, a property developer who is
also leading the Athletics in a search for land for a new ballpark in
Oakland or nearby towns.

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