By Charlie O. Mallonee

The Oakland Athletics need a champion not a championship (although that would not hurt their cause). The Athletics need an individual who is ready to lay their reputation on the line and pull out all the stops to build a new stadium for the team.

The A’s are the last team in Major League Baseball to be housed in a multipurpose stadium. The 48-year old O.co Coliseum (formerly the Oakland – Alameda County Coliseum) is a hole. The building is old and has no charm since the addition of “Mt. Davis” in center field. The sewage system does not work properly, and the stadium lacks all the amenities of newer facilities. The facility no longer works for the A’s or for the Raiders as a place to play professional sports.

The City of Oakland and Alameda County have a major dilemma on their hands. The Athletics need a new stadium or they will be playing somewhere else. The Raiders want a new facility or they will probably be back in Southern California. The Warriors will ultimately wind up in San Francisco. That means Oakland is on the verge of having no professional teams within its borders.

The Athletics want to move to San Jose. San Jose wants the A’s. A marriage made in heaven except that the San Francisco Giants are doing everything within their power to stop it with their claims of territorial rights. The Giants do not want the Athletics in Silicon Valley. In reality, the Giants do not want the A’s in the Bay Area or Northern California. The Giants would be perfectly happy to be the lone team in the nation’s sixth largest television market.

Major League Baseball led by Commissioner Bud Selig has chosen the Giants as their favorite and has made the Athletics the ugly stepchild. MLB’s view is it’s Oakland or somewhere else in the East Bay or the highway for the A’s. Baseball has backed the Athletics into a corner where the only choices may be for Lew Wolff and his partners to sell or move the team out of Northern California.

Major League Baseball would probably be very happy if the Athletics were to move. New Orleans, Nashville and Charlotte are all in the market for a major league team. After the overwhelming response to an exhibition game in Montreal this weekend, the people of Quebec may be back in the market for a major league team. There are cities that would want the Athletics and would give them what they want – a world class baseball facility.

What will it take for the Athletics to get something done in the East Bay? It may take a new ownership group. Lew Wolff and his partners may just be too fed up to fight for the A’s. Wolff is a major force in Major League Soccer. The Earthquakes have their new stadium in San Jose and are ready to become one of the top draws in the MLS. Wolff was shut out in Fremont and San Jose. It may be time for a new group to take up the fight.

In Sacramento when the Kings were on the brink of having the moving vans whisk them away in the middle of the night, Mayor Kevin Johnson stood up and said no way! Johnson put his entire mayoral legacy on line to keep the Kings in Sacramento. He not only pushed to build a new arena but also helped to put together a new ownership group to run the NBA franchise. Vivek Ranadive and partners have brought a renewed spirit to the Kings and fans believe the franchise is on its way to the next level.

Will Oakland Mayor Jean Quan or Alameda County Board of Supervisors President Keith Carson be the politician that stands up and leads the way? Will it be another collation between the city and the county? Will leaders in Dublin, Pleasanton or Livermore become the leaders who take on saving the A’s for Northern California? It will take one politician who will stand up and lay it all on the line to save the Athletics and reap the benefits of doing so.

The clock is ticking. There may be opening nights in Oakland next year and the year to follow but make no mistake, time is running out on the A’s, Oakland and Alameda County and the Bay Area.