by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–According to some media reports and talk show hosts in Canada the real possibility of the Oakland A’s moving to Montreal if the Oakland City Council does not sign the new ten year lease that would keep the A’s at the Oakland Coliseum until 2424 is very realistic. Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid said that the A’s have options and that Montreal and San Antonio were open to receive the A’s if the lease deal falls through.

What makes this realistic is Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has given A’s co-owner Lew Wolff his blessing for the team to bolt out of the city of Oakland forthwith if a deal isn’t struck. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors have already committed to voting for the deal but the Oakland City Council are at odds regarding the lease which they approved last week 6-2 but another phase of voting is scheduled on Tuesday July 29th.

The Council have problems with the A’s insisting on a two year advance notice rather than the one that some council members are proposing a four year notice if the club wants out of the city of Oakland, also the council wants a cut of the A’s advertising revenues from the new $10 million scoreboard they plan to install if a deal is struck.

Wolff has insisted that he will not renegotiate the lease and that he stands pat on the agreement between the A’s and the city council. The monkey wrench into the mix is the Oakland Raiders are also threatening to leave if they don’t get a new stadium under construction by 2015 in the footprint of the Coliseum.

If a ten year A’s lease is signed, the Raiders said they would leave Oakland as the football team wants a new stadium ready by 2016, Oakland Supervisor Nate Miley said the who notion of the Raiders threatening to leave if the A’s lease is signed and the Raiders don’t get to tear down the Coliseum for a new stadium is “smoke and mirrors” also Miley questioned where is the money going to come from to build a new Raiders stadium the City and County already owe $180 million on the current Coliseum for the construction of the elevated bleacher seats in the A’s outfield known after the late Raiders owner Al Davis as Mount Davis.

Meanwhile Canadian Officials chimed in on the possibility of Montreal being named as a city the A’s might move to if the lease doesn’t get signed. Canadian officals are getting behind the effort to bring back an MLB team to Montreal, Canadian Prime Minister Steve Harper tweeted “I hope efforts @ExposNation will one day be rewarded with a team in Montreal.#Expos” Also Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said a corporate sponsor will be needed to help finance a new downtown stadium. Unlike the U.S. where public funding for new stadiums are shared with the team and sponsors. Public funding will not happen in Canada for a new stadium the monies must come from private funding. Coderre is regarded as the best mayor Montreal has ever had or at least in recent memory and he is getting behind bringing baseball back to Montreal.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan wants to build a Sports Village Complex at the Coliseum but there are variables to make that happen. To keep the Raiders happy the A’s must move out of the Coliseum to temporary digs. The Raiders will get their new Stadium while also playing elsewhere by 2016 and the City and the A’s must build a new stadium for the A’s at the Coliseum complex and when that’s ready the A’s can move into their new stadium likewise the Raiders. That would be the plan in a perfect world.

Jerry Feitelberg covers A’s baseball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com