San Jose Eathquakes reborn?

Lew Wolff and John Fisher, the principle owners of baseball's Oakland Athletics, have teamed up with MLS to try and bring soccer back to the Bay Area.

The owners bought a three-year option to make the team happen, however in order for a team to come to life, they will need to develop a soccer-specific stadium.

It does look like they want to bring the team back to San Jose (the former team left for Houston after the end of the 2005 campaign) as Wolff said, "we have already assembled our initial operational team, our venue design team and we will establish our 'Earthquakes' office in downtown San Jose."

There had been some talk of a team playing in San Francisco, but it sounds like Wolff has ruled that out.

The lack of a stadium was the big reason given for moving the old team to Houston. The city tried to bring something together at the last minute, but for various reasons (depending on which side you listen to), it did not happen.

Wolff and Fisher have some good ties to the local community that might allow a deal to move forward. In addition, they have three years instead of three months (or was it weeks) to make such a deal happen.

There was no word on if a team would come to be as soon as a stadium deal was reached or if the team would wait for the stadium to be built. Either way, this is some of the best news for Bay Area soccer fans in a long time.