OAKLAND WILL BE NEW HOME OF MLS FRANCHISE

All signs point to Oakland and Athletics owner Lew Wolff for a new soccer team in the Bay Area

Rational and rampant speculation on the new MLS franchise...

Hirshfield's & Dure's Soccer Sweep: MLS expansion announcement

This much we know: Major League Soccer has scheduled a media conference call Wednesday afternoon (3:30 p.m. ET) with commissioner Don Garber and an unnamed "leading sports industry executive." The topic: Expansion.

The next team is supposed to be Cleveland or St. Louis, according to accounts of a Garber interview in The Washington Post and Mid-Atlantic Soccer Report.

Here's the curious bit, spotted by one of the many eagle-eyed folks at BigSoccer.com: An Oakland A's notebook at MLB.com casually says the following: "The A's are expected to make a major announcement regarding their involvement in Major League Soccer on Wednesday." USA TODAY has not confirmed that the A's are making any such announcement, and there's no other indication of what's on the agenda tomorrow.

Soccer Capital News: MLS Expected to Announce Return to Bay Area Wednesday

Reliable sources confirmed to MatchNight on Tuesday night that a Wednesday afternoon MLS conference call will announce the return of a Major League Soccer franchise to the Bay Area as an expansion club. Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics organization will be involved in the ownership and operation of the team.

By the way, quit naming teams "FC". We call the sport soccer, so the FC designation is confusing to fans. "FC" gives off the air of a foreign appellation which fans can't warm up to. I prefer Dallas SC and Toronto SC.

Also, let's hope Wolff and Mr. Garber pick a better nickname than Earthquakes. Why name a team after a natural disaster? Imagine the bad pr after the inevitable earthquake has occurred.

How about, Bay Battlers. OK, now you give it a shot...