This would be exciting

There has also been recent talk of moving the A’s to nearby San Jose or Fremont, which would theoretically boost revenues and payroll. But by then Beane might be done with baseball altogether. He long ago turned his eye to other interests: soccer, for example, another hidebound sport that seems ripe for radical rethinking. He persuaded the A’s ownership to buy a Major League Soccer team, the San Jose Earthquakes, in 2007. He consults informally for Liverpool, the English soccer club that is now owned by the principal owner of the Red Sox. Michael Lewis, who has stayed friendly with Beane, says: “If I had to guess the fantasy for Billy, my guess is the A’s move to San Jose and double the payroll. He hands the team to David Forst, and then they acquire a European soccer team that he could start running.”