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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Major League Soccer and the Oakland Athletics announced a deal Wednesday to get a soccer team back to the Bay area if the team's owners could develop a stadium plan.

The team will replace the San Jose Earthquakes, who moved to Houston following last season following public financing for a new facility in San Jose fell through

Lew Wolff and John Fisher, the A's principal owners, would have three years to buy a team and develop a stadium solely for soccer.

The location of the new stadium has not been strong-minded but the new offices would be located in downtown San Jose. The price of the contract was not disclosed.

Wolff said the decision was aggravated by growing interest in the sport and is not related to his bid to move the A's out of Oakland over financing squabbles for a substitute for the aging Coliseum.

San Jose has long required welcoming the A's but Wolff has reportedly said he will honor Major League Baseball's rules that say San Jose defensive rights belong to the San Francisco Giants.

"We think we're hitting the soccer world perhaps at exactly the right time," Wolff said. "It's not a simple task even to find land in the Bay area, but we think there are lots of opportunities, and we can be creative if we have to."