NEW YORK -- Baseball commissioner Bud Selig insists the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays must have new ballparks to be able to compete.

Speaking on Thursday to the Associated Press Sports Editors, Selig provided no timetable for deciding the Bay Area dispute between the A's, who would like to build a ballpark in San Jose, and the Giants, who won't give up their territorial rights there.

"I'm always hopeful when there are debates amongst clubs, I try to lead teams in a direction of solving their problems themselves," Selig said. "However, this group has an interesting comment whenever they get in trouble: 'That's why you're here, commissioner.' That's what they tell me. I don't know that that's a particularly good answer. ... We've had a lot of meetings, spent an enormous amount of time. I've just met with both clubs again and we'll continue along this process."

Asked whether there could be a solution that wouldn't anger one of the Bay Area teams, Selig responded: "Time will tell. I'm always hopeful. I'm an optimist, and I really believe that every problem has a solution to it. The question is just finding the right one, and so far I've been lucky on that score. And so I hope my string of luck will continue."

Oakland owner Lew Wolff responded in an email to The Associated Press: "Bud is doing his best to be fair to us and the Giants."