The Chronicle’s John Shea has some “news” from the commish courtesy of the All Star Break BBWA meeting.

“Territorial rights are always sacred,” Selig said at a Baseball Writers Association of America meeting.

Selig refused to comment on whether baseball would approve an A’s move to San Jose, a city that’s in the Giants’ territory but is luring A’s owner Lew Wolff. The A’s, whose attendance has fallen five straight years, claim a move from the Coliseum to a new venue would ensure higher revenue and a greater chance to be competitive.

Selig warned, “We’re living in an economy where it’s tough to talk about new stadiums.”

Yes, I did say that the panel’s report should have been out by now. What’s the hold up? Who knows? It could be that, knowing the state of the economy, there’s simply no rush. No one’s breaking ground anytime soon. It could be that additional possibilities are being explored by the panel to ensure that every avenue has been exhausted. That’s probably not what Lew Wolff wants, but at this point there’s no harm in being thorough.

Update: Jesse, a regular participant in the comments section, had a question for Selig during yesterday’s online town hall at MLB.com. Here’s the Q&A:

Vince Micucci: The next question from Jessie in Oakland: The A’s are my lifelong passion, but I am afraid they are going to move. When will the stadium committee that MLB sent to Oakland be ready to deliver a review?

Commissioner Selig: They are close. Mr. Dupuy will meet with them shortly. It’s a difficult situation and I understand his concerns. But the Oakland A’s need a new ballpark — there’s no question about that — to be competitive.

The Giants have built themselves a wonderful, wonderful ballpark, and the A’s need to do the same thing. So this committee has been very thorough, has examined all of the different possibilities, which they should do, all of the different places that they may be able to go and everything else.

So I’m confident in the end that we will make a very meaningful and rational decision.

Great work, Jesse. Before you readers start parsing the response, I’ll advise you – don’t. You’ll be taking gigantic leaps if you do.