I’ve seen newspaper columnists try to fill space with random musings before, but the Orange County Register’s Jonathan Lansner takes the cake here:
When I view the stadium puzzle through this prism, my eyes see an unorthodox solution.
• The Angels team up with Tustin, for stadium purposes and more.
• Anaheim partners with its old pals at Disney, and the stadium land helps the theme park juggle its parking challenges as well as any eventual expansion plans it may have for a third park. (Might such an expansion take its theme from one of Disney’s movie franchises, like “Star Wars”?)
Do I know anything more than anyone else who may be speculating? No. But this path is certainly worth exploring – even if we spend other people’s notional money in the process.
Setting aside that Lansner seems to have come up with this entire plan while in the shower, it doesn’t even really make much sense: The Los Angeles Angels would move to a new stadium in Tustin funded by new development there, even though Tustin officials have made clear that they won’t give Angels owner Arte Moreno free land for development, and the Angel Stadium land, which is owned by the city of Anaheim, would be used for … parking for Disneyland, which is three miles away? Which would benefit whom how exactly?
I’ve already spent more time thinking about this than I should have, and probably more than Lansner did, too. Suffice to say that column-writing is the cushiest gig in the universe, and if anybody offers me space to write one again, I promise to be fully awake before pressing “send.”
Made an attempt at reading the article. Couldn’t even get past the third paragraph: “The baseball team, which needs a stadium – revamped or new”
Is this the part where Lyle Lanley jumps into the stage and starts singing about a Monorail?
Is Angels Stadium really that in need of replacement or do the Angels really just want a shiny shiny pretty pretty new one for the sake of shiny shiny pretty pretty?
I went to Angels Stadium (Or whatever it’s called now) in 2010-ish and it’s a great place to watch a ball game. I’ve been to 10 MLB parks and it is one of the better parks. If they are crying for something new it’s because they ‘want’ it as opposed to ‘need’ it. Maybe there aren’t enough suites or they want a prk with a moat separating the 1% from the riffraff.
The reason the Angels want a new stadium is because the current one opened in 1966 and is now 49 years old (it has had a good run, unlike stadiums in Atlanta). It was renovated twice in that time but the concrete, plumbing, and basic infrastructure is still all original. The owner is willing to renovate the current stadium but supposedly it will cost at least $150 million just on infrastructure without adding any “shiny” or new.
It’s a little dull and the food options are not great. Definitely needs more bathroom fixtures. But the buzz word has been “infrastructure”.
The theory with Disney parking is twofold: freeing up Disney parking lots close to the park for expansion of some kind, and it’s proximity to the new transit center. Monorail jokes aside, there were talks of a trolley or streetcar down Katella Ave, which connects the two properties.
I opened in 1965 and still have my original plumbing. What are you implying?
Plans for a streetcar are well beyond the casual-talking stage — our extremely pro-boondoggle Powers That Be, having recently spent $185 million on a largely-pointless stadium-area transit center, are now seeking to connect that to the Disneyland area by way of a $325 million(!), 3.5-mile(!) streetcar. Reconfiguring the Anaheim Stadium parking lot to put *something* at the end of that streetcar line — be it satellite parking for Disneyland, or a shopping and dining ‘experience’ — would justify that half-billion dollars worth of construction until high-speed rail (the original justification for all of it) finally arrives in 2029 (if we’re lucky).
I am an OC native, and half of this plan has been discussed among transportation planners for decades: building a monorail from Disneyland/Convention Center along Katella to the stadium would allow for Disneyland employees to park at the stadium and allow for construction of a third Disney theme park.
The Angels-to-Tustin part of it is almost irrelevant.