And speaking of articles citing unnamed sources, or rather “people familiar with the discussions but who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to comment publicly,” here’s the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin with more rumors about the rumored Los Angeles Angels stadium project in Long Beach:
In Long Beach, the proposed ballpark site is a 13-acre parking lot adjacent to the [Long Beach Arena]. However, the Long Beach City Council last month authorized negotiations on a larger parcel that envelops the ballpark site and includes the city’s convention center, performing arts center, arena and a greenbelt between Shoreline Drive and the Pacific Ocean.
That would certainly help clear some room for a stadium, which was going to be a problem otherwise:
(The arena is the roundish thing in the center of the image.)
It would also help find room for the ancillary development that Angels owner Arte Moreno wants to build to help defray his stadium construction costs, whether in Anaheim or, presumably, elsewhere. Of course, then Long Beach wouldn’t have anywhere to host Paw Patrol Live or the Society of Vacuum Coaters Tech Con, but I guess they’d live.
Shaikin also notes another problem with the Long Beach site from the Angels’ perspective, though:
While Angel Stadium is surrounded by three freeways and a train station, the Long Beach site is close to only the 710 and 405 freeways and the only major public transit option — the Blue Line light rail from Los Angeles — does not serve the Angels’ primary fan base in Orange County.
I still predict that Moreno is just playing footsie with Long Beach to try to arm-twist Anaheim into going along with his stadium demands, just as he previously tried and failed to do with Tustin. A team spokesperson told the Times that they hope to make a stadium decision by the end of 2019, so we should know more by then, maybe.
Almost 20 years later and we have Anaheim vs Long Beach part 2 (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-01-me-1379-story.html). Anaheim hopefully won’t fall for it again. As for Long Beach, I would imagine the hotels around the convention center would not be happy that their main anchor would be a stadium used for 80-90 days that caters to locals instead of a year round convention center.
So, Long Beach has decided they don’t need that arena, performing arts center, or convention center any longer? Maybe they could work out a deal where the new stadium and development could possibly include like one of those items. But hard to believe they’d be able to get all 3 of those in there.
If the Angels move, Anaheim is not powerless here. They have a stadium and location that constantly draws around 3 million fans. They should start talking to the Rays, or putting an expansion group together. Even split 3 ways, LA is far larger than any non Mexican expansion city.
You forget that the Angels and the Dodgers both have territorial rights, so the Rays, A’s or new expansion team cannot just move there. The territorial rights of the Yankees & Mets are exactly why Northern New Jersey does not have an MLB team.
It sounds counter intuitive, but you wonder if a third team would be great for baseball, and thus the original teams in LA. Rivalries increase interest, etc.. In the MLS markets that introduced a new team (LA and NYC), the interest in the new team increased interest in the original team and revitalized the market.
It it’s any thing like NFL relocation, there are rules and there are “rules.” Flash some money around and hardened rules get very flexible.
Tell that to the A’s owners who wanted to move to San Jose.
Wouldn’t this immediately by followed by a new plan to waste public money building a new arena and convention center, since obviously they’ll need those once the old ones are torn down?
That would be the case if Long Beach was isolated, but arena functions could easily be absorbed in Inglewood or Anaheim. Not sure on how much the convention center gets used. Nevertheless, it’s still a dumb idea to build a ballpark there.
The convention center gets used a lot. You get a lot of events that either want to be close to LA or vacation-y, but still not spend as much as it would cost to hold the event in LA or SD.