Oh, never mind, Arte Moreno isn’t really selling the Los Angeles Angels after his sweetheart land grab fell apart, he was only joshing us:
“During this process, it became clear that we have unfinished business and feel we can make a positive impact on the future of the team and the fan experience,” Moreno said in a statement. “This offseason we committed to a franchise record player payroll and still want to accomplish our goal of bringing a World Series Championship back to our fans. We are excited about this next chapter of Angels Baseball.”
Moreno added that he had met with “a number of highly qualified individuals and groups who expressed strong interest in the Club. However, as discussions advanced and began to crystallize, we realized our hearts remain with the Angels, and we are not ready to part ways with the fans, players, and our employees.”
Isn’t that sweet? After declaring that “my family and I” have decided that “now is the time,” turns out he doesn’t want to sell after all, because he has so much love in his heart for everyone around the Angels! Because when you think Arte Moreno, you think unbridled affection for your fellow humans.
The obvious question everyone now wants to know the answer to is “What will this mean for the chances of Shohei Ohtani re-signing with the Angels once his contract expires after 2023?” But this, of course, is not the website for that question, so instead let’s ask: What will this mean for Moreno’s now-decade-long quest to get control of the parking lots around his stadium so he can either build a new one there, build a bunch of other development there and use the money to remodel his current stadium, or both?
It’s possible the end of Moreno’s six-month hissy fit was prompted by indications that he thought he might have a shot after all at reviving such a deal with the new city leadership that took over after the old mayor resigned in a cloud of bribery scandals and illegal helicopter registrations; new mayor Ashleigh Aitken told the Voice of OC in an emailed statement in response to questions that “After the dust settles and when the time is right, I am open to talking about any proposal that would be good for our residents.” Or it could be that Moreno just didn’t like the purchase offers he was getting; or, sure, love of the people, anything’s possible. Whichever it is, it does not seem likely that he’s going to give up on his stadium dreams just because everyone hates him and his biggest political ally is under FBI investigation.
The Athletic’s Sam Blum notes that the Angels’ lease runs through 2029, but Moreno has an option to extend it to 2038, so it’s not like he has to make any urgent decisions there. (Moreno will turn 92 in 2038.) He could certainly use the possibility of not signing a lease extension to try to shake down Anaheim for more money or free land, a la pretty much every other team owner out there, he could try to threaten to move to Tustin or Long Beach again, or he could bide his time for a couple of years and wait for everyone to forget how poorly acquiescing to his demands went last time. Or Moreno could forget about trying to shake down the city for a windfall subsidy and just focus on building a winning ballclub — nah, he should probably just stick to what he knows.
Without infringing on the Dodgers territory, where can he move the Angels? Lots of empty orange groves left in Orange County LOL. Lancaster? Hemet? Murrieta? Maybe Barstow would be great! Or further away there’s Birmingham, Nashville, San Antonio and Charlotte, but even the best of those markets is a fraction of half of Southern California. Maybe if his Angels ever won he could actually compete with the Dodgers.
Unlike the situation in the Bay Area, the Angels are not constrained by illogical territorial boundaries; in theory, they could play pretty much anywhere in the metropolitan area. Long Beach is, of course, in Los Angeles County. That said, it’s hard for me to imagine a better site in terms of freeway and (this may seem like a stretch, but go with me here in thinking on a 50-year time frame) passenger rail access than where they are now.
I’ve taken the train a few times to Angel games. The ARTIC station is right near the stadium.
I’ve done it as well. Let’s you off right behind the stadium. I made the mistake of not checking when the last train leaves Union Station on the way back and got stranded in downtown LA. Had to wake up my girlfriend to pick me up.
I think the Metrolink ends service at 7PM, which is great if you want to see a Lakers game.
At one point the MLB constitution stated that in shared territories, there was a provision that stadiums had to be either 15 or 25 miles apart.
FWIW an A’s ballpark in San Jose would’ve been nearly 50 miles from Oracle Park, SF. Oakland’s roughly 8 miles from SF. Such an illogical world we live in…
It’s not that illogical when you consider that the community of San Jose was originally considered part of A’s territory.
MLB should not have sided with the Giants on ‘their interpretation’ of the Haas’ family’s letter to then Giants ownership in regard to the territory of San Jose, I agree.
However, if the Haas family had been more clear on what they were doing (trading territories rather than just surrendering one) and had, you know, actually hired a lawyer to write or review the letter and draft a contractual agreement between the two parties over the exchange, literally none of this would have happened.
Certainly the Giants and MLB are wearing the evil ogre cloak on this one, but answer me this:
If one of your (at that time 25) business partners agreed to surrender an interest in something you jointly owned or controlled without requesting anything in return, would you accept that gift or refuse on moral grounds?
I would suggest that all three parties are at fault to varying degrees here.