Los Angeles Angels Reopens Talks With Anaheim
After flirting with nearby Tustin for a new stadium, the Los Angeles Angels are taking with the City of Anaheim about a new deal.
The Los Angeles Angels have reopened talks with the City of Anaheim on renovating Angel Stadium, again.
It has been a rough relationship the last couple of years between the two parties. A deal that would have given the Angels development rights to the area around the ballpark for 66 years fell through. As the team flirted with leaving the city, looking to convert an old Marine base in nearby Tustin, negotiations re-opened after the Angels balked at the $500 million minimum price tag. With the possibility of spending $1 billion on a new stadium, owner Arte Moreno saw what kind of deal he could get with Anaheim.
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Angel Stadium, opened in 1966, is the second-oldest stadium in the American League behind Fenway Park in Boston and the fourth-oldest in Major League Baseball. Only Dodger Stadium, where the club called home for four seasons from 1962 through 1965, and Chicago’s Wrigley Field are older. Converted for football when the Los Angeles Rams left Memorial Coliseum in 1980, and re-converted to a baseball-only facility after the Rams left for St. Louis after 1994, the stadium is in need of another facelift. If another renovation happens, it will be the fourth in nearly 50 years.
It remains to be seen if the two sides can come close to the deal proposed by the city that would tie the club to the site for another 66 years. That deal would have allowed the Angels to build shopping and recreational areas around the park in exchange for a long-term lease for the city-owned stadium. As it stands now, the Angels have an opt-out in their current lease in 2019. If they do not announce their intentions to leave Angel Stadium by the end of 2018, a clause kicks in locking the Angels there another ten years through 2029.
So begins another dance between a billionaire owner and a city for around $130-150 million. With Tustin off the table and no open discussion of moving the club back to Los Angeles, Anaheim is the only real option for the Angels. Remember how long it took the NFL to get a workable site to relocate the Rams again?
Anaheim’s national identity is entwined between the Angels and nearby Disneyland. The NHL’s Anaheim Mighty Ducks are not well known outside of hockey circles and would not be the best of consolation prizes if the Angels leave. Expect the city to come up with a good chunk of money and a favorable new lease to make Moreno happy.
As much as Moreno wants to sink as little of his own fortune into a facility if given the right amount of incentives he will take a good deal that requires him to spend a few million.
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The current stadium is a mish-mash of Disney’s late-90s makeover complete with Styrofoam rocks and a waterfall mixed with new scoreboards and tributes to teams gone by. With the team drawing over three million at the gate annually, giving the place a new signature look will make everyone happy.