Art Moreno Threatining to Move Angels

[Juronimo]

First, the gay-ass name change, now this...

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-angels22nov22,1,12646.story?coll=la-headline

Next Move Could Be Up to Moreno

Angel owner, increasingly frustrated by his year-old legal battle with Anaheim, says relocating the team is a possibility if the case reaches appeals court.

By Bill Shaikin, Times Staff Writer


TEMPE, Ariz. — He might pay more to his lawyers than to his relief pitchers this year. Under a lease at issue in a lawsuit between the Angels and the city of Anaheim, he has paid more to refurbish Angel Stadium than the city has.

So, with the legal battle approaching the one-year mark and threatening to overshadow back-to-back division championships, Angel owner Arte Moreno is increasingly frustrated with city officials.

"They're trying to run me out of town," he said.

The city claims the Angels broke their stadium lease by billing themselves as a Los Angeles team. The trial is set to start Jan. 9. The losing side could appeal, a lengthy process that Moreno said could prompt him to consider moving the team.

"If this gets put into appeals court, somewhere along the line you have to think about whether you're gone," he said.

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle dismissed the notion that the City Council wants to chase Moreno out.

"Of course we want to have the team in town," Pringle said. "This council and previous councils have bent over backward to build that relationship. We're not bending over backward now, but we're just trying to uphold the bargain we made with the team.

"We view it as a tremendous asset. That's why we put so much money into the deal."

The city contributed $20 million to the Walt Disney Co.'s 1996 stadium renovation, contingent upon the team calling itself the Anaheim Angels. Moreno bought the team from Disney in 2003 and changed the name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last January.

The Angels say they have satisfied the lease provision that requires the team name to "include the name Anaheim therein." The city says that name violates the spirit of the lease, depriving Anaheim of prominent media exposure that could be worth tens — or hundreds — of millions.

The Angels have made several settlement offers, Moreno said, but he insists on keeping the Los Angeles name and the city insists he remove it.

"The issue always comes back to the name," Moreno said.

Moreno and Pringle each declined to provide details of the settlement offers.

According to sources familiar with the discussions, the Angels offered to guarantee an annual share of ticket revenue and to address the alleged loss of media exposure by promoting the city in ads and broadcasts, but the team did not offer to repay the $20 million, or even a prorated part.

The lease requires the Angels to pay the city $2 for every ticket sold over 2.6 million. The Angels sold 3 million for the first time in 2003 and increased attendance since then, thus paying almost $5 million to the city.

In addition, Moreno has spent $34 million on repairs and maintenance at the city-owned stadium, spokesman Tim Mead said. Under the lease, the Angels run the stadium and assume any operating losses.

"Not only are we giving a check to the city, we're putting money into that stadium every year," Moreno said.

Aside from his legal skirmish, Moreno said he sees progress on and off the field.

For the first time, the Angels have won consecutive division championships, with television ratings pulling even with the Dodgers'. Although FSN has offered a cable contract on par with the Dodgers', Moreno said he has not ruled out launching a cable channel.

From 2002 to '05, he said, annual revenues jumped from $102 million to $175 million and season-ticket sales from 12,000 to 28,000. The latter figure reflects a marketing campaign across Southern California, he said, with 38% of season seats this year sold to fans outside Orange County.

"In the next two years, we'll probably be 50-50," he said.

He is getting tired, he said, of hearing questions about the lawsuit instead of about American League Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon, or the Angels' attendance records, or about their charitable foundation and renewed community involvement.
 
He expects to spend $4 million to $5 million on legal bills, he said. The Angels spent about $4 million on their bullpen last season. (That figure accounts for the salaries of 11 relievers, but doesn't include the salary of Kelvim Escobar, who started for three months and relieved for one.)

Said Moreno: "When does it get to a point where Anaheim understands what we're doing for the community? Anaheim has had the luxury of having a baseball team. There's 30 of them. They're doing everything they can to run us out."

"When does it get to a point where the city of Anaheim isn't trying to intimidate the owner of the Angels?"

In 1983, the Angels sued the city over parking lot development rights granted to entice the Rams to Anaheim. By the time the suit was settled in 1995, the Rams had left for St. Louis, and the city paid $13 million to the Rams' owners and a development company.

Former Angel president Richard Brown, whose law firm helped represent the team in that litigation, said the current lawsuit is nowhere near that complex.

"But if somebody were to appeal, that could take another year or two," Brown said.

Moreno said he would not necessarily move the team if the lawsuit proceeds to an appellate court.

"I'd be cutting off my nose to spite myself to say I'm leaving," he said. "I have to make the best call for the franchise."

The Angels can opt out of their stadium lease in 2016, and a lengthy court fight could influence Moreno's decision.

Angel Stadium opened in 1966. By the end of this decade, only three ballparks will be older — Chicago's Wrigley Field, Boston's Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium. All three are undergoing major renovations, and Dodger owner Frank McCourt has pledged that his team would play in Dodger Stadium for the next 25 years.

Moreno makes no such commitment to Angel Stadium.

"What kind of stadium will be left in 2016? I really need to make a call four or five years before that," he said. "We don't want to gamble that stadium is going to be in good repair past 2016.

"Is it something that needs to be addressed today? No. I like being in the facility. I like where we're located. Right now, we have a landlord that is suing us."

Pringle said the name change forced the lawsuit. After its conclusion, he said, he hopes the city and the Angels can work together to resolve whatever issues might arise, including the stadium situation.

"The commitment the city has is in line with what we do with every significant business within our borders," Pringle said. "We'll work hard to have a strong relationship with them. Both parties have to be interested in that.

"The city has taken no action except responding to the action taken by others. All we have done is stand up and defend taxpayers' rights."

[Javier]

Blame the city of Anaheim

[WestCoasta]

don't let the door hit ya on the way out!

the way I look at it, they're leaving a place that doesn't even exist...... Anaheim, Los Angeles