Arte Moreno is exploring a sale of the Los Angeles Angels.
Let the speculation begin.
News last week that the 76-year-old Moreno was considering selling the team he bought in 2003 for $184 million is the latest curveball for both the franchise and the 153-acre Platinum Triangle site that holds the team’s baseball stadium and surrounding parking lots.
Talk is that if a bidding war emerges, Moreno could fetch a record sum for his team; the most paid for a Major League Baseball team is $2.4 billion for the New York Mets in 2020. Forbes values the Angels at $2.2 billion, thanks in large part to its location and enviable local television contract.
A new owner, if they want to remain in the city long term and build a new, modern stadium, would have to pay an additional sum to the city to buy the Platinum Triangle land, which the team currently leases from the city.
That’s a big if.
Sources tell the Business Journal they wouldn’t be surprised to see a new owner look for a new stadium, either elsewhere in Southern California, or another market altogether.
The Angels are contractually obligated to stay in Anaheim until 2029.
Local Buyers Unlikely
Orange County counts its share of ultra-wealthy residents who could afford to buy the team or join others in a consortium. None are obvious candidates to do so.
Anaheim Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli, who are preparing to put billions of dollars into redeveloping land they own around Honda Center, do not have an interest in buying the team, sources tell the Business Journal.
While Irvine Co. owns a large apartment complex in the immediate vicinity of Angel Stadium, Chairman Donald Bren, the country’s wealthiest real estate owner, isn’t believed to have any interest in the team or the undeveloped land next to the stadium.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has a secondary home in Laguna Beach and has previously looked into buying MLB teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, last week told the Los Angeles Times that he wasn’t interested in the Angels.
Other multibillionaires with secondary homes in the area and a history of investing in professional sports teams include SAP founder Hasso Plattner, who owns the San Jose Sharks hockey team, and NantWorks CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong, who counts a minority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers.
Existing Owner Interest
Non-local investors would appear a more likely choice to buy the team. Without local ties, chances of a relocation of the team seems at first glance to be more likely.
Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who moved his franchise from Oakland to a new stadium in San Francisco a couple years ago, has suggested interest in the team.
Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, with a large collection of sports teams across the globe to his name and recent experience at building new stadiums, also has been touted as a potential candidate.
Music City Baseball, a new group led by businessman John Loar, this summer said it was looking to raise $2 billion to bring a baseball team—either via a relocation or MLB
expansion—to the Nashville area. The fast-growing city has drawn several other OC companies to the area of late thanks to tax breaks.
Execs in the Central Texas area around Austin and El Paso, another growing metropolitan area that’s been luring California companies due to a favorable business climate, have been considering a run at a team as well the past couple years, according to local news reports.
Local Options
In Southern California, Long Beach and Riverside have both been touted as potential destinations for the Angels in prior years, when Moreno and Anaheim were at an impasse in negotiations.
Long Beach counts 55 waterfront acres of largely unused land near the Long Beach Arena that were previously pitched to Moreno as new mixed-use hub, with a 13-acre baseball stadium the star attraction.
The city in May said it was willing to reengage with the team over a potential move.
In Orange County, both Tustin and Irvine have plenty of undeveloped land at their former military bases that could still prove attractive to a new owner.
Nixed Acquisition
Plans for the Angels’ long-term home—their current stadium, which opened in 1966, is the fourth-oldest in the league—have been in flux for years.
In 2019, the Angels and the city of Anaheim agreed on a deal that would keep the baseball team in the city and sell the stadium and surrounding land to a company affiliated with Moreno.
Moreno’s SRB Management LLC initial deal for the stadium and the surrounding 133 acres of land totaled $325 million. That deal got caught up in negotiations with the state housing agency, which deemed the sale illegal, claiming the city failed to open the property up for bidding to prioritize affordable housing.
In May, the deal came further into question as part of a citywide FBI corruption probe that specifically called out the Angel Stadium negotiations.
Weeks later, Moreno agreed to cancel the sale.
A new owner of the baseball team could still negotiate a new purchase agreement with the city—albeit now likely at a higher price tag—to redevelop the land into homes and commercial uses, along with a new or refurbished stadium.
“Should we see new ownership of the baseball team, it would welcome a fresh opportunity to address the unresolved questions of the stadium and find better uses for the land that is currently underutilized,” city spokesperson Mike Lyster told the Business Journal.
Team For Sale
New York-based Galatioto Sports Partners has been retained by Moreno as advisers during the sales process.
“It has been a great honor and privilege to own the Angels for 20 seasons,” Moreno said in a statement last week. “Although this difficult decision was entirely our choice and deserved a great deal of thoughtful consideration, my family and I have ultimately come to the conclusion that now is the time,” he said.
“Throughout this process, we will continue to run the franchise in the best interest of our fans, employees, players, and business partners.”
OC Vibe Goes it Alone, for Now
Arte Moreno’s prior plans for redeveloping the area around Angel Stadium did not specify whether he would renovate or replace the city’s existing 45,483-seat baseball stadium, but it proposed mixed-use additions including 5,175 apartments, two hotels, 2.7 million square feet of office space, parks and other commercial additions such as retail and restaurants.
Plans would also require the inclusion of at least 12,500 parking spaces and affordable housing.
The Angels plans were released in mid-2020, within the same week as those for the redevelopment of the neighboring Honda Center, owned by Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli.
The Samuelis’ plan, dubbed OC Vibe, has since made much more progress and has gotten city approvals.
The two plans—with an estimated combined project cost totaling at least $8 billion—were at one point complementary. Both ownership entities were in talks to make sure the projects, though separate, “are synergistic,” Dan Young, lead master planner for OC Vibe, previously told the Business Journal.
OC Vibe plans to add 1,500 units of mixed-income housing, 195 affordable housing units, 550 hotel rooms, more than 35 restaurants and 20 acres of public space.
The plan for OC Vibe still touts a 2024 opening date for the first phase on its website.
The Samuelis “are fantastic owners in our city, and they have done a tremendous job with their team and the roughly 95 acres surrounding the arena,” spokesperson for the city of Anaheim Mike Lyster said. “They will play an incredible role in transforming the area.”
—Katie Murar
