The name battle is over and the Angels and the city of Anaheim are working together to host this summer’s major league All-Star Game. Up next in the tango between the two—the 2014 opt-out clause in the ballpark lease. “We don’t really want to go anywhere,” Dennis Kuhl, Angels chairman and owner Arte Moreno’s sidekick, told an OC Biz Council gathering last week at the Center Club. He cited Angel Stadium’s “great, great” location and the 3-million-plus attendance in all seven of Moreno’s seasons. But to continue with a lease that goes through 2029, Kuhl said there’s “a lot of work to be done” on the MLB’s “fourth oldest stadium” and the city will need to help. Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, chief foe of the “Los Angeles” name change, agrees with Kuhl that “there are some very legitimate issues” with the ballpark. Even dating Angel Stadium from its $118 million do-over in 1998 rather than from its 1966 opening, the luxury boxes and other amenities are less than state-of-the-art, Pringle said. “The realm” of fixes range from another renovation to building an entirely new facility. Points of reference: The Mets’ new Citi Field cost about $600 million and the new Yankee Stadium was twice that much, with the public contributing about $200 million for each. Anaheim reluctantly kicked in about $30 million for the 1998 project. “There are some very big decisions to be made,” says the term-limited Pringle. “I’m somewhat glad that I won’t have to be making those decisions” …
This week’s Toshiba Classic field is one of the best ever, with “rookies” Fred Couples, Corey Pavin and Paul Azinger joining Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Mission Viejo-bred Mark O’Meara and other stars at Newport Beach CC. Executive Director Jeff Purser says the tough economy will likely prevent the golf tourney from reaching its customary $1 million for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and other charities for the second year in a row. But it should clear $900,000 and remain the biggest fundraiser on the Champions Tour …
The OC-based GOP donor group New Majority is the first to get Meg Whitman to debate Steve Poizner. The GOP gubernatorial candidates will meet March 15 at the Samueli Theater at the Performing Arts Center. Whitman and Poizner also have accepted an invitation from Comcast to debate on May 2 at an undetermined site …
Another reluctant debater, GOP Senate candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, speaks Thursday at an OC Forum-sponsored luncheon at the Hilton Irvine …
Last week’s OCBJ cover boy, “Mr. Irrelevant” Paul Salata, is being honored March 15 at the Rod Dedeaux Memorial Golf Classic at Wilshire CC in L.A. benefiting USC’s Davis School of Gerontology …
Apologies for any confusion from the production error that placed the wrong headline on last week’s column. The headline should have trumpeted S. Paul Musco’s Relief Pod disaster kit, not the prior week’s item about Larry Agran and Jeff Teller.
