Henry Samueli and Arturo “Arte” Moreno have a few things in common. They’re both billionaires, Republicans and Orange County pro sports team owners.
But don’t look for Samueli, the new owner of hockey’s Anaheim Mighty Ducks, to follow Moreno’s ownership tack with his Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball team.
“Henry will indeed be a hands-off owner,” said Tim Ryan, chief operating officer of the Mighty Ducks and Anaheim Arena Management, which runs the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, where the Ducks play.
That Samueli plans a detached style isn’t surprising. After all, he has a big day job as chairman and chief technical officer of Broadcom Corp., the Irvine-based chipmaker he cofounded and OC’s most valuable company with a recent market value of $12 billion.
Moreno’s day job is the Angels.
Samueli and wife Susan bought the Ducks for a reported $75 million from the Walt Disney Co.
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Samueli: Ducks chief |
Focused on Broadcom
Even though the Samuelis are “huge sports fans, huge entertainment fans,” Ryan said the couple’s “going to put people in place so that Henry can have what we refer to as 100% laser focus on his activities at Broadcom.”
The Ducks’ team includes Ryan, Chief Executive Michael Schulman (who’s also managing director of the Samueli Family Office), Chief Marketing Officer Bob Wagner and General Manager Brian Burke, who was named at a press conference last week.
“The Samuelis were pretty clear at the press conference (about) what the fans are going to see. No. 1, the face and voice of the Mighty Ducks will, indeed, be Brian Burke,” Ryan said.
Burke is the former general manager of the Hartford Whalers (now Carolina Hurricanes) and Vancouver Canucks.
Moreno may be more involved, but he also delegates to a team of lieutenants, including Dennis Kuhl, the Angels’ president, general manager Bill Stoneman and field manager Mike Scioscia.
Moreno, who made his fortune in billboards, has had a big hand in landing key players and crafting the team’s marketing strategy.
A native of Tucson, Moreno grew up playing baseball and has coached Little League.
Samueli, who was born in hockey-crazy Buffalo, is a self-described “lousy skater” whose favorite sport is basketball. That interest has fed speculation that Samueli is hoping to lure an NBA team to the Arrowhead Pond.
The Ducks are Samueli’s first foray into sports ownership, which is seen as a rich man’s hobby, often a money-losing one.
Moreno is former owner of a minor league baseball team in Salt Lake City and a past minority owner of the Arizona Diamond-backs in the National League. He also owned a stake worth $30 million in the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.
Samueli’s first order of business was to calm an anxious OC sports base: The team’s name, he said, will feature Anaheim as long as the Samuelis own it.
Moreno irked locals by changing his team’s name from Anaheim Angels to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The city and team are battling over the name change in court.
Moreno argued that changing the team’s name would allow it to boost TV and radio contracts by tapping a broader base of people.
Samueli said he may change the name of the Mighty Ducks, which took its moniker from a Disney movie. But he said he’ll put the decision in fans’ hands.
“We’ll do what the fans want,” Samueli said in an earlier Business Journal interview. “If they want to change the ‘Mighty Ducks’ name, we’ll do it. But we absolutely, 100%, will not change ‘Anaheim.'”
Samueli’s got some challenges. For one, the season-erasing NHL lockout continues, though the union and league seem to be nearing a settlement.
Secondly, the Ducks had a poor 2003-04 season,the last played before the lockout. They didn’t make the playoffs.
The team spent a reported $54 million on salaries during the 2003-04 season. But with an NHL-imposed salary cap expected to be set in the $30 million to $40 million range, Samueli could spend far less.
Minding Budget
Will Samueli back Burke if he decides to pursue a star player, someone to replace former fan favorite Paul Kariya? It’s unclear.
In interviews, Samueli has talked about the concept of the successful team as star, not the individual.
But Samueli also said management would have carte blanche to spend for whatever player it wants,as long as the Ducks stay within budget, whatever that becomes.
Across the freeway, it seems Moreno is running the Angels with a more flexible budget. One of his first orders of business as Angels owner was to lure a star.
He did well with Vladimir Guerrero, the American League’s most valuable player last year and perhaps the most popular Angel.
The Angels’ payroll at the beginning of this season was $111 million, ranking it fourth behind the New York Mets, world champion Boston Red Sox and the perennially big-spending New York Yankees. When Moreno bought the team for $183 million during the 2003 season, Disney had a payroll of about $76 million.
Last year, the Angels won their first American League West title since 1986 (they were a wild card team in 2002 when they won the World Series). The team drew a record 3.4 million fans to Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
Both owners came in vowing to lower prices. Moreno lowered beer prices and cut prices on the cheapest seats in a bid to get more families to come to Angel Stadium.
Samueli also said he will drop ticket prices by 5% during the next two full seasons. The team has received about 200 season ticket inquiries in the first 36 hours since the Samuelis officially took over, Ryan said.
Moreno is a fourth-generation American of Mexican descent. He served in Vietnam right after high school and returned to earn a degree from the University of Arizona.
Samueli’s parents survived the Holocaust and emigrated from Poland to the U.S. in 1950. After settling in Buffalo, the family moved to West Hollywood when Samueli was a boy. He later earned three degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Samueli lives in Corona del Mar.
The Samuelis have made more than $150 million in charitable gifts during the past decade, including nearly $30 million to the University of California, Irvine, which named its engineering school after him.
Moreno has yet to buy a home in OC. He owns homes in La Jolla and Phoenix, where wife Carole is prominent in social circles. Moreno gives to local groups through the Angels.
