LEGACY LEADERSHIP: Gene Autry, known as the singing cowboy and a broadcast owner, paid $2.5M to bring Major League Baseball to Orange County in 1961. During his ownership, the team was first known as the Los Angeles Angels and played in Wrigley Field in Los Angeles before moving to Angel Stadium in Anaheim in 1966. Autry later renamed the team the California Angels. They became the 10th team in the American League and grew into a community institution and a well-known regional brand.
The Angels won the AL West in 1979, 1982 and 1986. In 1995, Autry’s family sold the team to the Walt Disney Company. During the Disney era, the company changed the team’s name from the California Angels to the Anaheim Angels. Current owner, billboard advertising executive Arte Moreno, bought the team from Disney in 2003 for $185M, becoming the first Mexican American to own a Major League Baseball team. Under his leadership, the Angels drew more than 3M annually from 2003 to 2019. He recently named Molly Jolly as the organization’s first female president.
HQ: Anaheim
OC SIGNIFICANCE: A key moment for the team in Orange County happened in 1966, when they moved from Los Angeles to Anaheim and started playing at what is now called Angel Stadium. The Angels are Orange County’s only Major League Baseball team and one of its most well-known sports brands. Formerly known as the Big A, Angel Stadium has been a local landmark and economic engine in the city for almost 60 years. The team has produced famous athletes, like Nolan Ryan, Vladimir Guerrero, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Today, the team remains one of the area’s biggest entertainment draws.
DEFINING MOMENT: In 2002, the Angels won their first and only World Series by beating the San Francisco Giants in seven games. The team came back from a five-run deficit in Game 6 and won the championship in front of a national audience, giving Orange County its first major professional sports title.
BY THE NUMBERS: Franchise valued at around $2.7B-$3B; is one of the longest-running teams in Major League Baseball to play in the same stadium.
QUOTABLE: “Believe me, I rode many a chase scene during my career in films, but none compared to what I have encountered in baseball. In the movies, I never lost a fight. In baseball, I hardly ever won one.” — Gene Autry
FUN FACT: Gene Autry chose the team’s name to honor the old Pacific Coast League Angels club, which played in Los Angeles before Major League Baseball came to the West Coast. The team’s famous “Big A” sign, first built for Anaheim Stadium in 1966, is still one of Orange County’s best-known landmarks.
