The Los Angeles Angels have a new owner coming in, and he does things very differently from Arte Moreno.
The stunning sale of the Los Angeles Angels to real estate magnate Stan Kroenke is still sending shock waves through the baseball industry and beyond, and we’re learning more astounding things about how the sale went down with each passing week.
Sam Blum of The Athletic has been all over this story from the start because he knows where the baseball bodies are buried, and he teamed up with Brittany Ghiroli to provide more amazing details.
Start with the legendary cheapness of soon-to-be former owner Arte Moreno, who apparently can also keep a secret. He started talking to Kroenke back in the spring about a possible deal, and we're now finding out that Moreno refuses to carry debt as he operates the Angels.
It’s impossible to understate just how weird and crippling this has been. Every team in baseball carries large amounts of debt because it’s how business is done, but a quote from Moreno reveals a different approach.
“I can’t go into a Starbucks and order coffee that I can’t pay for,” he said in 2007 about the Angels budget. “This is about bringing more in than I spend.”
Moreno treated employees on the administrative side like struggling baristas, and he eventually virtually refused to stop paying for players to keep the talent level up. It’s been left to Angels president Molly Jolly to provide the sorry excuses cum explanations for Moreno’s corrupt ways.
“(Moreno) has a traditional sense about him,” Jolly said. “To be able to sit down with another gentleman and have a conversation and talk about baseball and the franchise, that resonates for how he thinks and looks at things rather than it being a complex conversation.”
Interim GM John Mozeliak has been charged with evaluating the mess Moreno made and taking steps to make changes, and he said he was surprised but not shocked by the decision to sell, largely because it had to happen eventually.
“When I first came here, I spoke with Arte and he had mentioned that this was a possibility,” Mozeliak said. “I was definitely surprised, but it wasn’t a shocker. I think it’s exciting news for everybody. Change is what I came in to try to start doing.”
The biggest change may not be on the field, although that overhaul is coming. It’s important to remember that Kroenke made his fortune in real estate, and buying the land around Angels Stadium is going to be a priority.
Moreno tried to do this, but the deal fell apart due to his corrup ways. According to Blum and Ghiroli, Moreno had a $320 million deal in place in 2022 to purchase the stadium and the land around it, all of which is currently owned by the city.
But the deal fell apart due to an FBI investigation, per the writers, and then-Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu spent two months in prison after it was determined the Angels were given a favorable deal in exchange for a $1 million campaign contribution.
Kroenke has done this level of deal before, though, and his success makes it reasonable to assume he's going to do things the right way. He has a trophy case that’s bursting to the brim with championships from other sports, and whatever deal he makes with the city will undoubtedly fund a far more successful team on the field -- in part because it would be hard to do worse.
