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Angels end stadium negotiations with Anaheim; Tustin on deck?


Dollar Bill

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well, the Angels are technically 'the second Los Angeles franchise' and they paid their 'entry' fee to the Dodgers years ago as noted above.

 

MLB and the Dodgers would whine and complain and threaten legal action but in the end, the Angels could probably do it.

 

and they could have an entire 'Coming Home' campaign and even build a baseball only park downtown that has some replica features of the Old Wrigley Field in downtown LA (not the short HR distance, though).

 

I don't like this one bit -- I think the City of Anaheim should put its approved offer back on the table and Arte/Angels and the City of Anaheim should get working on a long term plan for the current site.

 

But if the City of Anaheim wants to play short-sighted hard ball and is listening to well intentioned but not very (economic investment wise) experience columnists.......well, the Arte and the Angels have options.

 

One small (but telling) aspect of this right now -- do you realize that perhaps of the perhaps four major hotel venues closest to the ballpark and booked by Angels fans, two of them -- the Doubletree over near The Block and the Embassy Suites on State College Blvd. (was the Hilton for years but has not reverted back to what it was years ago, the Embassy Suites) are actually in the City of Orange?  So the City of Orange benefits from the TOT (transit occupancy tax) and the sales tax from Angels fans stays there.........if Arte were permitted to develop the parking lot area there would no doubt be another hotel built there (in the City of Anaheim city limits) along with other retail establishments along the lines of The Catch and perhaps long term stay quarters (perhaps condos -- but the existing condos around there don't seem to be selling very well).......you really need to develop the retail area and the 'vibe' to generate the rest........a baseball tenant 81 days a year helps do that and you also have the Ducks plus some college basketball stuff over at the Honda Center.

 

oh well, enough.

 

obviously, I think the City of Anaheim is over-playing their hand. Others can disagree. That's fine. It's the same city that LOST the Rams. I have full confidence that they are capable of LOSING another pro franchise -- which would not be good for the City and if it happens, Angel Stadium would sit there vacant and become something of an eyesore and a white elephant until the City finally accepts Disney's offer of a rental deal that might make the Angels deal look a lot better -- even to the City.

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Arte is in the drivers seat, and it is clear that the city understands that. Unlike the douche in Florida, Arte has demonstrated a financial commitment to fielding a competitive team. I am sure that there will be many places interested in forming a business deal with Arte when he starts looking for a new home.

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If any of the city council members/ mayor attend any playoff games -- perhaps the Angels should introduce them on the field.......

I think the fan reaction would tell the city folks a thing or two.

Fans (not all city residents I realize) are likely with Arte and the Angels........

Until Claude puts up his new sign "TAIT-TOWN"

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City Council members essentially need to schedule another vote -- which would likely be 4-1 (like it was before) to approve the prior offer to Arte and the Angels and this vote should tell the mayor and city manager -- this is the city's vote -- this is how we're moving forward and the mayor gets ONE vote in this.

 

there's a reason why there's an 'interim' city manager right now -- the other one is gone and no public entity management professional worth his or her salt would want to step into this mess of a split between a majority of the council and the mayor.

 

the leader of the council should schedule that 'second' vote the day before the ALCS series starts (assuming we're in it!!).

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So even if you assume the City of Anaheim completely bungled the "platinum triangle" all on their own, why would you assume that Arte - a guy who made his money in billboards - would be a better partner than Disney - a company that has built a thing or two? Maybe there's a name for it, but there is a common fallacy that because someone got rich in private industry, that they are a business genius in all areas. Regardless of whether Anaheim is over playing their hand, I think there is some competent, respected developer who will pay more than $1/year for the land.

 

As for other cities, I have to ask ... who? City budgets are strapped, and with no redevelopment agencies to feed from, I don't see where you get the bond payments for $200+M in investment. As for Arte's "we'll build it ourself" line, I have to think that MLB is going to push back fairly hard on that. They do not want the precedent of municipalities ponying up close to 50% of a stadium project budget to be despoiled.

 

Irvine is the only city I can think that has the population/tax base to do something like this, but then you're dealing with the Irvine Co. If Arte thought Disney and Anaheim were bad...

 

I do, however, find it interesting how these threads always turn out: everybody wants a new stadium closer to them, everybody begrudgingly admits that the current location is pretty convenient, and most everybody is not a resident of the city in question (including me). The first one is obvious, but the other two say to me: Arte and Anaheim should probably figure something out, and people take sports more seriously than politics.

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I do, however, find it interesting how these threads always turn out: everybody wants a new stadium closer to them, everybody begrudgingly admits that the current location is pretty convenient, and most everybody is not a resident of the city in question (including me).

 

Come to think of it, there is a large swath of undeveloped desert right across the highway from me...

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So even if you assume the City of Anaheim completely bungled the "platinum triangle" all on their own, why would you assume that Arte - a guy who made his money in billboards - would be a better partner than Disney - a company that has built a thing or two? Maybe there's a name for it, but there is a common fallacy that because someone got rich in private industry, that they are a business genius in all areas. Regardless of whether Anaheim is over playing their hand, I think there is some competent, respected developer who will pay more than $1/year for the land.

 

 

 

Well, it's also a bit of fallacy that Arte's business ventures are limited to billboards.  Dude was a pretty big real estate investor having bought 1800 acres of land in or near Mesa AZ for the sole purposes of commercial development prior to his purchase of the Angels, I remember reading he had a hand in some stuff in Goodyear or some other AZ city during the building boom although I don't recall whether or not he was a major player or just some guy that threw in some money.  Regardless he's been involved with commercial real estate ventures in the past and near present...  Here's a recent deal involving one of his companies http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/print-edition/2014/07/11/moreno-group-sells-phoenix-center.html   While I agree the city might be able to find a developer (or Disney) to do something with that land it's pretty clear they haven't been very successful to date..  So given his real estate dealings, it's possible that Moreno is already in league with some "competent respected developer" who might be able to do something with that land.   As far as the billboard business goes.... Arte's control of Outdoor Systems saw the company's revenue go from 500K to 90 Mil a year in about a dozen years.   Apparently, the guy has a clue about how to market and increase a business....   He may not be Disney, but the dude is no slouch when it comes to business.

 

So, if we are keeping count..   Moreno has seemingly been successful on the business end of Baseball, Billboards, and real estate.   

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I'd take Arte's business experience and background over others -- and it's not limited to billboards as noted above.

 

One HUGE advantage (and it's fairly significant when you are talking about real estate acquisitions and development) Arte has over some of the corporate entities mentioned (Disney, Irvine Corp. -- no slouches there for sure) is that ARTE's turnaround time on decision-making.  Arte can make a decision NOW, TODAY. If he likes it, he likes it and pulls the trigger on the deal -- if he doesn't he doesn't. TODAY.

 

Remember when Disney ran the Angels ? They had to seek approval from one corporate department to another to do anything and one department obviously knew nothing about baseball operations and it became apparent the communication between departments was poor to non-existent. (To be fair to the Disney years -- they did make major improvement to the ballpark and invested the dollars it took to reach agreement with the City of Anaheim to keep the Angels in Anaheim.  Some may forget -- but the Angels have seriously considered re-location previously).

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Tait is going to lose the election and a deal will be worked out with the new Mayor leading the way.

that would be great - somehow they have to figure this out - is there really a better place for the Angels to play ? Is there really something better that the city can do with that land ? The answer is no to both questions - time for all the adults to quit playing games and work it out
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Its a calculated negotiating move.  The organization is planning on good will from the playoffs helping the Angel's side of the negotiation via public pressure on the public officials.  I wouldn't read any more into it than that.  That being said, Arte is an experienced commercial real estate owner, I've been a broker for 12 years and it is unheard of to have an LOI signed with no final contract a year later.  This type of thing happens all the time, particularly when landlords are renewing large tenants.  Each draws a line in the sand, the tenant goes out and RFPs the market to see what their options are, then they all come back to the table late in the game to try and work something out, fairly rare that the tenant will actually move.  Typically only happens when the landlord has another tenant waiting in the wings, which in this scenario seems unlikely.

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Man, just imagine the name jokes for the next ten years if the team moved to Tustin.  A bunch of idiots saying "The Tustin Angels of Anaheim of Los Angeles of California of the USA, herpa derpa haw haw."

 

****, that would drive me nuts.

 

One of the long lasting "gifts" of Arte's name change.

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