As we recently noted, the Los Angeles Angels opted out of their long-term lease with the City of Anaheim for Angels Stadium recently, extended the short term agreement with the city through 2020, and are in the process of trying to come up with, well, some sort of plan to either renovate the old place or to build a new stadium for the team in Anaheim.
We learned overnight, however, that the Angels aren’t putting all of their eggs in one basket. They’re listening to a competing pitch from a city a few miles away. The Long Beach Post reports that that city is, well, Long Beach:
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are in talks with the city about the possibility of moving the team to Long Beach and building a new stadium on a Downtown waterfront lot, several sources familiar with the discussions told the Post . . . Significant details are not yet clear, such as the cost of the proposed stadium and who would pay for it. Many layers of approval would also be required.
The talks are said to be preliminary, as is evidenced by that vagueness regarding who would pay for what.
As Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times notes, the Angels once considered Long Beach back in the early 60s before moving from Dodger Stadium to Anaheim. The tripping point then was that the city wanted the team to be renamed the Long Beach Angels, and Gene Autry wasn’t going for that. My guess is that Long Beach would be more flexible about that now.
My guess is, also, that the Angels would still much to prefer to stay in Orange County, but are quite happy to have someplace to use as potential leverage in negotiations with Anaheim. I suppose we’ll see.
