Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/los-angeles-angels-of-anaheim/)
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Anaheim city officials are expected to sit down Friday to hammer out a lease by Dec. 31, despite only having three Council meetings left this year and reinstating the current lease 10 months ago to extend the negotiation time.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the City of Anaheim officially start stadium talks on Nov. 15. It’s the first meeting this year, despite a team request earlier this year to extend a lease out clause to the end of the year to allow for calm deliberations. Councilmembers have three public meetings left this year to consider any stadium proposal before an out-clause trigger extension expires at the end of the year.
The Anaheim City Council could decide to release the stadium appraisal after residents have been in the dark for months on the value of the land and the status of negotiations between the Angels and the city for the public 155-acre stadium. Council members also may consider sunlighting any proposal submitted by the Angels.
Despite the LA Angels of Anaheim spending nearly $30 million on Anaheim’s municipal stadium since 2012, very little of that money was used on regular maintenance, records show.
Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in October start closed-door negotiations on a new stadium development plan. The Angels enter the negotiations up against a Dec. 31 deadline that forces them to either opt out of their lease or stay under current terms until 2029. Is it the beginning of the end for Angels in Anaheim? Or the end of the beginning for a new lease terms between the city and the team?
An Anaheim city council action last month endeavoring to keep stadium deliberations with the Angels confidential is not only sad and ineffective for building public support it’s also likely illegal. This week, council members also consider even limiting their own ability speak from the dais.
The Angels are talking to Long Beach about potentially moving the team there after the Anaheim City Council extended the stadium lease with the team until 2020.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim get a lease out clause extension to 2020 on a 5-2 vote from Anaheim city council members.
Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu is proposing this Tuesday to let the Los Angeles Angels out of a bad move this past November when owner Arte Moreno opted out of his stadium lease with nowhere to go. As a result, by this October, taxpayers will be sitting on a $1 billion asset with no restrictions on developing the 150-acre parking lot area around the stadium. Yet a proposal this Tuesday before the Anaheim city council would erase that potential and lock taxpayers into another lopsided, long-term negotiation with the Angels – who are probably leaving for Los Angeles anyway as their recent controversial renaming clearly implies.
The Angels, Anaheim’s baseball team may be looking to leave, but the city’s hockey team, the Anaheim Ducks, are negotiating a new 25-year lease and development project around the Honda Center.
