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Pearly Gates: An Angels Blog
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Monday, November 08, 2004

Anaheim: 'LA Angels' when hell freezes over

Anaheim City Council member Dave Morgan has vowed to use legal action "to enforce the lease we have with the Anaheim Angels", after the Los Angeles Times reported Bud Selig had given the club permission to move ahead with a proposed name change.
"We're pretty fired up. We want the Angels to understand this is very important to us," Anaheim city manager Dave Morgan told The Associated Press on Monday. "They won the world championship as the Anaheim Angels two years ago and should remain the Anaheim Angels. The mayor and City Council of Anaheim are very clear and unambiguous that we will do whatever we need to do legally to enforce the lease we have with the Anaheim Angels."

[snip]

"This isn't strictly a matter of civic pride, although that's also very important to us. When this lease was negotiated, the city made major contributions as part of the negotiations to the renovation of the stadium, anywhere from $20 million to $30 million. We also significantly adjusted our revenue-sharing downward as part of this deal and agreed to some significant limitations on our development ability around the stadium itself."
I had completely missed this Times report- color me surprised that this name change talk has gotten this far. The city of Anaheim does have legal recourse if the club were to attempt a name change (the Angels' lease specifies that the team go by the "Anaheim" moniker), and what's more, they should use it if push comes to shove. It is a simple matter of civic pride- I'm not ashamed admit it. I love Orange County, and the Angels, Disneyland and that show are just about the only things that put us on the map. Otherwise we're just another suburb of LA.

The Angels have struck a nice balance at the moment, having dropped the name "Anaheim" from most promotional items and the uniforms, and simply going by the name "Angels". I like that. It alienates no one and allows the club to promote itself in both markets effectively. The label of "Los Angeles", on the other hand, would alienate a lot of people- namely the 5 million sum-odd folks south of Long Beach.

Besides, I just don't see how pretending that the team plays in Los Angeles would sell anymore shirts or bring in more advertising dollars. The only way to accomplish those goals is to win year in and year out, and Arte Moreno surely knows this.

UPDATE: Here's the Times article. It doesn't say anything we didn't know three months ago, but Bill Shaikin can be proud that he managed to kick-start a rumor with some legs.

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