Angels to Long Beach?

According to the Long Beach Post, the city of Long Beach and the Los Angeles Angels are involved in talks about a possible move of the baseball club to the Californian coastal town. The ballpark should be built at a Downtown waterfront lot.

Since the current ballpark lease runs through 2020, the eventual move will not happen sooner than 2021.

The actual talks are still in its infancy, so not much information can be provided. For example, it is still unclear who will pay for the construction of the ballpark.

In August the city of Long Beach discussed an economic development of the specific lot and “discovered” that the area is actually big enough to house a ballpark.  The lot will be a part of a much bigger plan to rezone and develop the entire Downtown coastal area south of Ocean Boulevard, the mayor said months ago.

Even though the Angels had previously negotiated with Anaheim for the rights to lease the entire property surrounding the stadium for as little as $1 per year if Angels owner Arte Moreno were to develop the lot, Angels President John Carpino sent a statement on the possible move late Monday night: “As we have stated from the beginning, we must explore all our options to secure a long-term future for the Angels and provide fans with a high quality experience in a renovated or new ballpark.”

Since the public opinion towards publicly funded stadiums isn’t in favor of new ballparks financed by cities, it remains to be seen who will pay for it. If the city council decides to vote against the (future) ballpark, all these talks have been in vain.

According to the Orange County Register, the value of the current piece of ground where Angel Stadium is located is between $225 million and $245 million if baseball operations will be continued, and between $300 million and $325 million if it was made available for development. So you may wonder if Orange County is really interested in keeping the Angels.