The city of Anaheim faces a deficit projected at $ 64 millionSo each small piece helps. And, because of the Angels“Bad game is exactly what the city has obtained in the revenue of tickets from its native city baseball team this year: just a little.
Until Sunday, in fact, the city did not know with certainty that it would even get a penny in ticket revenues.
Advertisement
As part of their lease to play in the stadium belonging to the city, the angels are required to pay $ 2 in the city for each ticket sold beyond 2.6 million. Sunday, the last day of the regular season, the last angels exceeded this threshold by 15,506. Payment in Anaheim: $ 31,012.
In the better times – in the middle of a series of six appearances in eliminatory series in eight years – the city has received more than a million dollars per year in ticket income. The highest point: $ 1,613,580 in 2006, when the team sold a record of 3,406,790 tickets.
Find out more: Shaikin: The angels have finished again in the last place. How does the owner Arte Moreno plan to repair it?
Although the major leagues teams do not disclose their financial data, Estimated Forbes The angels generated $ 120 million in ticket revenue last year. The angels sold 2.58 million tickets last year, so the city received none of this income.
Advertisement
When the city and Walt Disney Co. – Then the owner of the Angels – agreed with this stadium lease in 1996, the figure of 2.6 million was largely ambitious. The angels sold 1.8 million tickets that year. During the previous 30 seasons, playing in the stadium, angel attendance had only exceeded 2.6 million four times.
In 2003, however, Arte Moreno bought the angels Disney, inheriting A World Series championship team from Cinderella And Fortify with free agents of firstIncluding the voltiseur of the renowned temple Vladimir Guerrero and the star launcher Bartolo Colon.
The city received ticket income for the first time that year, when angel attendance exceeded 2.6 million and exceeded 3 million. Under the ownership of Moreno, the Angels won five division championships over the next six years and sold more than 3 million tickets each year from 2003 to 2019.
The angels have not appeared in the playoffs for 11 years – The longest drought in the major leagues – and did not publish a record of victories in 10 years. Attendance has dropped sharply after the pandemic, and Anaheim only received a share of the Angels tickets twice in the past six years: this year, and $ 81,150 in 2023.
Advertisement
The city receives parking income and other stadium events, but only after certain thresholds have been reached. Under the lease, ticket sales are the main engine of the city income.
The angels pay no rent under their lease, since Disney paid All except $ 20 million in a stadium renovation of $ 117 million. The city said that it would bring back its money from the development of parking lots around the stadium, which has not occurred during the three decades since the lease entered into force.
Find out more: A gondola at the Dodger stadium? And a gondola at Big A?
Moreno has twice accepted agreements in which he would have the stadium and develop the land surrounding him, but the The city fell by twice: In 2014, after the mayor of the time, Tom Tait opposed the land rental in Moreno for $ 1 per year; And in 2022, after the FBI recorded the mayor of the time, Harry Sidhu, saying that he was going to travel an agreement and in return asking a contribution of the angels to a million dollars. (Sidhu was sentenced to prison last March after signing a advocacy This said that he had disclosed confidential information to the negotiation of the angels. The government did not allege that the angels had done nothing wrong.)
Advertisement
In April, the current mayor Ashleigh Aitken MORENO guest For a new series of discussions. He did not undertake, and the city then decided to suspend the talks until the end of a land assessment designed to determine how many millions of dollars would be necessary for Keep the 1966 viable stadium for the decades to come. This study should end next year.
In January, the Angels exercised an option to extend their stadium lease until 2032. They have two other options to extend the lease if they wish: one to 2035, the other until 2038.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
