In Anaheim and Sacramento, a two-front challenge to Angels’ L.A. name

Two decades after owner Arte Moreno decided the Angels should play under the Los Angeles name, elected officials representing Anaheim are pursuing two paths to bring their hometown back to the team name.

Assemblyman Avelino Valencia, whose district includes Angel Stadium, has introduced state legislation that could require any sale or new lease of the stadium property to be conditioned on the team’s return to the Anaheim Angels name.

Meanwhile, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken asked the city attorney to examine whether the Angels violated their current lease by removing Anaheim’s name from legal documents.

Valencia’s bill — dubbed the “Home Run for Anaheim Act” — seeks to mandate what the city of Anaheim was unable to negotiate in its ill-fated deal with Moreno in 2019: If a team owner wants to develop parking lots around the city’s stadium, the team must bear the city’s name.

“The Angels have been supported by the city and its residents for 60 years,” Valencia said. “I think it’s rightly owed to the residents that, if the team wants to play in Anaheim and be in partnership with Anaheim regarding future developments of this stadium and surrounding properties, then the name should look like that as well.”

Angels spokeswoman Marie Garvey said the team had no comment.

The Angels’ current stadium lease extends through 2032, with the team holding options to extend the lease through 2038.

The city and the team had agreed to a deal in which the Angels would remain in Anaheim until 2050, with the team purchasing the 150-acre stadium property for $150 million, renovating or replacing the stadium and building a baseball village atop the parking lots.

The state, however, opposed this. The Surplus Land Act requires that public property put up for sale first be made available for affordable housing, and that the city only negotiated with the Angels. The city agreed to a $96 million settlement.

The Anaheim City Council ultimately canceled the deal three years later, after an FBI investigation revealed — and former Mayor Harry Sidhu admitted in a plea agreement — that Sidhu had provided confidential information to a team consultant “so the Angels could purchase Angel Stadium on terms favorable to the Angels” and that he was “expecting a $1,000,000 campaign contribution from the Angels.” The government has not alleged any wrongdoing by the Angels.

Valencia’s bill was developed in consultation with city leaders and publicly supported by Aitken and former mayors Tom Daly and Tom Tait.

Under the bill, if the city can obtain an exemption from the Surplus Land Act, the team would not be able to purchase or lease Angel Stadium unless “documents refer to that team as the Anaheim Angels.”

The bill would only apply to Anaheim, and its provisions would not take effect “if the City of Anaheim reaches an agreement with the Major League Baseball team known as the Los Angeles Angels regarding their affiliation.”

Valencia said the city could seek an exemption because it believed the surplus land law was designed for small properties like school lands and municipal office buildings. He said the community should have the first say in how that land should be used, even if it could mean less housing at the Angel Stadium site.

“We definitely need more housing because living is so expensive, but the number of housing [in Anaheim] That’s increased over the last 10 or 15 years, I think, mitigates some of that,” Valencia said.

“I think people in Anaheim think Anaheim is doing its fair share when it comes to housing development. I don’t want to muddy the concept by saying Anaheim is saying, ‘We don’t need any more housing.’ We have been very proactive in this area. But I think people are going to be excited that we want the Angels to have Anaheim in their name again.”

In 2005, after city officials denied Moreno’s request to change the team name from the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels, the owner adopted the name “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.” The city sued and lost, with a jury finding that the Angels did not violate a requirement in the stadium lease that the team name “include the name Anaheim.”

When the city sued the Angels and requested an injunction to stop the name change pending trial, Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Polos denied the request. He warned the Angels, however, that he would grant the injunction if the team dropped the “Anaheim” name and were simply called the Los Angeles Angels.

In 2006, after the city lost its lawsuit, Polos decided the team could market itself under any name it wanted. In 2016, the team was called the Los Angeles Angels. In state records, the legal entity is Angels Baseball LP.

“As far as official designations and how they are recorded, I want us to look at how Anaheim is used by the team in any official filing,” Aitken said, “and what their requirements are for doing that.”

When Aitken asked City Atty. Robert Fabela to investigate, Fabela said the matter would be discussed behind closed doors as a “potential point of dispute.”