It’s official: Your Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are in talks about replantin’ in Stanton!
Even though Anaheim city council approved a one-year lease extension in January to bolster efforts to forge a decades-long stadium agreement, the team got caught sliding into Stanton’s DMs. The Weekly obtained the exclusive screenshots from Stanton mayor David Shawver’s Instagram account where Angels owner Arte Moreno left the following message Saturday morning at 2:43 a.m., “Can u meet at Stanton Park tomorrow at noon? I’ll be at the bench by the power lines. Nobody will see us there.”
A spokesman for city confirmed today that relocation talks are, indeed, underway. Sources familiar with the negotiations inform that the team is interested in Stanton’s share of a 22-acre Village Center parcel off Beach Boulevard that’s been recently bulldozed to make way for condos and fast food chains. Moreno appears interested in taking over the deal to include a brand new state of the art stadium. Besides, ballplayers are reportedly tired of going to Fritz’s in Anaheim for post-game gentleman’s club frolicking and are looking to give Venus Lounge in Stanton a try.
“Whatever it takes,” says Shawver. “The start of these talks is already a grand slam for our city. The rest of the county can stop chiding us as a woebegone town. We are ready to play ball!”
Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu remains confident in his campaign pledge to keep the Angels in Anaheim despite the Stanton shocker. “The chairman of Angels Baseball didn’t stuff my campaign coffers for nothing,” Sidhu said. “We are going to get a deal done and I’ll give away my spleen if I have to!” Councilman Jose Moreno (no relation to Arte) expressed frustration that his fellow colleagues agreed to an extension without a clause barring the Angels from negotiating with other cities, but hoped the team would’ve done right by them anyway.
“It’s unfortunate that ownership didn’t exercise the better angels–see what I just did there San Román?–of their good corporate citizen models, best practices, apparatuses, superstructures, whatchamacallits and..”
Okay, okay. We get it profe!
Before turning to Stanton, the Angels opened talks in February with Long Beach about a possible stadium deal on the waterfront 13-acre “elephant” lot in downtown. But those discussions have apparently cooled off, the Weekly has learned.
“Does anyone remember when Disney proposed an aquatic theme park in Long Beach in the early 90’s before they gained half-a-billion dollars in subsidies from Anaheim just a few years later for California Adventure?” asked Arte Moreno when reached for comment. “That’s absolutely not what we tried to do by flirting with Long Beach while negotiating with Anaheim. Besides, nobody wanted to see Goofy in a speedo and nobody wants to see Mike Trout flopping around by the ocean.”
Gwarsh!
The Angels have called Anaheim home since 1966, but the Big A is the fourth oldest ballpark in major league baseball. In 2013, Anaheim city council explored a deal that’d give Moreno the rights to develop the parking lot around the stadium for a dollar-per-year in exchange for taking on renovations at no cost to the city. But the deal fell apart in 2014, much like the Angels did in post-season play by getting swept by the Kansas City Royals that year never to return since.
During negotiations five years ago, news broke that the team explored relocating to Tustin. But that, of course, didn’t happen. This time around it’s Stanton. How this round of negotiations fares remains to be seen.
But one thing’s for sure. Whether Tustin, Long Beach and now Stanton: these Halos ain’t loyal!
Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!
Can’t wait for Crow Village Night!
And while they’re at it, they should bring back the Mad Greek as a food vendor!