Angels opt out of Angel Stadium lease and will start exploring options for the future

In February of last year, Angels owner Arte Moreno participated in a rare press conference and said that as of that point, the Angels would be staying in their current home because no appropriate home could be found that works for the team and fans in Southern California. As a major piece of the reasoning for staying put, Moreno said at the time that “If we were leaving, we wouldn’t be spending any capital on lights.” Referring to the LED lights the team added during the 2017 offseason.

On Tuesday, the last day they could opt out of their current lease before 2028, the Angels opted out of their Angel Stadium lease and are now officially (officially officially) looking for a new home in the region.

In a statement, team president John Carpino said,

“As we look to the future, we need the ability to continue to deliver a high-quality fan experience beyond what the original lease allows. It is important that we look at all our options and how we can best serve our fans now and in the future.”

Angel Stadium is the fourth-oldest stadium in the league — behind only Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Dodger Stadium — and the team and the city failed to come to an agreement for renovations back in 2014, after which negotiations ended completely.

The team won’t confirm or deny whether they are prioritizing staying in Anaheim and building a new stadium, and they’ve also looked at recent cities like Tustin over the past few years. According to the LA Times the team also looked at Los Angeles, Irvine, and Carson but Tustin made the most sense based on proximity to the current field and fanbase (approximately 10 miles away).

When it comes to finding a new home and completing a build, Moreno said back in 2017,

“It’s going to take some time to get ourselves prepared to see which direction we’re going to go. We have flexibility, but acquiring land and getting a proper partner and getting prepared in California is a three-, four-year process.”

It also, as with every stadium negotiation, comes down to who’s paying what. Tustin has already said they won’t allocate taxpayer dollars for a stadium. The Times reports the discussions with that city allegedly focused on a $700 million project.

Or the Angels could just stay! They’ll play in Anaheim through 2019, and with a new mayor and a few new city council members being elected next month negotiations could begin once again on renovation and improvement negotiations. This is just the start of a long process that we’ve seen play out time and time again with sports teams and the cities they have leases with, and there are a lot of ways it could go.