Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / NEW DIGS: Pondering some ideas on what a new Angel Stadium could look like

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NEW DIGS: Pondering some ideas on what a new Angel Stadium could look like · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Well, hey, Angel fans, and welcome to Halo Territory. I
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: am Mike DiGiovanna, former LA Times baseball writer and host
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of the show. Joined today by my regular co-host, Mark Trumbo,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the former Angel Slugger, and a special guest today, Gabe Lacks,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: USA Today baseball writer, California native, Cal State Fullerton grad. Gabe,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. How are
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you doing today?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Ah, thanks for having me, Deej. Yeah, always good to
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: talk some ball with you. And yeah, looking forward to
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: chopping up with you guys a little bit. All right.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Well, a real estate magnate, Stan Kroenke, as we all know,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: is buying the Angels from Artie Marino for $ 4 billion.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: And all indications point to this being as much of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: a real estate play as it is a baseball move,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: with Kroenke expected to purchase the stadium and surrounding parking lots.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and build a new stadium and develop the surrounding area
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: like you did with the amazing $ 5. 5 billion SoFi Stadium project.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: So that got us to thinking in Halo territory, what
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: could or should a new Angel Stadium look like? What
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: should the surrounding area look like? What design features from
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: other new stadiums could the Angels incorporate? What could give
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a new stadium a distinctly Orange County feel? Well, Gabe,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you're a California native, as we said, and you also
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: covered the angels 2002 team that won the world series
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: for the LA daily news. You travel to ballparks all
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: around the country. Any thoughts on what a new angel
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: stadium should or could look like?
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Well, the potential is immense just because of the size
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of it. You know, we're talking 153 acres, uh, which
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: is a lot to work with. Most of that, of course,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: right now, parking lots and, uh, you know, if you
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: look at a lot of these new stadiums that have
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: come online, Atlanta, Texas, you know, some of them surrounded
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: more by parking structures and garages and leaving the open space,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: you know, for development and things of that nature. But
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: what jumps out at Anaheim with Anaheim is just the,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: you know, the scale of it and the potential and
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: the fact that the team has been there for 66 years.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's a long time. You know, we think of,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: the Angels is new and as Orange County and Angel
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Stadium is, is obviously not as, as old as Dodger
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Stadium and tradition laden and all that kind of stuff. But,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: you know, that's, that's a good run. And I think
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: you need to steer into that a little bit and realize, Hey,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: this has been our home for a while. And let's,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: you know, let's leverage that to the extent we can.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's bringing back the true kind of open-faced big A,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: if you will, in the outfield. You know, I'm not
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: sure exactly how you could arrange the stadium to kind
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: of make it most aesthetically pleasing, if you will. The
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: one thing Anaheim has working against it relative to so
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: many of the great ballparks that we have now is
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: kind of this lack of natural, I guess, beauty, if
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: you will. There's no McCovey Cove. There's no confluence of
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: the three rivers. There's no warehouse that you see in
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Camden Yards. So, you know, it is what it is.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: It's near a freeway and it's a big parking lot.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: But still the space of it all gives a lot
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: to work with. And I, I'm curious to see which
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: direction Mr. Kroenke takes it eventually.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Mark, you're an Orange County native, grew up here, played
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: for the Angels, still live in Orange County.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: What would you like to see in a new stadium?
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: I think that looks wise, something that has character and personality,
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: something that's not stiff, not boring. And I, totally modern that, uh,
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: upgrades all of the issues that we've talked about. I
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: don't want to see any trough urinals in a stadium
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: that is, uh, going to be built. I think that
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: that is, uh, something that should go away. Um, and
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: there's many other things, uh, for instance, uh, we lived
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: in Nashville for a while. The predators do an unbelievable job,
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: but it was almost like a, a mini mark type thing. Uh,
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: where you can go in and select your own concessions.
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: And I thought that that was really neat, uh, unique,
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: something that I hadn't seen totally different than waiting in
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: a line that, uh, stretches back, uh, you know, 30
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: deep sometimes. So that, that, that is a small touch aesthetically, uh,
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: with the character part of it. Um, I think that
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: for whatever reason, brick is something that, uh, Some of
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: these iconic stadiums have in common. I played for the
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: Orioles with Camden Yards, the iconic warehouse, Petco Park down
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: the line. And those come to mind. I think Safeco
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: is a nice looking ballpark. It has a lot of
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: things that I think.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: They got right.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: And yeah, so some of the images for those watching
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: on YouTube that you're putting up now, incorporate something that's identifiable.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: I guess currently what do the angels have going are
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: the rocks. Are they still relevant? Are they still interesting
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: to people? Our viewers can decide maybe in the comments.
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: Is that still something that invigorates people? Do you like
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: seeing that? I don't think it's the worst. I don't
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: know if it's still all that trendy or cool though.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the rocks are an interesting sort of a dilemma
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: for me because they are Kind of unique, I guess.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: You don't see many stadiums with waterfalls in the outfield.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: So it is kind of neat. But for those of
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: us who covered the Angels back then, we remember that
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: was a very distinct Disney production. You know, it kind
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of looked like Thunder Road.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: What was that ride? I think that's a ride at Disneyland.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: Big Thunder Railroad.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Big Thunder Railroad. Yeah, very similar. And, you know, I
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: guess it's somewhat distinctive for Anaheim. I think, though, if
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: you're Stan Kroenke, if you're the new ownership group, you
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: want to start fresh with something new.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: I love the idea. I don't know that you'll go back.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: To this Big A, the original Big A, but I
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: think that Big A needs to be incorporated in the
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: outfield somewhere. I know it's incorporated currently in several areas,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: but that, to me, is a really important part of
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Angel Stadium's history. That needs to be included in the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: new stadium in my mind. Let's talk capacity. You know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: most of these new parks have been, you know, 40
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: to 45,000. Most of them have reduced capacity in an
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: effort to, you know, there's 81 home dates a year.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: It's not like the NFL. We only have eight, nine
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: home games a year. You want a more intimate feel?
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I think the Angels right now are right about 45,000.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: What do you think, guys? Would you like to keep
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: it around that? number go a little bigger in hopes
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: of maybe setting some attendance records, you know, three, three
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and a half million a year, or do you think
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: it's more important to make it, make it, make it
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: look like a decent crowd on a Tuesday night in May?
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I think you answered your own dilemma there because you want,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: you say you want to incorporate the big A. One
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: way to do that is to cut down capacity a
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: little bit. You know, if you take it down from 44,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: 45,000 to say 38,000, And then suddenly you have the
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: back opened up a little bit, you know, perhaps to the,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: you know, scenic Orange Freeway running past. But nonetheless, it's like,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: you know, that open feel, you really can't put a
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: price tag on. You know, it's a much nicer aesthetic,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: if you will. Yeah, the Ray Stadium that they hope
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: to have online in three, four years, 31,000. I think
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: 32,000 is the Las Vegas number. Progressive Field in Cleveland,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: they reduced capacity. They did a really nice job renovating
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: a couple times in the last 10 years. They're at
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: about 38,000, I do believe. But it is a good point. And,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: you know, the one thing that's kind of amazing about
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the Angels in the last decade is the fact that
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: the team has done so poorly, and yet they still draw.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: You know, and you scan the box. What did they
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: get in Anaheim last night?
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: 39,000.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: You look at the end of the year, you know,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: 3 million for the longest time. Yeah. Them and the
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Rockets have kind of defied, you know, and there's a
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: lot of reasons for that. You know, not necessarily the
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: team has to be good to draw fans to Anaheim. And,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: of course, you get a lot of visiting fans at
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: various times. But, yeah, you know, you're probably not going
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: to shoot for $ 3. 5 million every year. So maybe ratchet
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: down the capacity a little bit, open it up, and
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: kind of get to Mandeej. They've been talking about the
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: platinum triangle for decades, you know, the so-called platinum triangle.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know if there's a, here's another late 90s
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Disney word for you, synergy. I don't know if there's
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: a way to kind of open it up and have
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: at least sort of a, you know, visual connection to,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: you know, what they have going at the Honda Center there.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Oc vibe is that what it.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Is that is exactly what it is and yeah we've
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: talked about that on a recent show it would be
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: very synergistic if that's a word to incorporate some kind
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: of tram i don't know some kind of i don't
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: know that you need to dig a tunnel you could
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: probably transport people from one side of the 57 to
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the other and the oc vibe is going to probably
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: have a lot of those things that the angels wanted
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: to incorporate in a in a in a platinum triangle
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: like development so yeah i don't It's really going to
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: be interesting to watch over the next few years what
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: kind of cooperation Stan Kroenke and his group can have
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: with Henry Sam Welling and the Ducks ownership. If they
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: could maybe sort of view this as one macro project
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and maybe what you have at the Vibe could complement
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: what is going on in Angel Stadium and vice versa.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: All right, we're going to take a quick break. for
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a word from our sponsors. When we come back, we'll
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about what we'd like to
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: see in a new Angel Stadium.
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• 11:08
  Speaker 1: And welcome back to Halo Territory with Mark Trumbo, Gabe
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Lex of USA Today, and Mike DiGiovanna.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: I believe Mark has the next question. you don't need
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: to text me that I have the next question. If
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: you're going to say it verbally, Mike, uh, sorry, man.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: I don't know. I was ready. The thumbs up that
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: I gave you back. My, my, I didn't look. Sorry, man.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Anyway, uh, okay.
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: Here's my question for either of you. Uh, whoever wants
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: to feel that I'm going to use Yankee stadium as, uh,
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: the new Yankee stadium, uh, an example of something that
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: feels very corporate. Um, Playing there is, for fans that
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: may think it's very intimidating, it's really not. It doesn't
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: feel like the fans are on top of you. You
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: can't really hear a lot of some of the stuff
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: that they may be saying anyway. But how do the
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: Angels avoid that? Mike, you've been to SoFi quite a bit. Gabe, possibly,
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure. But what is the vibe there like?
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: A fair amount of the box suites, I'm assuming. How
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: do the Angels go about making it feel authentic Angels
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: and not corporate stiff?
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Well, Yankee Stadium is a really good example, first of all.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: You know, they designed the new stadium to look exactly
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: like the old stadium. And Gabe and I have covered
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: many games in the old stadium. The feel, even when
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: they were winning the World Series in 2009, it's just
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: nothing like old Yankee Stadium, which used to literally shake
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: when that crowd got going. The acoustics in there, you know,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Bob Shepard on the PA, just amazing. the subways rumbling,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: you know, in the outfield is just a really unique stadium.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Gave the Yankees a big home field advantage. And I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: think Dave, you probably remember when Yankee stadium opened in 09,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: as good as the Yankees were that year, remember those
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: really super expensive corporate seats down behind home plate were
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: sitting empty for many games earlier in that season.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Do you remember that?
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: And I think, yeah, you see that, you see that
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: all the time. Now you, the you've seen that a
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: lot with the San Francisco 49ers stadium, the Levi's cause it's,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: it's really hot at the start of the second half
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: and you've got air conditioned climate controlled places to escape
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: to at halftime. So what happens is that the second
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: half kickoff, it looks like an empty stadium, you know,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: based on that panoramic shot there, it's kind of crazy.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's funny when I go to the new
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Yankee stadium, like, you know, kind of be looking down
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the right field line and I'll see that three 14
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: and that foul pole. And for a second, I'm tricked
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: into thinking, oh, I'm at the longtime Yankee Stadium. Then
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: you look around and you go, oh, yeah, this is
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: big and cold and a little sterile. It's really hard
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: in this day and age just because of the luxury
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: seat factor. A really interesting contrast out here in D.C.,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Baltimore area is the contrast between Nationals Park and Camden Yards.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: The second deck is something that's kind of become a
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: casualty of the luxury suite era. Cause now you've got,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: you know, the seats right behind home and then you
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: kind of the walled in box seats. And there's usually
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: another set of suites. And then finally you get to
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: what you might call, you know, the cheaper seats, if
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: you will. Uh, Camden Yards still kind of, you still
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: kind of feel like you're on top of things when
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: you're sitting in the cheaper seats. Uh, Nationals Park, you
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: feel like you're, you know, half a mile up and, uh,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: it's with the way that owners and ownership groups want
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: to generate revenue now and build out the requisite amount
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: of suites. It just continues to push, you know, regular
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: seats further and further away. It's kind of, uh, bifurcates
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: the fans from one area to another. So there's kind
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: of a lack of collective, I guess, flow to things.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if that can be avoided with
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: a new angel stadium, just because I'm sure, uh, Stan
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Kroenke is going to want to recoup his investment and
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: usually get through that with premium seats.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if this is feasible with the
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: needs of especially new owners to maximize their revenues. But
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to me, if there's any way you can have at
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: least a good portion of those seats behind the plate
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: in between the dugouts, somewhat accessible to the working man,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the families, whatever it is, there's going to be, I'm sure,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: season ticket holders will be That'll be a big area
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: for them to pursue. But that's a tricky one. That's
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: what I always remember about when Yankee Stadium opened and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: it was embarrassing for the team. It's like, I don't
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: know what these guys were doing with their tickets, but
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of them weren't, you know, they were obviously
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: sold to corporations, big businesses. They weren't using them. And
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: that's a real, it's an eyesore, especially when you're watching
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: on TV to see the Yankees playing with, you know,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: all those empty seats around home plate. Well, let's talk
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: about defense. Mark, the stadium is your office. It was
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: a pitcher's park. They dropped that wall in right field
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: in 2018. It's become a little more of a hitter's park.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Righties can go to the gap there. A lot more
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: reachable for lefties. You're drawing a new park up on
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: a napkin. Where do you like the lines? Where do
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: you like the alleys? You want more of a fair park?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: You want it more homer-friendly? A little more of a
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: pitcher's park.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: I wish I had that lower offense when I was there.
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: I think Alexander does too. Oh, my goodness. He used
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: a pepper.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Garrett Anderson, oh, my goodness. Garrett Anderson must have hit
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: a ton of balls off that ball. I mean, the numbers,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: they may shake out more evenly. Now there's more right-handed
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: hitters than left-handed. So as far as the amount of
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: home runs hit in Angel Stadium, at least in my experience,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: it's more of a right-handed hitter's ballpark. Shohei Otani would
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: be the exception, uh, recently for big left-handed power. And
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: this team is lacking big left-handed power. Although, uh, I
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: think he might've heard you talking, uh, by a steros, Mike, he's, uh,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: putting some thump into, into some of these, his recent hits.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: But I think that it is at the end of
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the day right now, Angel stadium, in my opinion, is,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: is more of a pitcher's park. Uh, I remember as
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: a member of the Orioles, um, playing the angels.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: I said, if there was one area of the park, uh,
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: to try and set your sights to meaning the easiest
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: place to probably drive on out, uh, the rocks actually, um,
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: have always been very friendly in, in, uh, at least
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: my view. And I think that series I'd have to
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: go back and look, I'm going to say it's probably
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: around 2016. Matt Wieters, uh, I believe had a big late, uh,
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: inning home run that went directly there. Uh, was it
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: my advice? Um, probably not his talent, but, I think left-handers,
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: I mean, how often do we see left-handers hit one
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: to the opposite field?
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: It's almost never.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: We saw Jazz Chisholm go over the short porch in
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the left.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: The other day or last week. But, yeah, that's true.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: It's very rare.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: You see righties going to right field a lot more
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: on that part. So good question.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: What do you think, Gabe? Do you think more of a.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough because you can't– as much as you try,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: you might try, you can't really craft– a ballpark around
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: what you might think the team's strengths might be. You know, interesting,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: you know, Mark mentions Camden Yards. They brought the fences
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: way back a couple years ago in left field, and
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: the right-handed hitters staged a revolt, you know. It was
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: too easy before, in a sense. I don't think– I
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: disagree with that. But it was, you know, it was
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: real close before. Then they moved it way back, and suddenly,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: you know, Aaron Judge came in, absolutely smoked one. ended
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: up being a fly out to left. And he called
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: it a create a park, how you just, you know,
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: they just made something up to suit there, but you know,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: you can't, you need to get good players. You need
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: to get good hitters. You need to get, uh, you know,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: pitchers who suppress fly balls. And the other thing too,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: is like, everybody knows that it's Anaheim and it's going
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: to be tough to do something cute with it. They
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: tried the big right field wall, but, uh, There's no
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: compelling need to create an orange monster, if you will.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: It's not Fenway backing up to Lansdowne Street. Make it fair.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: The one thing I like about Anaheim, and it's true
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: in a few places on the West Coast, plays differently
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: at night than it does in the day. The day,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: ball carries a little more. Sometimes the At night, you
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: get it up in that marine layer.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Bad things can happen.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: So that's a little bit of a little bit of
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a curious thing with it but uh you know nothing
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: wrong with 375 to the gaps 400 maybe a short
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: wall and right to uh have a little fun with
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: and see if reggie sanders uh is not able to
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: bring one back.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: All right we're gonna take one more break for a
• 20:02
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• 21:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome back to Halo Territory with Mark Trumbo, Gabe
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Blacks of USA Today, and Mike DiGiovanna. Well, let's talk
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: wall heights. We have seen some amazing home run robberies
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: in Angel Stadium this year, although the two best ones
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: by Joe Adele and Wade Meckler were made over, I
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: don't know, how tall is that wall in the corners, Mark?
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Five feet four.
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: No no not even that i don't know if it
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: comes up to the waist yeah it's a.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Short one and then uh you know there's plenty of
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: eight to eight foot walls uh jutting out from there
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: allowing outfielders to rob home runs then there's a big
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: wall and right which uh you know doesn't come in
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: like joe dell it's a lot easier to rob a
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: home run over that yellow line than a fence but
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: how are we feeling about wall heights and and how
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: that can sort of play into a stadium's character.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Well, the one thing I do like about Atlanta, um,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: is it's kind of universal. And then you get to
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: the left field bullpen area and suddenly it drops down. And, uh,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: and that's, you know, it is kind of fun when, when,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: you know, something that's a home run three feet to
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: the right of you, you know, or isn't a home
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: run three feet to the right of you becomes a
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: home run and you send it into the bullpen or whatnot. Uh, yeah, again,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: it's a, it's kind of a matter of, uh, you know, how, how,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: how you want your part to play. But I agree
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: with you. You want a robbable kind of situation, you know,
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: maybe not for every last outfielder, but if you have
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: an athletic center fielder, you know, you want to be
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: able to make sure that that guy can go and
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: get one. Maybe not, you know, the Gary Matthews Jr.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: famous catch circa 2006 or seven, maybe 2008. But yeah,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: make it fun. Make it so where you have a
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: little bit of mystery where a guy goes up and
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: if he comes down with.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: It or not.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: And, And then if you want to mess with the
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: heights in the corner, that does spice it up a
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: little bit too. But, yeah, again, kind of hard to imagine,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: you know, a monster out in the new Big A. But,
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: you know, who knows? There's certainly probably some things that
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: haven't been invented yet that they can certainly conceive of
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: when it comes to wall height.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. One thing I do not want to see is
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: any home run lines that are vertical. You know, what
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: is it, Arizona's Park? Maybe Milwaukee where they have the
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: yellow line going horizontally and then it juts up and
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: then it goes across again. Don't want to see any
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: of that. I'm also not crazy about parks where fans
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: can reach over the wall so easily and fan and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: interfere with a potential home run ball or a potential out.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: But you mentioned athletic outfielders. We've got one on the
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: show right here, Mark Trumbo. How are you feeling about walls?
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got two athletes, including yourself.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: Wall Heights, whatever. I mean, that's something that I think
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: the only comment I would have on that is safety
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: and seeing guys going flying into the sands. While it
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: may make all the highlights, it is very dangerous at
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: the same time, not only for the players, but for
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: the fans. I think a robbery where the guy is
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: able to stay on the field is in play is
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: probably ideal. I don't know why Houston comes to mind. I,
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: nobody wants to mention the Astros for any reason these days,
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: but their ballpark, I mean, they have no, that, that stadium,
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: there's no views or anything that's similar as concrete jungle
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: type thing. But that, that ballpark does have a lot
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: of character. They got the train out there. It may
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: not be everyone's favorite. They used to have that, hill too.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: That's how yeah that was dangerous it's like.
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: How far that center field that was was in 440
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: or something i think up the hill was it over
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: 420 yeah it was a it was a shot i
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: think any ballpark from a hitter's perspective i'll let you
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: go in a second game but uh i i think
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: it fair is is good um you don't like san
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: francisco uh or is it right center field.
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: Um Yeah, long, long.
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: Anything like that that is totally inaccessible, I think, is
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: not ideal. But as far as something that's, you know,
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: you don't want to hear a never-ending slew of things
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: about the porch being so short. And then pitchers won't
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: want to sign with the team either. And I think
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: this is a place that probably should try and thrive
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: on pitching. So the more fair that you can make things,
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: the better would be my take.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and going back to Houston, that's an example of
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: a ballpark that's aged really well. Very quietly, it's now
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: 26 years old, opened in 2000. And, you know, you're
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: talking about all these teams that are having 25-, 30-year-old
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: ballparks and being like, oh, we need a new one. No,
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: it's still a great place to watch a game. It
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: was kind of the boutique ballpark on steroids when it
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: opened with Towels Hill and all that kind of stuff.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: They've ramped that down nicely, and it's a little less gimmicky.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: A little less exposed brick, if you will. And yeah, no,
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: it's interesting. Ballparks gain more character the more time goes on,
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: I think, in a sense. And so, you know, it's
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: an example of a ballpark that when kept up well
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: can remain relevant and a good place to watch a
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: game with a good atmosphere.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Is Camden Yards a good example of that, Gabe? Because
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I was there when it opened in the early 90s.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: It was always an amazing place atmosphere-wise. The B &
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: O warehouse, I think, is one of the most distinctive
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: architectural features that was already there before the stadium, which
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: makes it doubly cool. I look at that stadium, and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: it's hard to believe. It's, what, 34 years old now,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I think it is? I mean, it's crazy.
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: No, it's aged very well, and I was a little worried.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: They're putting $ 600 million into it, and they did some
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: renovations in the offseason, and... This is a little too
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: inside baseball for most listeners, but the best press box
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: in the country is no more. It's been moved to
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: create what they call the truce club, which is not
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: terribly filled most nights, if you will. So they've got
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: the meat carving station behind home plate now, enclosed glass
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: and all that stuff. But that said, I'm relieved because
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: it's still pretty much the same place that it was.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: It still has that flow that I talked about where
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: you can get from one place to the other. And
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: it's not like there's a moat surrounding the expensive seats.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: So yeah, still, still the best, you know, everybody has
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: their top 10. I think it's kind of a revolving thing,
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: but like Camden yard very much is still top five,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: top 10 park, even with all the new ones that
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: come online.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: All right. Most definitely top 10. I think it is.
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: Always in the discussion for, Top three, I'd say the bottom, well,
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: Angel Stadium would be near there, and then the White
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: Sox ballpark too. There's nothing pretty about that place, and
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: they are probably planning to do something about it in
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: short order.
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: I think I saw some renderings.
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: Gabe, actually, you said the inside baseball about the press box,
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: but it was a good point because this guy over
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: here is always complaining about the heat on day games
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: at the Big A. And the press box... I think
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: would ideally the writers wouldn't be tucked away near that
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: right field foul pole, or at least some of.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: Them, maybe that's where I go.
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: If you're been banished for writing hit pieces, but SoFi
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: stadium has a dome, a roof, some level of climate control.
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: I know angel fans on day games, especially during the
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: summer can wear it in the heat. Is there anything
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: that the angels should try to do to negate that
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: or make it more comfortable for the fans or, Is
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: that just part of playing in a desert climate?
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. And I have yet to go
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: to an event at SoFi Stadium. I've done some drive-bys,
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: but it's amazing what they have done with the open
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: air and the coverage. Yeah, and the sun shifts. You know,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: it's tough. In the third inning, you're not in the sun.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: In the sixth inning, you are. Those rocks in left
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: field look like they're sweating in some of those afternoon games.
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: No, I think that's a great, great, I don't know
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: what you can do. Do you can you have like
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: a movable canopy if you will when you look at
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: places like safeco with the movable roof that really would
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: be something to provide some shade to the fans and
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: make it more pleasant uh those uh afternoon days when
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: it's just a little too oppressive.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Those kind of structural things add exponentially though to the
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: cost of a new stadium and i i don't know
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you're in orange county it's sunny most of the year
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not buying it. I don't know on a roof,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and I guess Gabe's tending to his dog. Is that
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: his dog, Mark, not yours?
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: It's not mine. I can already see it.
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: Ben Galtz is already typing to complain, so we can
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: get that in there.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: By the way, I have been in SoFi many times.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: That glass roof, it's not an enclosed stadium, so I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: don't believe they have any kind of air condition, and
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: when it is very sunny, there's kind of a bit
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: of a baking effect, I think, for fans there. I
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: know it had to be a certain height because of
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: the planes.
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: The approach to LAX is a big deal.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: But I wouldn't want to see any kind of dome, roof, canopy.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, Orange County weather, for the most part, is beautiful.
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it does get hot.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: If there's a way to maybe incorporate more shade, the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: way the decks are sort of built and situated, that
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: would always help. but, you know, seven o'clock on a
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: summer night, the sun's going down, maybe a cool sunset,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: as we saw in Orange County last night. I mean,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: you don't want to lose those things. I think that
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: really adds to the flavor of a place. Let's talk
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit about architecture. You know, the red brick,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the green steel, the hunter green seats seem like they
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: were in vogue for a long time. How do we
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: not make Angel Stadium sort of a generic replica of
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: some of the other new stadiums around the country?
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: That's a really good question. And again, you kind of
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: go back to the history part of it too, because,
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: you know, the Hunter Green and the seats, you know,
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: that marked the most successful period in the club's history.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: You know, those renovations were done by 98. Four years later,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: they won the World Series. You know, is there a
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: certain cohort of fans that identifies that with the you know,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: the good old days. And has that effect been washed
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: away by, you know, a decade plus of, uh, of failure,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe, maybe it is time for a new start.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: You know, I, I think it's right for what, uh,
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: you know, Mark used the word earlier, modernization, you know, it's, uh,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: it's certainly like due for an update, you know, Orange
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: County has changed a lot in the 66 years, uh,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: you know, a little more techie, a little more, uh, ex-urban,
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: you know, still very suburban, but also its own metropolitan
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: area as Artie Moreno was quite fond of speaking about,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: you know, the entire Southland. So like, yeah, how do
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: you kind of lean into that in a sense and,
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: you know, and make it a little more modern. And
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: I guess the other question too, and I don't mean
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: to open up an entirely new can of worms, you know,
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: do you rebuild within, you know, the bones of it now,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: or do you start fresh and maybe start a new
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: stadium at a different corner of it and then demolish
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: the one you got.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, to me, you got to start fresh. That stadium.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: It's like Mark's ready to get the TNT out already.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, with all due respect to Zach Netto, who said,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: what did he say in our last show, Mark? That
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: a beautiful stadium. Apparently he has been seeing the bowels
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: of that stadium like we do on a daily basis.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: It's showing its age in so many ways, you know,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: including the urinals. uh yeah they got to build a
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: new one and you know that gives you the option
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: you know the opportunity to at least continue to play
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: in a big league stadium angel stadium while the new
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: one's being built new one's finished you move in you
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: tear it down i think that's the way to go
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: personally what do you think.
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: There's no other option uh barney and his staff uh
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: the on-field um grounds crew excellent.
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: Job but they do they do.
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: That is not enough to make up for the I
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: guess they repaved the parking lot, but, uh, crumbling with weeds,
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: the big A with the paint, the, you know, showing
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: its age, uh, amongst a lot of other things, the stucco,
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: I don't know what tractomes, what is that?
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: Stucco? Is that what it's called?
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: It's got to go ugly, ugly. And, uh, in my opinion,
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: but I think that something modern, something, um, I don't
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: know if you can incorporate modern and retro or something,
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: something that, uh, What screams Orange County? It's close to
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: the beach. It's close to a lot of things. Disneyland's close.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: I don't think you can really do that without paying
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: a fortune or people probably wouldn't want that.
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: Anyhow, the Ducks have their own thing.
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: The Angels need to create their own thing. And fortunately,
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: there's an ownership group coming in that has very smart
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: people and they have the means to do it. I'm
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: sure that whatever they do come up with is going
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: to be first class. And I think, you know, we,
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: we have quite a few more topics. I'm going to
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: hurry it along, Mike, if you don't mind. Uh, I
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: think that we could go on for a while. One
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: topic that people have brought up is what about the
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: affordability part? Well, tickets are probably going to cost more money.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: That's the way it is.
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: Uh, four for 49 that you see on the freeway
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: as you're driving, probably not going to happen anymore. And
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: why are you doing that in the first place? Cause
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: the on-field team is struggling badly. Um, You got to
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: get people in the seats. Those seats are way up
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: in the bleeds anyway. So I think that are people
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: OK with paying a bit more for a much, I'm
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: going to say, a better experience, a more modern experience?
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: I personally think that they would be willing to pay more,
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: maybe go to a few less games.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: Mike, what do you think? Definitely.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I think they're going to be willing to pay more,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: not Dodger prices, mind you. But, you know, most teams,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: I believe, go with what's called dynamic pricing. You know,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the cost of a ticket to see the Rays on
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: a Tuesday night in May is not going to cost
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: the same as a Dodger-Angels game in the summer or
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: a Yankees game or a Red Sox game. I think
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: most teams, I think all teams are doing that now.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: So you definitely got to incorporate that into the formula. Yeah,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: I think you have to have packages and season ticket packages,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: many seat plans, you know, 20, 30, whatever, it's 10-game
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: season ticket plans to try to make it more affordable.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I just don't think, you know, the Dodgers, I really question, Gabe,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: maybe you have a better 30,000-foot view of this, but
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: if the Dodgers say they didn't make the playoffs, you know,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: say they're getting old, say they all aged really in
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: one year and all of a sudden they didn't make
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: the playoffs for two or three years in a row,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Would people still be filling that stadium like they do now?
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Would they still be paying the prices? They are at
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: a premium right now. I think they're the highest ticket
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: in baseball on.
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: Any given night.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: There's a danger in becoming almost too good and too
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: high priced, isn't there?
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: And that's the highest price with 51,000 seats. It's not
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: like they've got a 20,000 seat exclusive yard. No, it's
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: a great point. And I think To everything you all said,
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: I would say yes, yes, yes, and yes. Make it
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: a better experience. At the same time, like, yeah, preserving
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: price points that actually work for people and don't necessarily
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: have to be the third Tuesday of each month, you know.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: But it is tough because smaller stadiums create scarcity, you know.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: And some might call it artificial scarcity because, you know,
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: conceivably if the Angels are going well, you could pack
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: in 50,000 a night, you know, with the population booming
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: if the team was good. Now, we haven't really been
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: able to test that out in a while because the
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: team hasn't been good. But, you know, suddenly, let's say
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: they build a beautiful park and they do win 100 games.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: You know, you're going to be able to get a
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: lot more than $ 38, 000, $ 40, 000 a night in there on
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: many nights. But you've created this small place that, you know,
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: is more intimate, but it's definitely going to be pricier
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: for a lot of folks. So it's a tricky balancing act,
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: but You definitely got to give them something for their money,
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: for sure. And that's, you know, a better ballpark and
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: a better team.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: All right, we're going to close the show talking about
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the importance of facilities. But before we do, I want
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: to bring up one architectural design feature that I just love.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: And the twins did this in their new stadium. So
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: this is the old St. Paul Pioneers and the Minneapolis was.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: The Millers, Gabe. Oh, gosh.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, back before the Twins came to Minneapolis. And this
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: is in center field at Target Field. And to me,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know what the equivalent of it is. If
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: there's an equivalent in Orange County, I don't know what
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: it is. But if there was one, it'd be cool
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: to incorporate something like that. All right, Joe Madden was
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: not shy about the deficiency of the weight room, the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: tunnels leading into the clubhouse, Mark. How important is just
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: the facilities, training room, weight room, clubhouse when it comes
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: to attracting the big free agents that the Angels hope
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: to attract here?
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: I would say enormously important. First and foremost will always
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: be the same answer. I'm going to keep giving on
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: this show. It's going to be.
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: Years and dollars.
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: Beyond that, the way teams evaluate players, a lot of
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: times these numbers are pretty comparable. So it comes down
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: to what else factors in. Probably I'd say next up
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: would be the living situation and the Angels have that
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: going for them. Ad nauseum gets talked about living near
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: the beach, but that's why we talk about it.
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: It is very cool.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: It's very unique to this team, um, and the other
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: SoCal teams. So, uh, I'd say the third biggest thing
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: is the stadium and the amenities. Now for another individual
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: that could be flipped the list, these could be the
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: number one thing to them. Um, maybe a younger guy
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: that's not married, uh, Rare, but it does happen. You've
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: got to have the modern everything first class. You cut
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: any corners, it's going to be glaring, especially with a
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: brand-new ballpark. What excuse is there not to have batting cages,
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: for example, that was brought up? I don't know if
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: we talked about it off-air or whatever. The Angels have
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: a singular batting cage on the home side, and I
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: think in center field. There's maybe an additional one, but
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: they should have at least three or four cages available
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: for the players to use on both sides. Maybe on
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: the visiting side, two would be fine. Weight rooms on
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: both sides. The weight rooms have been a joke, especially
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: for the visitors. It's like a broom closet with some old,
• 40:32
  Speaker 5: I don't know what they are, Bowflex or something. But
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: all of that needs to be better. The hydro recovery areas,
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: the Angels have a decent setup, but... these things should
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: be taken, uh, care of no, no doubt, uh, for
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: the broadcasters. For example, if, uh, in game, I sat
• 40:50
  Speaker 5: in a while ago and you got to run down
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: an enormous hallway, uh, to relieve yourself. If you're going
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: to do that so long that, I mean, no, I'm
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: not joking. It takes, you know, uh, you can't do
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: it in a 45 second break. Um, it takes forever
• 41:04
  Speaker 5: to get down there. So the things like that should
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: be cleaned up logistics. Uh, and then, and there's people
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: that know these things very well.
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: So, uh, I don't know.
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: I think that for the players, you want all the best.
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: And for the team to attract the players, you want
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: to provide the best.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: And a new modern press box would be good that
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: we don't need binoculars to see who's pitching.
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: That would be nice too. Thank you, Artie.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah. No, I, you know, Mike, you can
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: probably weigh in on this a little bit, but the,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: the modern ball player works so much harder than, and
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: this is my personal observation. than guys 20, 30, 40
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: years ago. You know, they get to the ballpark at
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: one o'clock and they start working out, you know, and
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: you know, that they hit more, they study more videos.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: So you really do need to make that, you know,
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: your domain, make it nice and modern, make it comfortable.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Marcus Simeon was talking to him a couple of years ago.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: He was going on and on about Texas and how,
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: you know, look, I live at the ballpark during the season.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: I'm there from one o'clock until game time, you know,
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: and he was just so happy with, you know, the
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: comfort of it, how comfortable it was, the facilities. So it's, yeah,
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: it will make a difference in attracting players. Although, like
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Mark said, money will ultimately win out. But at the
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: same time, it will help your players perform, make them
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: more comfortable, you know, encourage peak performance. And that goes
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: for the press box too.
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: Is all that extra work leading to better on-field play?
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: Just a one-word answer.
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: Sometimes.
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: Sometimes. Good answer, Gabe. We're going to close the show
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: with that.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Hey, Gabe Lacks from USA Today, thank you and your
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: dog for joining us. Mark Trumbo, as always. Please like
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and subscribe. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for watching. We'll
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: see you next time on Halo Territory.