Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / STAN THE MAN: New Angels owner "a good balance of patience and risk tolerance"

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STAN THE MAN: New Angels owner "a good balance of patience and risk tolerance" · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Well, hey, Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo Territory.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I am Mike DiGiovanna, former LA Times baseball writer and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: host of the show, and I am joined today by
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: two very special guests, two of my favorite guys in
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the business who happen to be former colleagues at the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: LA Times, Sam Farmer, the longtime NFL writer at the Times,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and Bill Shakin, longtime Major League Baseball national writer. Guys,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: welcome to the show. How you doing today?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Doing great, D.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: It's so good to see you, and, um, Been a while,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: so that's nice to reconnect.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Same here, Sam. Shake, become a bit of a regular
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: on the show, so welcome back. As you might guess, viewers,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: we're here to talk more about the huge news this
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: week with Stan Kroenke, owner of the Rams, agreeing to
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: purchase the Angels for $ 4 billion. That's a record sale
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: from MLB Team. And we're going to start with Sam.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Sam is a longtime NFL writer. As I said, he
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: covered the Rams' move from St. Louis to Los Angeles
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: for many years leading up to their actual 2016 move.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: He covered Stan Kroenke's purchase of the Hollywood Park site
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and the development of the eventual $ 5. 5 billion project that
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: has become SoFi Stadium. He has covered the Rams for
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: their entire decade in L.A., which has included numerous playoff games.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: runs and two super bowl runs, including a championship. And
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: he is intimately familiar with the inner workings of one
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Stan Kroenke. I like to call him the Stan Kroenke whisperer. Sam,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: what are the angels getting? What are the angels getting
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: in this new owner? That's pretty exciting.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, uh, I, if I can take you
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: back to sort of my relationship with Stan Kroenke and
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: how that, uh, evolved over the years, um, it might
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: be instructive. Um, I knew Stan in the early two
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: thousands when he was the, uh, minority owner of the
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Rams and sort of, uh, co-pilot to Georgia frontier and, and,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: you know, so you really have no control as a
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: minority owner of a team.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: You're almost a super fan.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Um, so I didn't really get to know him well,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: but we'd say hello in the elevator or in passing, uh,
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: at meetings I'd see him on occasion and, and, um,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: thinking is probably 2013 or 2014 i was at dallas
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: cowboys camp and um i was talking to jerry jones
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: in his um it was like a courtyard up there
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: in oxnard and he had a suite so he had
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: a double room and his desk and everything and i
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: remember him drinking a beer putting salt salt on the
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: rim of the can i had never seen that like
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: table salt on the rim of the can And he said,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I know you've been covering this NFL stadium stuff forever,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: but he said, you have to pay attention to this guy.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: He said, this is the one guy who has the team.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: He has the resources and he has the cojones to
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: do this.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Uh, this one's real.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: If Stan's taking interest in Englewood, this is not like
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Carson or the Coliseum or the Rose bowl or the
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: cornfields or, or, um, you know, city of industry, this
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: is real. And so this is not a drill. So
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I instantly sort of, I snapped to attention because that
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: was really my focus. My number one focus as an
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: NFL writer at the times was which team and where,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: and that game of Clue. And so that really put
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Stan front and center on my radar. And I got
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: to know him and he was always known as as
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: silent Stan and in St. Louis. And he was, he
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: was low than everything. Uh, they said he was the
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: world's worst owner. And, um, and so I, I found,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: found him intriguing because he would talk to me and
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: he was interesting and I didn't find him to be self-absorbed. He,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: he never said, I, it was always, we, we, we,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: we talking about the operation and he's a developer. He
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: builds things. Um, and does what he says he's going
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: to do. And so I like the guy. I like
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: talking to him and everything. And then we went through
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: the process of covering the meetings in Houston, and Nathan
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Fenno and I covered those. And I'll say it now,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: after the Rams were awarded the team, Nathan and I
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: flew back on Stan's jet with Stan to Los Angeles.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: And got approval for that.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Got approval, sent him a donation for the cost of
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: the ticket. But when else are you going to get the, uh,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: that kind of exposure to the newest owner in LA.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: And over the years I've gotten to know him better
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: and better. And really I'm impressed. I bring up the
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: fact that he was loathed and everything. Now, 10 years later,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: after he's won an NBA championship, he's won a Superbowl,
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: he's won a Stanley cup.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: He's won, uh, Premier League championship. He's, you know, rightfully so.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Angels fans are saying we got the greatest guy going
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: as an owner.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's a guy.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I will say this about Stan. To my knowledge, he's
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: never sold a team. He only acquires teams. He's got
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: so much going on both in the sports world but
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: outside of that. He owns the second biggest ranch in Texas.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: I think he might be the largest land holder in
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: the U S, uh, his, his holdings might be larger
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: than the state of Delaware. Um, you check me on that,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: but it's a, it's some outrageous, he's got so many
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: things going on. So he entrusts his people. He puts
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: his people in place and trusts them to do the,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: and if you look at the sort of the risk profile,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: the risk tolerance of this guy, uh, I think it's
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: something that sets them apart. Um, from the start with
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: the Rams, if you just look at the Rams as the,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: as the test case study, and you look at building
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: SoFi stadium and that kind of personal investment, five and
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: a half billion dollars, as you mentioned.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Um, trading up, making the largest trade.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Up to number one to get Jared Goff in NFL history,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: number 16 and number one, um, signing, you know, hiring
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: a 30 year old coach in, in Sean McVay, um,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: You know, all the players who came through there, Jalen Ramsey,
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Indomitian Sioux, Von.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Miller, the way that he's built those teams, and.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Then to have the only number one for number one
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: quarterback swap in the NFL history in getting Matthew Stafford,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: winning a Super Bowl. I mean, it's one thing after another,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: and now, you know, the Miles Garrett trade. He's not
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: in there breaking down tape on Miles Garrett, but he
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: has to prove this stuff. And he's signing the checks.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: You know, having Aaron Donald come back. I think that
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: really builds on itself with players.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: And he is a prime example, I think, of the
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: axiom that it takes a good owner to win. And
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Think– I really balk at the idea that he would
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: move the team to SoFi Stadium or move the team
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: to Inglewood. I think he's very interesting.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: He's a developer. He's a developer.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: He's very interested in that land in Orange County, developing that,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: and turning this team into a winner. I think it's
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: a great scenario for Angels fans.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: We'll get more into Stan, the builder and developer, but
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I want to follow up with something you mentioned about
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: how he manages teams. Boy, we've heard the term micromanager
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: in Anaheim a lot with Artie Marino. Can you sort
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of give us an example of maybe how the Rams
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: are structured or maybe, I don't know if you're familiar
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: much with the avalanche or the nuggets, how he structures
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: his sports teams and you know, what, what's his role
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and how he delegates that kind of stuff.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: He's not an absentee owner. I do see him, um,
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: often at Rams games. Uh, he's really empowered Kevin Demoff
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: to oversee those franchises. Not as much, um, Arsenal, although
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: Kevin does do some stuff with Arsenal, but certainly the
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Denver teams and the Rams.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Kevin, we all know him, very bright guy.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: You know, a lot of people have said that he
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: could be the next commissioner of the league, of the NFL.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, super, super bright guy, smart, personable.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: And then Kevin, in turn, entrusts their people. So in
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: the case of the Rams, um, less need and Sean
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: McVay are empowered to do what they do and make
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: those kinds of moves. And they're given the resources to
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: do that, to bring in, to make a major trade
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: for miles Garrett or to lure Aaron Donald back. Um,
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: I think that Stan has a good balance of patience and, um,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: risk tolerance, um, When it comes to winning, and then
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: the people he hires, I mean, Sean McVay does things differently.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: I tease Gary Klein because he's.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Going to be going to Australia for like 36 hours
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: because Sean McVay wants to do that. He flies in
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: the face of convention. I mean, when Sean McVay came in,
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: he said, we're not doing rookie minicamps. or too many
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: soft tissue injuries in rookie minicamps. I'm not playing any
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: starters in the preseason. People didn't do that before. People
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: would play their quarterback for a quarter or a series,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: their starting quarterback. Matthew Stafford doesn't see the field. So
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Sean tends to zig when others zag. And if it
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: didn't work, he would flame out, but obviously it has worked.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, look what they did after getting
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: to the Super Bowl against the Patriots.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: A lot of teams would be thinking, we're right on
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: the brink. And they went out and they traded their
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: quarterback and got Matthew Stafford.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: And a major move that could have exploded like an
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: exploding cigar. But it worked out, and Matthew Stafford, who
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: had never won a playoff game, winds up winning his a.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Superbowl in his first season.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: So I think, I think it is what he does
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: is he truly does allow his people to do their thing.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: He puts them in place and he, and he looks
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: for things that are different. Hiring a 30 year old
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: coach is different. And he was the youngest coach in
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: NFL history. But, you know, I used to cover the
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Raiders and unlike Al, who was, who was singularly focused
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: on the Raiders and, Maybe 2% on women's basketball. Al
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: cared about that, actually. Weirdly. But 98% on the Raiders.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: And that's where all his wealth was. Al's wealth was
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: tied up in the Raiders. Stan's just got too many teams.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: He's got teams in six major sports leagues across two continents.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: He doesn't have the time.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: To be breathing down your neck with every granular move
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: you make. And I would think that'd be very appealing
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: to some of the innovative and, and, um, desirable.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: People in baseball.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Do you think, uh, and I, maybe this won't be
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Stan's call. Maybe it's Kevin, uh, Kevin Demoffs. Eventually you
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: feel like they'd be more inclined to clear house in
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the angels front office, or would they sort of, you know,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: take a look at Molly Jolly, the new team president,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: John was a lock the interim GM and, and, see
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you know what they're all about especially in this transition
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: period or you know do you feel like it'll be
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: a whole new front office in anaheim.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's going to be ego driven so
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: i don't think that it's going to be i have
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: to have my people in there these are people that
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: i found i feel like it's people who sort of
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: comport uh with his vision for what he thinks uh
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: is going to be successful so i don't think that
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: he would wholesale just clean clean house. He didn't do
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: that when he moved the Rams from St. Louis to
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: Los Angeles. Now there was natural attrition. A lot of
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: those people didn't want to move or they didn't get
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: the money that they thought they'd get to get them
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: a comparable house in St.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Louis and Los Angeles.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: So no, I don't think he's going to come in.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: I would be sort of surprised if he just came
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: in and willy-nilly cleared house, cleaned house. But I think
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: that certainly there will be turnovers And he's going to
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: shake it up. But I don't think that he's going
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: to get rid of people just because they weren't people
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: that he hired.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Any early indications whether Kevin Demoff will be involved with
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the Angels? Or are we way too soon to tell?
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Well, no, I think Kevin will be involved.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: And I would think that Josh Kroenke, Stan's 46-year-old son,
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: will also be involved.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Bright guy. But I don't know if he'd take him.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: Tony Pastore's from the Rams, or you take Joanna Hunter
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: from the Rams and have them oversee the Angels.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: I think it's a little early to tell. They're sort
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: of laying low until the vote, which I believe would
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: be in November. And Bill can correct me on that.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: But I don't think that they're, at least the indications
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: I've gotten is that They either aren't at the granular
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: level now where they're really looking at those things, or
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: they're just not going to tell me that.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Last question for you, Sam.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: As you mentioned, Stan is a real estate magnate known
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: for his developments of sports venues and SoFi. There's no
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: other way to describe it outside of palatial. It's one
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: of the finest sports and entertainment venues in the world.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Angel fans, they need a new stadium down here in Anaheim.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: You know what Stan built up in Englewood. What do
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: you think a new stadium in Anaheim would look like
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: knowing Stan's tastes and what his priorities are in a
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: sports stadium like that?
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Boy, if it's anything like SoFi where they really spared
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: no expense and it's functional and beautiful, that'd be amazing,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: especially with that being sort of a transportation hub, um,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: or as much as we're, we get into public transportation
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: here in Southern California.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I think it could be, uh, amazing. I don't know that,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: that he's committed to building anything.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: I've seen some things out there that are very specific
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: and I don't believe them. Um, I don't think that that's, um,
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: that there's a plan in the works definitively to build
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: a stadium, but as you said, they need a stadium
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: and He's not going to play in a subpar stadium.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: I just think that people are getting out over their
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: skis personally saying there's already a plan in place.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: It just doesn't make sense to me. Yeah.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I did the radio interview this morning and somebody, and
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the guy mentioned that it's like, Oh, okay.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I haven't heard that myself. I can check with Shane.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: On that one.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: There was also an erroneous report yesterday that the, sale
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: included all the land around the stadium, which I'm sure
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: is of interest to Stan Kroenke, but it is not
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: actually owned.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: By Artie Marino.
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: It's owned by the City of Anaheim. So Artie couldn't
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: sell it even if he wanted to. So the people
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: at City Hall in Anaheim didn't know anything in advance
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: of this. They were surprised when they saw the statement
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: or actually saw Sam's report first and then the statement.
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: So I'm sure Stan and and Kevin and everybody in
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: the operation will have time to sit down with the
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: people at city hall. And we can talk more about
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: what a deal might look like, but yeah, that has
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: not happened yet.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: That brings us to, uh, my first question for shake.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: You know, one thing here. I said that Stan has
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: never sold a team.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: I also should add, I don't believe he owns every
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: team outright, which is unusual, at least in the NFL
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: that you'd have, um, you'd have limited partners. Stan owns
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: every team outright. Now, whether he's going to own the
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: Angels outright, I would think he would and could, but
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: maybe Artie Moreno is able to retain a sliver of them.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: It doesn't really mean anything because the controlling owner is
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: the one who makes the decisions, but it means something
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: in the personal investment and the fact that he buys teams,
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: buys the whole team, and doesn't let go of a team.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: So people thought he was like I even saw something like, oh, well,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: maybe now he can sell it.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, no.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: It just doesn't mesh with anything that's not on brand
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: at all with who this guy is.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: He's not flipping this house like Don's owner just did
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: with the Lakers. So, Shane, the stadium dilemma has been
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: vexing for the Angels, for the city of Anaheim for
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: so many years. As you mentioned, the city, not the Angels,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: own this stadium and the parking lots around it. the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: lease there with the Angels expires in six years. How
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: do you see this stadium thing, situation being resolved with
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Stan Kroenke coming in as a, as the next owner?
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: First to follow on Sam's point.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: Artie Moreno did keep a small share of the team,
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: but it was emphasized to me. It is very small.
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: It's mostly for tax reasons, but yeah, it's Stan's team.
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: He'll be controlling the shots. Having said that in terms of,
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: how this all resolves itself. I think that's going to
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: be fascinating to find out. But both parties have what
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: I would consider the same interest. In other words, if
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: you've gone to an Angel game since that stadium opened
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: in 1966, you had the same experience then.
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: That you do today.
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: You drive in, you watch the game, you drive home.
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: So what teams want to do now, what owners want
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: to do now, and what the city of Anaheim actually
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: would want There's a situation.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Where you come early and have a beer.
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: You stay late. You go to a restaurant. You go
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: to some shops. Maybe you stay overnight at the hotel
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: in the parking lot. Maybe there's some homes. Maybe there's
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: some offices. All sorts of stuff you could do with
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: that land that most teams do. And in fact, as
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: Sam mentioned, that Stan has started to do around SoFi Stadium.
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: The city wants that because every development you put up
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: on the parking lot generates tax revenue for the city.
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: A flat parking lot doesn't really quite do it the
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: same way. So the interests are aligned how they get
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: from start to finish. There are some details we could
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: talk about, but it's hard to see this not happening
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: at some point.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Could could stand by the stadium and the parking lots
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: from the city of Anaheim outright? and do the development, uh, uh,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: himself as he has done in SoFi. And if so,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: no pun intended, what'd be a ballpark figure or what
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: they could get? What could the city get for that
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: land in the stadium right now?
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: Well, that was the exact deal Artie Marino had made
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: in 2019, uh, It was to buy the stadium and
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: buy the land around it for $ 325 million. That was
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: the announced price. It turned out the cash price was
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: $ 150 million.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: Plus other considerations, if you will.
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: And then the FBI came in, said the mayor was corrupt,
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: and that pretty much ended the deal. Not Artie's fault,
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: not the fault of the hardworking people in the city,
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: but yeah, that deal turned pretty toxic.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: Could Stan do that today? I'm sure he could. I mean,
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: they'd have to double over the price.
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: I don't know if the value would be today what
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: it was then, either appraised independently or at the value
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: that Artie and the city had put on at that time.
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: But that would be the model because really what the
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: city has tried to do, and I think smartly for
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: a long time, is get out of the stadium business.
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: It's not something that produces a lot of revenue for
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: the city. The lease goes back to 1996 and while
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: It might have been a good lease in 1996. It's
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: not great today. And really, you don't need the hassle.
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: Who's going to be the best party to invest in
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: the stadium? The person with the team playing in the stadium.
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: So for the city, get out of the business of
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: running a stadium. Get a deal in which you know
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: the Angels are going to stay there for a long
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: time to come and get somebody else to build the
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: stadium for you and develop the land. That's a win-win,
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: and they should be able to get to that point.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Well, Anaheim Mayor Ashley Aitken seemed thrilled by the news
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: of the ownership change. She called this Christmas in September
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: earlier today. Shake, fair to say that Stan Kroenke is
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: going to have a little better working relationship with the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: city when it comes to these stadium negotiations than Artie
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Marino did?
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: I hope so.
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: I think the first thing Artie would mention is he
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: did two deals with the city, one of them in
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: 2019 and another one a few years before that, and
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: the city walked away from both of them. Now, it's
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: not to impugn anybody at the city. Things change. And
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: certainly the people involved then were not necessarily the same
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: ones that would be involved now. But there's just more
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: factions to satisfy.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: You know, team, it's the owner.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: City, you got city councilors that might have different interests.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: You got a mayor. You got city staff members. You
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: got community people. So it's a little bit harder push.
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: But ultimately, I don't see a reason why they can't
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: be pulling, as Tommy Lasorda would say, on the same
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: end of the road.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there has been speculation. God bless Tommy, huh? There's
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: been a.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: Little bit of speculation. Orange County's Tommy.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Fullerton's.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: There's been a little speculation that Stan could knock down
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the forum and build a baseball stadium next to SoFi
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Stadium on that site. But Shakey wrote a story. I
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: know it was online. I'm not sure when it's going
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: to run on the paper. But you basically said that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: one of the purposes of this deal for Kroenke is
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: to expand their footprint south into Orange County's market of
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: more than 3 million people with its own economy, corporate base,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and tourism draw apart from the Los Angeles market. Owning
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the Rams and Angels would give Kroenke Sports and Entertainment
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: a year-round presence on the Southern California sports calendar. And quote,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: the Angels are a storied franchise anchored in a great market.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Kroenke said, we look forward to an exciting future with
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the Angels organization. Shaq, while you're reading that, are you
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: pretty confident that team's staying in Anaheim?
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: I think that would be plan A. It's the easiest,
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: most logical thing, and it's the place where if you're
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: staying Kroenke and you want to find a large parcel
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: of land that you can develop, it's hard to find
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: 150 acres anywhere in Southern California, let alone right next
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: to a train station and three freeways. So I think
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: that would be the ideal place. And if you go
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: look at Stan's MO, it's not just SoFi Stadium and
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: building a neighborhood in the land around it. It's what
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: he's doing with the Rams training facility in Woodland Hills.
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: He's getting involved in building a new sports arena in
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: San Diego, and he's going to develop the land around that.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: This is who he is. This is what he does.
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: So again, I think that's plan a, but you know,
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: just to say a deal makes sense. Doesn't necessarily guarantee
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: it's going to happen.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: As we know, I would say also DJ, I would
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: say that with both Stan and Kevin, the St. Louis
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: experience was bruising. They didn't like the critique that they,
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: the criticism they got, they know that came with the
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: territory of moving a franchise and, whenever you move the franchise,
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: you're the most loathed person in that city's history. Just,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: you know, look in Baltimore and Cleveland and Art Nodal,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: all that stuff. Um, I think it is, enters into
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: the calculus, uh, pissing off a community and, and extracting
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: a team from an area. And, um, I don't think
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: it's all about money and development. I think it's like, um,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: You know, there's certainly important, very important factors and maybe
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: the most important. But I think also you've got a
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: lot of football fans in Southern California and, you know,
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: a lot of football fans in Orange County, a lot
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: of Rams fans in Orange County. I just think that,
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: you know, kicking the beehive like that.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Would certainly be a consideration.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: They wouldn't just capriciously say, oh, let's move it to
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: the forums.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I just don't think.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: That because the benefit you get from that would not
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: outweigh the negativity. Yeah.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Having covered that Rams move from Anaheim to St. Louis
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: back in 1995, I can tell you the name Georgia
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Frontier is not welcomed around Orange County for sure. Shane,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: getting back to you, as we know, the stadium has
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: been filled with the sell the team chants from the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Tarpsoft crew. All season long, Molly Jolly in an interview
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: yesterday with you and other reporters said that Artie was, quote,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: aware of these chants, but she didn't really seem to elaborate.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Do you think those things had a significant impact on Artie?
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I know the biggest impact is the $ 4 billion offer
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: being thrown in front of you, but do you think
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: those things really hurt Artie personally?
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: Maybe a little bit, but If you remember the first
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: days of Artie Marino's ownership, he was there every day.
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: He was walking around. He was talking to fans. He
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: was all over the ballpark concourses. He wanted to meet everybody,
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: and everybody wanted to meet him because they just won
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: the World Series, and he's bringing in Vladimir Guerrero and
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: Bartolo Colon.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: What more do you want from your owner?
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: The last 10 years, he's... Hasn't much been around when
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: he is. He certainly doesn't go mingle with the fans.
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: So I think it had just basically become time. Molly
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: had mentioned yesterday that, you know, when he did put
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: the team on the market a few years ago, even
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: though he pulled them off, that sort of set in
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: motion the idea that, yeah, this is going to happen someday.
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: And having a chance, she said, to meet one-on-one with
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: Stan Kroenke as opposed to conduct business through intermediaries, I'm sorry,
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: bankers and investment brokers and all this stuff, made it
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: an easier deal for him. Artie liked to say, you know,
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: I look you in the eye and a deal is
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: a deal. And I think Angels fans will remember that's
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: really what annoyed Artie Marino about Josh Hamilton, because there
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: were Josh Hamilton issues that everybody knew about. And Artie
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: flew to Texas and looked Josh Hamilton in the eye
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: and told.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Us about it.
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: And Josh said there would be no problems. Artie was
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: not happy when there were problems.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Well, it's going to take years for a new stadium
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: to be built. It could take years for the Angels
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: to return to the playoffs after what is now a
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: 12-year postseason drought. But, Shaq, we said on the show before,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I think Artie just kind of ran the franchise into
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the ground over the last few years. But do you
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: expect the Angels, under the Kroenke ownership, to at least
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: start acting like a big market team? As they once were.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: I mean, one of the things I still remember to
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: this day is when Artie bought the team in 2003,
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: there were people in Major League Baseball who told me,
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: you know, the great thing about this is and not
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: taking anything away from Disney because they just won the
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: World Series. But under Disney and under Jack Yachtry, the
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: Angels were a small market team playing in a large market.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: It was insane.
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: And Artie came in, like we said, he brought in
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: Vladimir Guerrero, Hall of Famer, Bartolo Colon, was an all-star
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: for the Angels, won a Cy Young Award. That's the
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: behavior you expect. And as Sam mentioned, that's sort of
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: the behavior they've exhibited running the Rams. So now you've
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: gotten to the point where Artie was the guy that
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: came in and turned the Angels from a small market
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: team into a large market team. They've deteriorated back into
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: a small market mentality. And now Stan Kroenke is the
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: guy who's going to do what Artie did in 03,
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: take the Angels to being a large market team.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Last question for you, Shaik. What do you think
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Artie's legacy will be in Orange County? And will leading
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: the team in the hands of what we expect and
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: think will be a very capable ownership group maybe cause
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: fans over time to maybe soften their very harsh view
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: of Artie Marino right now.
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: When you talk to Andrew Friedman about the Dodgers, he
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: likes to say we're trying to produce the golden era
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: of Dodger baseball right now. And I think it would
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: be hard to argue that they haven't. If you ask
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: when's the golden era of Angels baseball right, you're going
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: to have to say the first decade of the 21st century.
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: And other than 02, when Disney was running the team,
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: the rest of it was already Marino. When the Angels
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: were winning the division almost every year, going to the
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: playoffs almost every year, selling out the stadium almost every night.
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: It was fun. It was great.
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: There's no reason the Angels can't get back to that.
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: And I hope as time goes on, people will remember that.
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: But unfortunately not. what you remember best too often is
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: what you remember last.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: What have you done for me lately?
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, they're all about affordability. They're not about winning.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Oh boy.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: He may never, never live that quote down.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Sam, I want to leave you with a one last
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: parting thought. If you had any on Stan Kroenke, maybe
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: anything we haven't covered today that you'd like to add.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Oh boy. We covered a lot of ground.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I, I, I will say it's not necessarily on
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: Stan Kroenke, but it'll be interesting to see how the
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: NFL views Orange County now. Stan having, you know, this
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: is going to be the first Disney Super Bowl, ESPN's
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: first Super Bowl.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: And now Stan entering the fray down there.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: And I think that's going to be, I think you're
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: going to see some events down in Orange County. That said,
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: the league is going to keep an arm's length from
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: any other sport. You know, back in the Paul Tagliabue days,
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: you weren't even allowed to watch.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Another sport in the NFL offices.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: I don't think Roger Goodell went to the World Cup game.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure. You know, it's just like it's all football.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: So he was seen at the U.S.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Open, but aside from that, not a lot so.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: I will say Stan buying the team might not promote
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: a lot of intermingling between the NFL and baseball, but
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: I do think that we're going to see a presence
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: when the Super Bowl is here in Orange County.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: We will close the show with that. Sam Farmer, national
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: football writer, Bill Shakin, national baseball writer. For the LA Times,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: thanks for joining us today, guys. Really appreciate your input
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: and your level of institutional knowledge is unrivaled in Southern California.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: And we're grateful we have that still in the newspaper business.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: That's going to be it for Halo Territory today. Please
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: like and subscribe and we'll see you next time on
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Halo Territory.