LA Times sports columnist Bill Shaikin is reporting that the Angels have met with Great Park developer Five Point Communities to discuss the possibility of relocating the team to Irvine:
The Angels have met with the developer of the Orange County Great Park property to see whether the construction of a new ballpark might be feasible on that Irvine site.
The news comes the day before the city of Anaheim is set to release an appraisal of the Angel Stadium property. The Angels have grown frustrated over negotiations for a deal that would keep the team in Anaheim for the long term, and Angels executives have opened discussions for potential alternative sites in Tustin and now Irvine.
The Irvine City Council agreed last November to let FivePoint Communities build 688 acres of the Great Park in exchange for permission to build 4,606 homes nearby, with both projects on land formerly used as a Marine Corps air base. The property is near the intersection of the 5 and 405 freeways — the “El Toro Y” — with an adjacent train station.
“The Angels have met with FivePoint Communities as part of exploring our options,” team spokeswoman Marie Garvey said Thursday.
You can read the rest of the column here.
Now, if you’re a member of the torpedo-the-Angels-negotiations claque, clear your mind and repeat after me: The Angels have nowhere to go. The Angels have nowhere to go, The Angels have nowhere to go.
I hear they met with Santa Claus, too. Future meetings include the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Captain America, and the sisters from Frozen.
The difference being, of course, that FivePoint Communities is real.
Oops – I hope I didn’t spoil anything for you.
I’m sure you think so, Matt. I’m sure you think that FivePoints is gonna give up half a billion dollars to give Arte Moreno a new home, too.
And that cars are going to sprout wings to fly down new toll roads to get to games. Perhaps FivePoints might even have some decent relief pitching they’ll throw in on the side.
Anaheim’s negotiator said this piece of property was worth $30m. It’s worth $300m.
You ought to be asking for his head, not telling me about how we should give away property for a dollar because you’re too scared to negotiate something better. That you aren’t is . . . well, revealing.
Anyone here REALLY think FivePoints and Irvine will let this happen? I’m pretty sure Larry Agran and the machine will drop a house on your head before he lets The Great Park turn into a concrete jungle only slightly better than El Toro Airport.
You’re spinning it too fast, Matt. People are getting so dizzy they’re about to puke all over you.
Actually Ryan, the negotiator suggested a range from $30 million to $380 million. That is what the city told the LA Times in the story that ran Sunday and the appraisal is within range. And Five Points has lots of property near the Great Park subject to development.
The fact he tolerated $30m is a joke. If you’re getting paid to negotiate an asset, you don’t get a $350m range.
So, he gets to be held accountable for that $30m. I mean jeez, Dan, he got paid over $100,000 for that. How can you possibly defend that?
How does a Stadium rate on the ‘feng-shui’ scale?
Perhaps he should be accountable to the $380 million. That’s $55 million higher than the top end if the team goes. And these estimates weren’t ridiculed until the final appraisal came in.
But I get it Ryan. Whatever makes Tait look better
I really don’t think you do get it, Dan. I’ll put it plainly.
Giving a $350,000,000 range with a +/- 90% degree of accuracy is seriously deficient.
If you put out a bid for a project with that kind of ambiguity, you’d get laughed at. Again, how can you possibly defend this?
This has nothing to do with Tait or anyone else on the council. Sometimes Dan, calling out piss poor work is just calling out piss poor work. Get over your hyper-partisan finger pointing.
Perhaps you don’t get it Ryan. There are empty parcels with acres of land in Anaheim not far from the stadium. What is that land appraised at? Perhaps the lowball estimate was based on that. Maybe Anaheim is sitting on a gold mine. Or just maybe, Tait wants the team gone to increase the value of the property have gave to his kids
Dan,
I’m out of tin foil. Can I borrow some from your hat?
This is quickly turning into a fever swamp.
It’s not a fever swamp, Ryan (that would be your home blog , OJB) but your monomaniacal commenting style doesn’t help.
Interesting choice of words, particularly in a loose defense of Dan.
Get it from Tait. I hear he buys in bulk