The Los Angeles Angels of Tustin?

Angels Stadium
Angels Stadium
Angels Stadium

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that that Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno has met with officials from the City of Tustin about building a baseball stadium in the city.  The new stadium, built on undeveloped land between Tustin and Irvine between Jamboree and Red Hill Avenue, would be accessible from the 5, 55 and 405 freeways and would be connected to rail via the Tustin Metrolink station.

So much for answering the question “where would they (the Angels) go?”

From the story:

One potential site would be the decommissioned Marine Corps Air Station, which would be accessible via the 5, 405 and 55 Freeways and is across the street from the Tustin Metrolink train station.

“We did have an initial meeting with Tustin,” said Marie Garvey, a consultant retained by the Angels to handle stadium negotiation issues. “We’re still in discussions with the City of Anaheim, but we have to take a long-term view and explore all of our options to insure we have certainty for the future.”

Moreno said Friday that negotiations for a new lease for Angel Stadium are “at a stalemate.” He is clearly frustrated by Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait’s reluctance to accept a proposal in which the Angels would spend $150 million to renovate the stadium in exchange for a 66-year, $1-a-year lease to develop 155 acres of land in the parking lot.

Garvey would not elaborate on details of the Tustin meeting, and she described talks with the city as being “in the infancy stage.”

In addition, a new stadium would dramatically improve the development of Tustin’s “District” entertainment complex and would be easy for visiting teams to get to than the Big A  as it’s closer to John Wayne Airport.  There is some residential areas near the proposed stadium site but it is surrounded by commercial development with plenty of room for parking.

Moving the Angels to a new stadium in Tustin will create thousands of construction jobs and a number of jobs that will benefit Tustin and Irvine’s tax coffers while keeping this team in Orange County.  Like Anaheim, Tustin has a Republican council majority with four Republicans to one Democrat.  The area has been undeveloped for years.

While Tustin isn’t the only site in Orange County, this site makes a lot of sense on a lot of levels.  The transportation options have multiple offerings fans from North and South County easier access to a stadium than Anaheim.

And should the Angels leave, Anaheim can point the finger of blame at Mayor Tom Tait and his merry band of supporters who aren’t baseball fans.  Anaheim taxpayers can start asking where the city will get the $17 to $24 million it’s estimated to demolish a stadium that is too expensive for the city to maintain annually without a tenant.  And if that land in Anaheim is as attractive as development platform for other real estate, perhaps folks can start asking why the Tustin site was undeveloped for so long?

I think the Tustin site would be perfect for the Angels.

 

6 Comments

  1. Forget Tustin, the Great Park is the place they need to be. Question is do our elected officials have the imagination and creative thinking to handle such a massive project? I would be surprised if they have not already been discussing the pros and cons among themselves.

  2. Interesting that a non-descript gentleman came to the last Tustin Council meeting to promote a minor league stadium and baseball camp. His idea was a 1500 seat stadium which shows how naive he was.

    While the thought of the LA Angels moving to Tustin is outwardly attractive, I think there would be a lot to overcome, particularly since the majority of MCAS land is spoken for.

  3. I think Irvine would fight this on quality of life issues. It’s literally across the street from Irvine and would produce a lot of noise, traffic, and light pollution. I can just imagine the crawl of cars to and from a game.

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