Stan Kroenke’s company agreed to purchase the Los Angeles Angels, ending owner Arte Moreno’s tumultuous 23-year-old stewardship of the franchise, both parties announced Tuesday. The price has not been revealed, but the Los Angeles Times reportedthat it will top the record $3.9 billion the San Diego Padres fetched in May.
The MLB team completes the set for Kroenke, the 79-year-old real estate mogul whose Kroenke Sports & Entertainment will own majority stakes in the Los Angeles Rams (NFL), the Denver Nuggets (NBA), the Colorado Avalanche (NHL), the Colorado Rapids (MLS) and Arsenal (English Premier League).
It also rids the Angels of an owner who has in recent years drawn fan requests to sell the team and expletive-laden chants. Moreno bought the team for $183.5 million in May 2003, seven months after it won the World Series. The subsequent quarter-century saw six playoff appearances and two series wins.
For six years, the Angels employed two of the best players in the history of the sport, center fielder and three-time MVP Mike Trout and two-way star and four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani, but failed to finish above .500, in large part because of the way the organization mismanaged resources. Moreno was willing to spend, but he and his executives lavished cash on players who did not perform while declining to offer it to those who would. He also owned the team when a star pitcher died of an overdose after doing drugs provided by the team’s communications director.
Angels fans are surely happy to see Kroenke, most of whose other teams have won championships in the past decade, arrive. But they will be at least as relieved to see Moreno go.
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The post Arte Moreno finally sells MLB’s Angels, granting fans’ wishes appeared first on Washington Post.
