The business of baseball proceeds and so does getting taxpayers money for stadium improvements.
Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim owner Arte Moreno has solved one of his stadium problems. His business will continue using a spring training facility in Tempe, Arizona through 2035. Tempe is putting up money as is Moreno for the stadium upgrades. It is estimated that the entire project will cost $50 million and some of that will come from Tempe taxpayers. Tempe gets a piece of Angels ticket revenue and money from tourism taxes although it is never announced just how many of those tourists actually go to baseball games and drop money in a city.
The renovations will include the construction of a three-story building on the third base side of the stadium which will feature a new locker room along with offices and a team store. There will be suites built as part of that project which Moreno hopes can be done for the 2022 spring training season, if there is a spring training as the owners and players need to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement as the present one is done after the season. The $20.9 million cost for the initial renovations will be nearly split between the city and the team. Phase II calls for installing an outfield concourse allowing customers to walk all the way around the playing field. There will also be a new shade structures, modernized restrooms and traffic improvements outside the ballpark according to the planners. Moreno is trying to figure out what his next move is in Anaheim. In December 2019, Moreno signed a land agreement to construct a stadium village. His business will remain in Anaheim through at least 2050. Moreno has not decided whether to put money into the present Anaheim stadium or just build a new one. That decision is expected sometime this year.
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Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, of Japan, celebrates his RBI double during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, May 7, 2021, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
