Anaheim may stick Angels with major stadium upgrade costs

A potential sale of the Angels could come with a large added cost.

The city of Anaheim could mull if the Major League Baseball team should pick up the tab for as much as $300 million in Angel Stadium upgrades, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The City Council will meet next week to decide whether to commission a study “in anticipation of potential litigation” that one councilman says could force the team to pay the bill.

The city estimated in 2013 the stadium would need between $130 million and $150 million for maintenance, repairs and renovations over the next two decades. That estimate is “easily double” now, Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster told the Orange County Register in August.

The proposed study would provide a detailed assessment of the city-owned stadium property.

The Angels’ lease requires the team to pay the “sole expense” of ballpark maintenance and upkeep, aside from a specific city contribution each year. The team has made $54.5 million in capital repairs and improvements since 2002, including $12.3 million paid by the city, the Times reported. Arte Moreno bought the team in 2003.

The lease directs the Angels to maintain the stadium “at least equal to first class professional baseball stadiums, such as, on the date hereof, Kansas City and Dodger stadiums.” The lease was signed in 1996, and a $117-million renovation of Angel Stadium was done in 1998.

Since then, the Kansas City Royals’ stadium has received a $250-million upgrade paid for by local taxpayers, and the Dodgers’ owners have spent $350 million on renovations at Dodger Stadium.

Now Anaheim is looking to hold its team to those standards.

In October, Councilman Jose Moreno said the city “should look” to enforce its lease. City attorney Robert Fabela said enforcement could include asking a court to order compliance with a lease and award a payment for damages.

It’s not clear whether a court would say if Angel Stadium needed to be maintained on par with the Royals’ and Dodger stadiums in 1996, or if a court would consider the ballparks as examples of first-class stadiums now.

It’s also not clear whether the council other than Jose Moreno wants to pursue action against the Angels. Moreno, who adamantly opposed the now-dead $320-million sale of the stadium and surrounding parking lots to unrelated Arte Moreno, leaves office next month.

A sale of the Angels is expected to fetch at least $2.5 billion, a record price for a MLB team. The Angels’ lease — including a potential stadium upgrades bill for hundreds of millions — automatically transfers to any new owner approved by the league.

This means a new owner would likely ask its current to assume any liability for the matter — or discount the purchase price accordingly, according to the Times.

— Dana Bartholomew

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