Angels not in talks with Industry, team chairman says

The Angels have not held negotiations about moving to a potential new ballpark in the City of Industry, Angels Chairman Dennis Kuhl said Thursday.

The ballpark would replace a proposed NFL stadium there, according to a published report. However, the owners of the site insisted Thursday that they have not given up on the NFL.

“Our commitment is on returning the NFL to Los Angeles and our focus is on building a football stadium,” Majestic Realty spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported Wednesday that the Angels had engaged in “preliminary talks” about moving the franchise to Industry, citing “a source with close ties to Industry City Hall.”

Industry City Manager Kevin Radecki said he was unaware of any conversations involving the Angels coming to his town.

“We haven’t talked to anybody here,” Radecki said.

Radecki said the environmental impact report approved for the Industry site would not be viable for a ballpark. The number of home games in a baseball season would exceed the number of dates approved for major events at the Industry site, he said.

The Angels can opt out of their stadium lease in 2016, and Angels owner Arte Moreno has said he needs “to make a call four or five years before that.” Moreno and Kuhl met in April with AEG President Tim Leiweke.

Porritt would not say whether Majestic owner Ed Roski had met with Moreno, if only to consider future options. As Moreno evaluates whether to move—and to where—Roski is engaged with AEG’s proposed Farmers Field site in the battle to bring the NFL back to the Los Angeles area.

If Roski held to his NFL concept for a baseball stadium—Majestic provides the land, and the team owner pays for construction—Moreno would have to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars for a new ballpark at the Industry site.

Roski has proposed buying an ownership share in whatever team might move to the site, which could mitigate some of that cost. The two sides also would have to decide how to pay for the revised environmental impact assessment.

The city of Anaheim expects the Angels to engage in talks about the stadium issue after the baseball season, according to a person familiar with the city’s position but not authorized to discuss it.

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