Rams owner Stan Kroenke has agreed to buy the Angels, adding Major League Baseball to a portfolio that spans six leagues and two continents.
The deal marks the end of Arte Moreno’s turbulent ownership of the Angels, with the news triggering shock followed by celebration among beleaguered fans whose team owns baseball’s longest playoff drought.
The transaction runs through Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, Kroenke’s holding company, which also owns the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of MLS and Arsenal of the English Premier League.
The Angels are being sold for an MLB-record $4-billion valuation, a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times. The previous high was the $3.9-billion sale of the San Diego Padres that was completed last month.
Forbes had valued the Angels at $2.8 billion in March. The sale is subject to regulatory review and MLB approval, with the expectation it will close in the first quarter of next year.
Companies tied to Kroenke also own the Rams and built SoFi Stadium and the 300-acre Hollywood Park development around it in Inglewood, a project that has grown into a sports and entertainment hub for Los Angeles County and is set to host events during the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.
People line up outside Angel Stadium before a game on Aug. 24.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Ap Photo/jayne Kamin-oncea)
The Angels deal pushes that footprint south, into Orange County’s market of more than 3 million people, with its own economy, corporate base and tourism draw apart from Los Angeles proper. Owning the Rams and Angels would give Kroenke Sports and Entertainment a year-round presence on the Southern California sports calendar.
“The Angels are a storied franchise anchored in a great market,” Kroenke said in a statement. “We look forward to an exciting future with the Angels organization.”
Kroenke, 79, has shown interest in buying a Southern California baseball team before. More than a decade ago, he was a backup bidder when the Dodgers were sold.
“The Angels organization is pleased to announce this transaction with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment,” Moreno said in a statement. “The Moreno Family has been honored to steward the Angels for 23 years and we believe with KSE’s experience and success they are the best next owner for the franchise. The Angels Organization looks forward to continuing its commitment to the fans, our employees, the players and our business partners.”
Moreno, 80, was MLB‘s first Latino owner and a longtime champion of keeping baseball affordable for fans.
His ownership of the Angels, which began on the heels of the franchise’s only World Series championship in 2002, started with the most successful decade in club history, one that featured five American League West titles and two AL Championship Series appearances from 2004 to 2009.
But that was followed by a dreadful decade in which the team, despite employing a pair of generational talents in two-way star Shohei Ohtani and three-time AL most valuable player Mike Trout, failed to win a playoff game and endured losing seasons from 2016 to 2026.
Moreno announced in August 2022 that he would explore the process of selling the franchise, only to pull the plug on any potential deal five months later, when he announced he would retain ownership.
In 2023, Moreno granted an interview to Sports Illustrated, in which he explained his decision to put the Angels up for sale, then take them off the market.
“If I’m going to stay,” Moreno said he told his wife, “I have to make a decision that we have to do better. We’re just not doing well enough.”
In 2024 and 2025, the Angels finished last in their division, extending baseball’s longest playoff drought to 11 seasons. This summer they’re flirting with the worst record in baseball, and fans have protested during games for months, chanting for Moreno to sell the team.
Angels fans wave their shirts and chant “sell the team” during the eighth inning of a game at Angel Stadium on May 20.
(Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)
“They’re not doing much for us fans,” lifelong Angels fan Johnny Gonzalez told The Times in June after organizing a protest at Angel Stadium. “It seems like every other team is just doing a lot more than us, despite us having a huge following [and] having some of the best players to ever play the game. I mean, it’s just like a lack of commitment, to say the least.”
Moreno told the Orange County Register in February that, according to Angels survey results, winning was not a top-five priority for fans and that data showed they valued affordability, safety and a “good experience” first.
Outrage over the remarks has grown as the Angels struggled to string together wins. Fans joined the “tarps off” movement spreading through MLB, flocking to a section of the stadium to take off their shirts, wave them and chant “sell the team” during games.
Moreno made a major change that already improved the trajectory of the franchise, firing general manager Perry Minasian on June 26 and naming longtime baseball executive John Mozeliak interim general manager.
Mozeliak reoriented the team’s draft selection priority from “closest to the majors” to “best available,” traded one-third of the major league roster to seed a barren minor league system, fired three coaches and completed a restructuring of the front office.
But nothing is more likely to transform the Angels’ fortunes than Kroenke buying the team, even with a potential lockout looming next season as players and owners are far apart on a new labor deal.
Kroenke has proven he invests what is required to turn his teams into winners, first funding the Rams’ hard-fought relocation to Los Angeles and later supporting the deals that brought the team a Super Bowl win on its home field in 2022. Now the Rams are chasing another home-field Super Bowl victory, loading up on talent and coaxing future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald out of retirement to round out their roster.
The Nuggets, Avalanche and Arsenal also have won championships during Kroenke’s tenure.
The billionaire real estate developer — who was born in Columbia, Mo., and whose wife is heiress to the Walmart fortune — owns homes in Malibu, Denver and his hometown. While his work has shaped elite teams on two continents, the construction of SoFi Stadium and investment in Hollywood Park has forever changed Inglewood and suggests revitalization could be on the way in and around Angel Stadium.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke holds the Lombardi Trophy after his team beat the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium on Feb. 13, 2022.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
The Angels sale agreement comes at a busy time in the Southern California sports ownership landscape.
Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner agreed to purchase the majority stake of the Lakers from Mark Walter on Aug. 12 for a record $12.5-billion valuation.
Jeanie Buss is contesting her five siblings’ effort to sell their minority stake in the Lakers, a move that effectively would fire her as the team’s governor and end 47 years of Buss family stewardship.
Walter’s businesses are the subject of multiple investigations, and the Dodgers owner is working to pay down debt carried by two of his insurance companies. While Walter’s holding company, TWG Global, and Dodgers president Stan Kasten have insisted none of his other sports properties are for sale, Walter reportedly has been open to unloading his stake in Premier League team Chelsea, and questions persist about whether he may need to sell his other teams, which include the WNBA’s Sparks.