Joe McDonnell, the late radio host, used to have this recurring segment on the sports talk show he did years ago with longtime Herald-Examiner and Press-Telegram columnist Doug Krikorian.
It was called, “Who do you want to kick out of L.A.?”
In other words, which sports figure was annoying or incompetent enough to warrant exile from this sports market? As you might expect, there was seldom a shortage of answers for Big Joe to discuss.
I think I understand now how that works. Every time I write about Angels owner Arte Moreno I get a similar torrent of responses from the team’s fan base. (There’s irony here, since Moreno claims L.A. even though so many of the fans of his Orange County-based team hate the idea.)
And yes, as I noted a week ago, Arte stepped in it at the beginning of spring training in Tempe when he told several media members, including our own Jeff Fletcher, that a “fan survey” indicated winning was not even in the top five of Angels fans’ priorities.
The result: 37 emails in response. The tenor? Oh, boy …
Scott Ernst of LaVerne indicated he remains an Angels fan – “I’ll never root for the Dodgers – except when they’re playing the Yankees or Red Sox,” he wrote, but added that he didn’t buy any Angels tickets last year and won’t this season, either.
“I’m not a season-ticket holder, but I typically went to 10-15 games a year, and I even rented a suite for my 50th birthday in 2021,” he wrote. “After the ‘winning isn’t even in the top five’ comment from Arte Moreno, I’ve decided I’m done giving him my money. … I don’t need to contribute my hard-earned money to an owner who doesn’t care about his fans.”
Maybe Arte picked up on the “affordability” debate rattling around in our political discourse and decided it was a point worth selling for a team that hasn’t made the postseason since 2014.
There is something to it, in fairness. Sports Acquisition Capital, a venture capital and private equity firm headquartered in Seattle, published a list of average ticket prices for the 2024 and ’25 seasons for MLB, the NFL, NBA and NHL and each team in those leagues. The Dodgers were the third-highest in baseball at $155, behind only the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. The Angels were 19th out of 30 teams at $80.
Most other surveys of ticket prices or what it costs for a family of four to go to the ballpark indicate similar differences. But, loyalties aside, the team that wins a lot and has star power is a lot more attractive, and can charge a lot more and get away with it, than the team without.
Edward Lamoureux, a professor emeritus at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., has been an Angels fan dating to 1961 in L.A.’s old Wrigley Field, and he noted that the Angels’ 2025 attendance was in excess of 2.6 million “with a team NOBODY figured could finish above .500, let alone compete for (the) playoffs,” which sort of proved Moreno’s point. And, Lamoureaux added, “Pro sports are getting out of the reach (of) all but the wealthy. I’ll honor any owner seeking to hold that line.”
But …
“He’s the guy who hired the guys who got the players who didn’t perform. Here, he’s been wrong. … Their cheap approaches to farm system, scouting, player development have been problems for a LONG time; decades. Here, he’s been wrong. … Winning is WAY higher on fans’ radar than 5th. But it’s not everything if one can’t afford to see them. Here he’s mostly wrong …”
Therein lies most of the fan dissatisfaction. Not only haven’t the Angels made the playoffs in 11 seasons, they usually haven’t been close. It can’t be said that Moreno hasn’t spent; the sunk money from big contracts to ineffective players like Josh Hamilton and Anthony Rendon would refute that, as well as the 12-year, $426 million extension he gave Mike Trout in 2019.
But the longest playoff drought in baseball, one year longer than Pittsburgh’s decade-long absence from the postseason, seemed to most of these responders as ample evidence that the owner doesn’t care as much about winning as the fans do, even before he opened his mouth.
“I don’t care what his surveys say, Arte Moreno has it wrong,” Linda Adler wrote, noting that winning fills seats, helps sell hot dogs and can increase broadcast revenue. The Angels announced last week that they were taking over the former FanDuel cable channel – they’ll resume televising games with the Freeway Series beginning March 22 – and now can directly generate revenue through advertising sales and providing streaming subscriptions for cord-cutters.
“There are probably more revenue benefits that I haven’t even considered that would also enable increased spending for talent, on and off the field,” Adler wrote. “My heart breaks to think Mike Trout may never be on a World Series winning team. It shatters into tiny pieces when I think of (Shohei Ohtani’s) probably multiple rings.
“Has Mr. Moreno been getting really bad advice, making really bad choices, and/or does he really not care about winning?”
Some other comments from this particular fan survey:
• Glenn Anders, who sent letters both to the Angels and to the MLB Players Association to express his feelings, wrote: “Arte is completely out of touch. This is not a small market team and there should be plenty of opportunities for increased resources to compete with other larger market teams. … Arte needs to retire and sell this team to someone or company that can run the organization properly. A perfect example is the team up the road.”
• Edward Sussman has his issues not only with the owner but with Roger Lodge, the afternoon host on KLAA/830 AM, which is owned by Moreno: “Regardless of how many times the Angels sign over-the-hill players and/or pitchers who are coming off of poor seasons or injuries, Lodge goes on and on about them and how they have improved a team that is destined to once again have a season that will result in missing the playoffs and have a record under expectations. … I can no longer support a team that now admits that winning is not a priority.”
• Marc Levine notes that when the opposition’s fans take over Angel Stadium – Yankees and Red Sox fans, for example, not to mention those of the team right up the 5 – “if anything (it) should shock an owner into making changes, I thought it might be that. However, since all money is green, Moreno may not have cared who sat in the seats, as long as the seats were warm.”
• From Bill Bedsworth of Laguna Beach: “Arte thinks he owns a theme park, not a baseball team. And as long as it’s pulling in money, the fact he never gets to see them win and the fans hate him doesn’t seem to matter much. Expect an announcement any day now that he’s traded Zach Neto for a roller coaster.”
• Chris Coon of Arcadia wrote that his main loyalty is to the Dodgers but he has attended Angels games as well because “I’m a die-hard baseball fan, I love the game to the exclusion of most other sports.” That said, he stopped going to games in Anaheim “because the team and ownership didn’t seem to care about winning. I’m sure most of the players did, but now that Mr. Moreno made his attitude clear, I guess it rubbed off. I’ll go back when the Angels start demonstrating a desire to win that matches that of the fans.”
Shouldn’t caring as much as the fans do be one of the requirements for ownership in any sport?
• Paul Snyder, who said he switched from the Angels to the Dodgers a couple of years ago, wrote that since Moreno seems to prize affordability and the fan experience over winning, maybe he should own a minor league team instead. And, he added, “I am a big fan of Mike Trout thus the next opinion hurts. I think Mike should be traded to a winning team, that will accept his contract, for top line pitchers. Mike still has some value and maybe this can be a win/win for all. It would get Mike in a playoff experience.”
• Hazel Smetanka attended games during the Nolan Ryan years in the ’70s, but losing dampened her interest, and she’s probably not alone. “I wonder how many non-surveyed (Angels) fans out there are like me?” she wrote. “As the perpetual losing seasons mounted up, I stopped going to games, then I stopped watching games on TV, now I don’t follow them at all – in print or social media.”
• John Hollowell grew up following the Dodgers, but that changed when his father brought home tickets for an Angels-Orioles game – and Ryan was the starting pitcher, which turned him into an Angel fan. “Come on like the good guy, lower beer prices, who doesn’t love beer and a ballgame,” he said of Moreno. “And then reality struck, the man sold billboards for goodness sakes. Said he loved the game.
“Arte Moreno, if you love baseball, at all, sell the damn team. Hopefully to a person/group who loves the game maybe just a little bit more.”
• But, yes, there are Angels fans who take Moreno’s view. Scott Hayward of Long Beach appreciates the prices, and the ability to get in and out of Angel Stadium quicker and easier than it is to escape Dodger Stadium’s parking lots. “For those sad fans for whom ‘winning is everything,’ let them be Dodgers fans,” he wrote. “As for the rest of us, we’ll continue to love the Angels, and appreciate the much criticized stewardship of Arte Moreno.”
The responses would indicate he is in the minority.
• From Jordan Prell: “My wife and son defected when Ohtani signed with the real L.A. team. I’ve been a quiet Dodger supporter since but I think it’s time to stop pretending to be an Angels fan. I willingly let my wife put up a Dodgers lawn flag this week. We live in Orange, ‘Anaheim Angels’ territory. I didn’t spend a dime towards Arte last season, and don’t plan to this season either.”
• From Al Korn: “We still love the team, but between Moreno and (general manager Perry) Minasian, they have ruined it. GO ANAHEIM Angels.”
• From Steve Benoff of Beaumont: “The best hope for the Angels was when Moreno indicated he was putting the franchise up for sale. It’s a shame he changed his mind.”
• From Linda Willason of Redlands: “(Moreno) is projecting an ‘I don’t care attitude.’ So why should I care? I watch almost every single game and have for years but my patience is running thin.”
• And the last word from William Stremel, longtime Angels fan: “I have had enough of the losing! A faithful fan can only take so much, and I’ve taken all the losing I can bear.”
You paying attention, Arte?