ANAHEIM, Calif. — The sea change coming for the Angels franchise felt due, illustrated each night at Angel Stadium by the waves of shirtless fans in the upper decks imploring Arte Moreno to sell the team. The festering frustrations over Moreno’s meddling and middling tenure as owner were on full display throughout what is now the team’s 11th consecutive losing season.

Now, the fans’ wish has been granted. Moreno announced Tuesday afternoon that he had sold the club to Stan Kroenke at what The Athletic reported was a $4 billion valuation that also includes the team’s television network and radio station. For the fans who occupy the nightly “Tarps Off” section, it was vindication.

“Just hoping for change,” said Connor Gale of Claremont, one of hundreds of fans who have participated in the impromptu chants this summer. “We were told (by Moreno) winning isn’t our top-5 priority. For a lot of fans, it is.”

“It was like, ‘finally,’” said Anaheim native Joseph Gandara.

“We were just kind of waiting for it,” longtime Angels fan Mark Pargo said.

For Mike Trout, still the franchise’s most recognizable star, it is a “fresh start.”

“You kinda felt that it was needed,” Trout said. “It’s obviously been frustrating the last, I don’t know how many years it’s been. But just to hear the news like this, I’m super excited to have this change.”

The sale, which won’t be finalized until the first quarter of 2027, is the richest transaction in Major League Baseball history. Overhauling a franchise that hasn’t made the postseason since 2014, and whose processes have largely been seen as an outlier, will be a massive undertaking. Change will not come overnight, even with Kroenke assuming the title of baseball’s richest owner.

That did little to quell optimism.

“I think seeing the reaction from the fans and some of the guys and the whole vibe, I think it was needed for a fresh start,” Trout said. “The biggest thing is getting that feeling of getting that winning culture back and having that vibe in the clubhouse.”

Losing has bred frustration and, with it, the soundtrack of the Angels’ summer consists of frustrated jeers and urges for Moreno to be out.

“Their voices are heard,” shortstop Zach Neto said. “We hear them. And it motivates us.”

“Goodbye Arte,” is live and well! Tarps off crew started with the round the diamond player naming until they got their player acknowledgment! #Angels #RepTheHalo pic.twitter.com/EtqPHfCvfQ

— Eric Arnel (@EricsellsSocal) September 2, 2026

Fan sentiment has been difficult to ignore, even as Moreno has been less visible at Angel Stadium this spring and summer. Moreno had previously put the club up for sale in August 2022 before pulling the team off the market five months later. Moreno, who in 2003 became baseball’s first Latino owner, was still contemplating a potential exit strategy, according to new club president Molly Jolly. Moreno is expected to stay on as a minority owner, albeit at a much smaller stake.

Chants on Tuesday night included:

Thank you, StanK-S-EStan KroenkeGoodbye ArteSold the teamAn-a-heim

The chants did not represent a breaking point. But they weren’t ignored, either.

“He’s aware of the chants; he knows about them,” Jolly said. “At the end of the day, this is about having the right next owner more than it is anything else.”

A new owner materialized in recent months. Kroenke’s sports portfolio includes the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and Premier League’s Arsenal, among others. Conversations began months ago, after Jolly took over as the Angels’ president and replaced longtime executive and ally John Carpino in April. Unlike Moreno’s first attempt to sell the team in 2022, these negotiations did not play out publicly.

“To be able to sit down with another gentleman and have a conversation and talk about baseball and the franchise, that resonates with how he thinks and looks at things rather than it being a complex conversation,” Jolly said. “I think that’s what was ‘why now,’ (it’s) the right person and having the right conversation with them.”

As Kroenke and Moreno negotiated a sale, change was already underway. Jolly fired general manager Perry Minasian in June and replaced him with interim general manager and longtime St. Louis Cardinals executive John Mozeliak. Mozeliak’s contract expires at the end of the calendar year. First-year manager Kurt Suzuki is operating on a one-year deal. The changes continued into this week. Last month, Mozeliak fired the big-league team’s pitching coaches. Just Monday, Mozeliak announced a front-office realignment, beefing up the group’s assistant general manager total to four while firing several scouts and crosscheckers.

A day later, Jolly slapped a folder filled with papers on Mozeliak’s desk and said, “Your day’s about to change.” Then the two began the process of meeting with players, staffers and coaches to let them know the news and that nothing is expected to change in the club’s day-to-day.

Why Angels fans should be rejoicing after the team is sold

Andy McCullough

The timing of the sale was a shock to much of the organization, though the decision to move on was less surprising. The sentiment has been universal: it’s time for something new.

“Change is what I came in to try to start doing,” Mozeliak said. “I wasn’t thinking it would be at the very top, but we’ve certainly been working our way through the organization.”

Moreno’s involvement in certain details about the franchise ranged from increasingly involving himself in baseball operations to the way his employees dressed. Each and every day at Angel Stadium, they wear the same red tops that match much of the ballpark’s hallways and the Angels’ clubhouse.

Moreno’s involvement and willingness to listen to particularly star-level players had its benefits. Moreno, for example, helped broker Trout’s massive contract extension in 2019 with an in-person meeting in spring training and oversaw several big names joining the franchise, from Trout and Albert Pujols and Shohei Ohtani to the disastrous addition of Anthony Rendon.

“Whatever the outside noise was of him — I’ve seen a lot of hate, a lot of love, but a lot more hate,” Neto said. “But as a player who has played under him, it was a lot of love.”

Still, his unwillingness to spend on the margins — in player development, infrastructure, or even to have his radio team travel with the club — left cracks that have only grown bigger over time as the Angels’ playoff drought has gotten longer. Mozeliak, who spent three decades in the Cardinals’ front office and won two World Series titles, called his experience working with the Angels “very normal,” but acknowledged the clear holes the organization must fill to catch up to the rest of the sport.

“Clearly, they are where they are,” Mozeliak said. “To not acknowledge that change needed to happen or things needed to be done differently, that wouldn’t be fair either. That’s how I’ve approached it. But I really haven’t spent a ton of energy trying to look backwards. It’s really been trying to focus on what’s ahead of us.”

Time will tell how immediate Kroenke’s impact will be, though the Angels are eager to find out. Trout and Neto reached out to an unnamed Rams player on Tuesday to gather intel on their new owner, who has a sterling reputation amongst his NFL peers.

“He had some really good things to say,” Trout said.

Kroenke has a history of winning — the Rams have already won a Super Bowl during his tenure and are among the favorites again in 2026, the Nuggets won an NBA title in 2023, the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001 and 2022 and Arsenal snapped a 22-year title drought in May.

“What a track record,” Trout said. “Wherever he buys, he wins.”

The organization must decide who will run its baseball operations department after this season, though Jolly said Mozeliak is still expected to be involved in that process. Then, perhaps, a new manager if it is not Suzuki.

Trout (who said he plans to stick around) and Yusei Kikuchi are the Angels’ lone guaranteed deals beyond 2026. The roster is very much not bolted down, and Mozeliak veered from the organization’s recent history during this year’s trade deadline in showing a willingness to deal players with multiple years of club control to refurbish a farm system that had been graded as one of the game’s worst.

For at least one day, fans seemed inspired. A cluster of them again linked up in the upper decks of Angel Stadium. This time, their charge to sell the team was already accomplished. They chanted “Goodbye Arte.” One of the signs in the crowd read KSE for the club’s new ownership group: Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

“I’ve never been so proud to be an Angels fan,” said Aiden Puig. “In my 19 years, I have never been this happy. The Angels are back. The Rams are up.”

“A new chapter in the Angels’ history,” Pargo said, “is going to be really sweet.”