Moreno told reporters,<\/a> \u201cThe number one thing fans want is affordability. They want affordability. They want safety, and they want a good experience when they come to the ballpark. Believe it or not, winning is not in their top five.\u201d<\/p>\nMoreno cited surveys they\u2019ve conducted to provide that information, according to The Orange County Register.<\/p>\n
It is unclear what survey Moreno was referring to in his answer. It is also unclear to whom the survey was given and what the specific question was that yielded those results.<\/p>\n
The Angels declined to comment when asked about specifics of the survey.<\/p>\n
This offseason, the Angels slashed payroll. In 2025, the team spent around $206 million on payroll, according to FanGraphs. It\u2019s around $155 million this year when accounting for deferred payments to injured third baseman Anthony Rendon.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s broken television deal with Main Street Sports Group has led to a loss in revenue, and Moreno cited it as a reason for the team\u2019s conservative spending patterns. The Angels have yet to announce a television partner and are not broadcasting any spring training games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill (payroll) get back to $200 million? Probably,\u201d Moreno told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get our TV thing worked out, and we just have to improve our brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union views the Angels as a particular area of concern, given that they\u2019re in a major market but are spending at much lower levels than teams like the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Phillies and Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
Though Meyer expressed concern over several teams not going all-in on winning and spending, he said it shouldn\u2019t be an issue in Southern California, which is one of the nation\u2019s top media markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can\u2019t have a successful operation in Los Angeles, it\u2019s hard to see what the problem is,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to make excuses, but certainly the Los Angeles Angels have resources to compete in every respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come out and say that winning is not a priority, not even in the top five priorities, is really pretty remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Angels declined to respond to Meyer\u2019s comments. Moreno told reporters on Friday that his own personal priority was winning, but suggested it might not be financially feasible.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I\u2019ve always wanted to win,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cIt\u2019s just, what\u2019s the cost of winning right now?\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, after the union\u2019s then-director Tony Clark suggested that the Angels treat the luxury tax threshold as a salary cap, an Angels spokesperson told The Athletic, \u201cThat\u2019s his opinion, and we don\u2019t agree with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The luxury tax threshold for 2026 is $244 million. The Angels have not surpassed the threshold since 2003, Moreno\u2019s first season as team owner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Angels players \u201ctook notice\u201d of Arte Moreno\u2019s comments to reporters on Friday, in which the team\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2866,1334],"class_list":{"0":"post-189312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-los-angeles-angels","12":"tag-mlb"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}