The Angels probably won’t leave Anaheim, opines Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. We found out yesterday that the Angels cut off talks on a new ballpark lease with the city of Anaheim. Politics play into the situation, so the tabled negotiations with Anaheim may not be revived until after the election. In the mean time, the club will explore sites in Tustin. A move would presumably be funded by owner Arte Moreno. As Shaiken notes when suggesting the club would remain in Anaheim, “you don’t become a billionaire by spending hundreds of millions of dollars if you don’t have to.”
- Also per Shaikin, the battle between Time Warner Cable and DirecTV over Dodger carriage fees could soon be moot. Currently, DirecTV subscribers do not have access to Dodgers games. While the two parties are at an irreconcilable impasse, they may be under new ownership by mid-winter. If federal regulators approve Comcast’s take over of TWC and AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV, then it’s much more likely that the two parties could come to terms.
- The Astros have a narrow lead on the Diamondbacks and other major league clubs in the search for a new manager, writes Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle. GM Jeff Luhnow had this to say on their head start: “I’m not sure being first is a huge advantage, but certainly we’re moving as fast as we can.”
I bet the dodgers will block the angels move claiming territorial rights.
Territorial rights are preset and the Dodgers dont own any over the angels.
That was the initial reason the Angels moved to Anaheim in 1966. If I’m not mistaken, the Dodgers acquired those rights when they purchased the PCL Los Angeles Angels. Gene Autry’s next choice after LA was Long Beach but the city wanted Autry to name the franchise the Long Beach Angels, and that wasn’t something he would go for. Have to fact check that one, especially whether or not the Dodgers still own those rights. I seem to be of the minority among Angels fans who fully support Arte Moreno restoring the franchise’s original name, as the team was actually born in LA; Autry’s original intention was to have the Angels play in LA; and the name Los Angeles Angels itself has much deeper roots in LA. But I think the best way to go is either stay put or build a new stadium in Tustin.
They will come to terms because both companies are owned by the same people…. Duhh
AT&T and Comcast are the same company?
Even if they were the same company, if they were kept as seperate divisions, it does not guarantee a deal would get done. The dodvers last tv contract missed several months of tv coverage because the dodvers could not agree to a contract with fox, the company that owned them at the time.
They will come to terms because the Concast/NBC Universal consent order with the FCC requires the joint venture [Comcast NBC] to license NBC Universal content to Comcast’s cable, satellite, and telephone competitors. Disputes over content or price are subject to arbitration. It also applies to former Comcast content (eg: Concast SportNet stations) and will extend to TWC content according to a Comcast executive at the time the merger was announced including the Dodgers carriage dispute. Those of us in New York should be able to get NY1 news on satellite and FiOS and not be prisoners to TWC and Cablevision if we want the local news channel.