The Angels are one of two MLB teams currently up for sale. Owner Arte Moreno announced in August he was exploring sale possibilities.While Moreno still seems to be sorting through his options, a few names have emerged as potential candidates for a run at the franchise.
Last September, Sportico reported that Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong was among those exploring a bid. Another potential entrant confirmed some interest in the franchise this afternoon.
Joe Lacob, owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, tells Tim Kawakami of the Athletic he’s looking into the possibility of a bid. “It’s been reported that we’re looking at it, and that’s true,” Lacob said in an appearance on Kawakami’s podcast. “I don’t know what we’re going to do yet. I grew up (in Anaheim); it’s a little bit of an attraction for me.” Lacob went on to note it “wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world to do” because it’s not close to the San Francisco area where the Warriors play but called an Angels pursuit “maybe doable.”
Lacob, a billionaire who made his fortune in venture capital investments, was part of a group that purchased the Warriors in July 2010. That franchise has had immense success in the decade-plus since, winning four championships. He suggested he’d also have interest in a run at either the Giants or A’s if those Bay Area franchises ever came up for sale, although a successful bid for the Angels would obviously make that a moot point.
While Lacob’s comments fall well short of a commitment at a serious run for the Anaheim franchise, it’s notable to hear that’s at least under some consideration. The timetable for the sale process is still uncertain; commissioner Rob Manfred said at last month’s Winter Meetings the team was hopeful of completing it by Opening Day.
Jingleheimerschmidt
That’s my name too
Whenever I go out.
Other humans constantly raise their voices
He may have misspelled his last name. It should have a J. It’s like how Jacob deGrom misspelled DeGrom.
Different cultures and languages have different protocols for words. That doesn’t make them wrong or misspelled.
It’s a joke. I know.
From an A’s fan, NO! BUY THE A’S!
He’s tried multiple times, his friendship with fisher doesn’t help. But Laconia has said multiple times he regrets not getting to own the A’s since commish chose his school chronies.
Fisher doesn’t want to sell the A’s. He makes a lot of money on the TV rights and MLB money while paying little expense on the team. He has been offered a few times on selling the A’s but its a money making machine for him. He doesn’t care about baseball just money..
Don’t worry. Start rooting for the Angels in 2023 if Lacob buys them. After the A’s leave for Vegas, Lacob will then move the Angels to the Bay Area after he strikes a deal on a new park. The A’s once in Vegas will change their name to something appropriate for Sin City. That means after the Angels move into Oakland with a new park, the Angels will shorten Angels to A’s as their unofficial name just as the Athletics did years back. Fans lost in a cave for a couple years will return to see the Oakland A’s still exist, finally got their brand new park and a new owner, but will be left wondering how Mike Trout was traded to the A’s.
This hallucinatory dream most likely won’t happen. Most likely.
Yes, please.
Really, just give us a rich guy who will hire qualified baseball people to run the team rather than his college buddies.
We already have a billionaire owner who received high expectations when he bought the team. Let’s see how this goes.
Yes, except your current owner interferes. This one doesn’t.
Plus, this one turned an irrelevant franchise into 4x World Champions in a decade. AND he grew up a Halos fan. I want it.
To be fair. The first decade under Arte was fairly successful. It was when Bill Stoneman (the gm) left in 2007 that everything started going downhill. He developed a lot of great talent. Never won a ring but made the playoffs 5 times.
Exactly. It was once Arte’s college buddies really took over that it went downhill.
Bill Stoneman lost me when he gave Gary Matthews Jr. $50M after just one awesome ass catch.
Well this one has a history of winning. It seems Arte interferes baseball on marketing.
It started going down hill when their pitching started going downhill
It seems they got the rotation settled, now they need to get the bullpen settled.
Arte inherited a championship team with a great farm. That sustained success for about a decade.
His cronies got rid of all the people who built that great farm, the talent wasn’t replenished, and we’ve sucked ever since.
I lived in the bay area once upon a time and remember when the Warriors were irrelevant and pure frustration. Considering how his group has run the Warriors, I think this would be great- assuming it’s been largely smart decisions since their sale and not just luck and good timing for the Warriors’ success.
When I lived in Sacramento during the Webber years, Kings fans would go to Oakland because tickets were always available.
The Warriors were the Clippers before the Clippers.
Yes, I have been called a warrior on many occasions…..
@HalosHeavenJJ: do you remember when they started building the baseball stadium next to Arco Arena? I live in Sac now and the full cement footprint is still there. Check out the news report on YouTube. Crazy. What were they thinking?
Win one championship rest assured that some measure of luck was involved…….win 4 in 8 years, add in 2 more trips to the finals and you can bet the farm along with your first born that is a helluva lot more than luck.
Well, I don’t see how he could do any worse based on the Angels’ fan’s assessments. I’d love to see some serious bug-time suitors for these teams. Unfortunately, one already owns the A’s, he just refuses to spend. Be nice to see some of these teams get proactive owners who are willing to throw down some money to bring in talent and put a really good, competitive team on the field for their fans.
In fact, a stipulation of the A’s moving and getting even more of the public’s money should be selling to a better owner.
You mean like Steve Cohen?
Exactly like Steve Cohen. Although most people that buy a team aren’t also rabid fans like Cohen and George Steinbrenner. So, an owner who cares and commits to winning, like this guy did with the Warriors, would suffice I bet.
Lacob has been paying a ton in lux taxes for the warriors for years too.
He’s the closest thing In the NBA to a Cohen. As close as you can be with a salary cap.
@yankee you forgot Peter Seidler, a Padres fan that is willing to do everything he can to bring a championship to SD. He’s willing to spend his money on the team to be competitive. No other owner the Padres had except Ray Kroc wanted to spend or make the team better.
As a Laker fan this is the guy we want in Anaheim
Even over Patrick Soon-Shiong who has a net worth between 7-8 billion. He owns the LA Times, is minority owner in the Lakers and partnered with Cohen in a failed attempt to buy the Dodgers. I wonder about that Japanese group that was interested as well. If the commissioner thinks it could be finished with the sale by opening day, they must already be moving along the process. The League has already turned over financials. They better move quick if they want to offer a bid.
Yes even over Soon-Shiong. I’m always hesitant to talk politics online (I am pretty a political). Patrick bought the times and made it unreadable. Both the opinion section and the news department has taken a hard turn to the left. And it’s been spear headed by his daughter. Now while i while don’t think his politics would have anything to do with his ownership of the Angels I am a bit concerned over how much power he has given his daughter at the Times (and let’s also remember that the Times is losing subscribers). I’ll take the Warriors owner who doesn’t seem to mind spending money
Implant- Interesting take and I guess we have no insights into if he is in charge what he will do. He also might have different views than his daughter. I think whoever buys the team will want to spend and win now. They probably want to keep Ohtani too. I think that really is the most probable for this team, otherwise they would look towards another team.
I dunno about those logistics Samuel, they sounds a little convoluted. What if he landed his private jet at John Wayne or Ontario instead? Could he still make his meeting in an under an hour?? Plus traffic, that’s pushing it.
Since he bought the Times in 2018 they have gone from 170k digital subscribers to 2.3 million, 2nd most in the US. That is nearly 4 times their 650k print circulation and 2.5 times their print circulation at the turn of the century. If Nika is running the LA Times, she is kicking behind.
But she is not. She headed back to England to resume her doctorate studies at Oxford in late September.
Patrick Soon-Schiong also owns the SD Union Tribune and its about as conservative of a local daily as there is in the US which fits the market in SD County.
“If the commissioner thinks it could be finished with the sale by opening day, they must already be moving along the process. The League has already turned over financials.”
Tim Stewart;
You wrote what I thought when I read the article.
I don’t remember how many months ago Mr. Moreno said the team was up for sale. And I believe the Commissioner did make the comment that he thinks the sale will go through by opening day.
So here comes a guy that says he might look into making a bid. ?
So the Bay Area is far from Anaheim. The man’s a multi-billionaire. Commuter planes fly between the cities multiple times an hour. This man has to have a private jet. Jerry West put that Warriors team together. (At one point the owner wanted to trade Klay Thompson for Kevin Love – West had to fly up to explain to him that without Thompson’s defense teams would run over both Love and Curry because neither could play a spec of D and without Thompson to cover for Curry he’d be too run down to do much on O). West continued to live in LA while working for the Warriors, and Mr. Lacob was one of those people explaining to him how that would be workable when the owners were wooing him.
The fact is that Mr. Lacob surely has access to a private plane (or two…or more) and has it outfitted with equipment to do business while in the air. It might be a one hour flight at most – with his
limo (also equipped) waiting on the tarmac.
yes please
I’d also like to be waking up every morning contemplating whether I should I buy the Angels, Giants, A’s, or what to eat for breakfast.
And here I thought it was just Jeter and me. I’ll have to add you to our morning text group…
Although contemplating buying Tesla and Twitter caused even more consternation, let me tell you.
If Lacob owned the A’s, he’d already have a new stadium deal done or he’d have a new location picked out for the team. While Moreno has been a stubborn owner, at least he spent money trying to improve his team; it just wasn’t spent wisely. I wish Manfred could force the Oakland A’s owner to sell his team to an owner like Lacob. Until these ‘broken’ franchises get fixed, baseball will continue to be the most lopsided of all professional sports leagues when it comes to spending and competitiveness.
Moreno didn’t spend money on his farm system developing players, or taking care of his scouts and general personnel. He hasn’t spent money on the front office. All the elite teams have multiple people running the front office– even Cashman just brought on Brian Sabean this week. Moreno didn’t spend money on the team around the major names he signed to stroke his own ego. He bought this team for $185M and he’s going to sell it for between two and three billion. He’s already the wealthiest man in the state of Arizona and he’s 76!! Why didn’t he go all in? You can’t take it with you and the franchise makes money on top of all this. He refuses to talk to the L.A. Times and is so brutal to them that they almost stopped covering them. Moreno did not spend what he needed to to win.
Once the land deal fell apart Moreno was done. The land deal was to be his legacy
Carllafong- Interesting that the times owner is probably the probably the wealthiest of the prospective buyers.
add that the scouting and analytical tools available have been so far behind say 15 yrs behind the avg MLB team, is downright laughable. Moreno spends on players he thinks are shiny toys to advertise, like how he viewed his billboard business. Moreno didn’t have good intentions with running and growing the Angels. Those ticket sales are fake too since they’re brokered seats. It’s another smoke and mirror show by Arte.
Agree 100%. He killed a franchise that was on its way up when he purchased. The sooner he is gone the better.
See my above reply to gain some free insight !
I’ve changed my opinion over the past year on the A’s fate. I thought they were using Vegas as leverage but intended to stay. Now I believe they’re intent on moving the A’s to the Las Vegas strip, especially after MLB removed the billion dollar relocation fee. The city will fund a stadium that will be integrated into the Strip that will be an entertainment center. It’ll be a big moneymaker and money always gets the attention of the owner of the A’s.
It had been that way all along , or at least ever since kaval took over in my opinion.
OMG please buy the Giants away from Charles and Greg Johnson and that slimeball Larry Baer
I wonder if he would be as free-wheeling in his spending with the Angels as he is with the Warriors. The Warriors are a special case, what with so much homegrown talent carrying the team as well as their multiple championships, but Lacob spends enough on them to put even Steve Cohen to shame.
The NBA salary cap is currently $123.655 million. The Warriors payroll is roughly $190 million, with additional luxury tax penalties of ~$170million (numbers vary slightly via googling). All told, the Warriors are spending $360 million on their roster this year. Next year is worse, with Poole’s contract extension kicking in. If Draymond opts in, their payroll will be something like $215 million with a tax bill of almost $270 million, pushing their roster to close to $500 million.
Would love it if he bought the A’s, as much as people think it won’t happen. Someone like Lacob could really get them going again as a viable franchise.
If Lacob bought the As someday, maybe he could convince MLB to allow him to move the team to San Jose, which deserves a team, but is being held hostage by the Giants. Quit messing around with Oakland, jeez.
Wasn’t this the guy that a peanut vendor at Angel Games growing up I’m Anaheim??
I bid $4,675.
As an Angel and GSW fan sounds great to ME!! 🙂
“Getter Done!”
I have no idea if the government corruption investigation uncovered any unsavory doings by Moreno or not. If not, then Moreno gets a C-. He has invested in the team, he just made some unwise moves and that is a lack of skill, not a lack of effort. I actually thought they had a great past month or two acquiring Tyler Anderson, Hunter Renfroe and others. But if the government corruption investigation has tainted any of his team, that scandal combined with the drug fatality on the squad, means the turnover is overdue. Given the rareness that such a prime ownership opportunity comes along for billionaire-narcissists, expect this sale price to reach the highest stratosphere.
Wish he would buy the Giants.
I read months ago that Lacob could be one of the potential interested parties. If he is just now entering the bidding, I don’t see how a deal gets done before opening day, or before the ASB for that matter. Pitchers and catchers report in approximately 5 weeks.
However, I think a Lacob ownership group would be worth the wait.
They can be renamed to the Golden State Angels or Golden State Halos!
I’d be perfectly happy with this guy buying the Angels….as long as he keeps them in Anaheim or very close to Anaheim.
Came back here to reminisce on the good ole days when the Angels were rumored to be sold. Gooood times.