Angels owner Arte Moreno spoke to reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of Orange County Register and MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger) today about various topics related to the team. Fans are encouraged to check out the article for all the details, but Moreno’s comments about the Halos’ payroll and uncertain broadcast situation are particularly noteworthy.
The two issues are naturally connected. Last season, the Angels were on FanDuel Sports Network West, owned by Main Street Sports. The company has been in a rough financial spot for a while and recently missed some payments to teams. In response, the Angels and the eight other teams who were signed with Main Street terminated their deals last month. Six of those clubs will now have their broadcasts handled by Major League Baseball itself, though the Angels are (for now) one of the holdouts.
Moreno promised some clarity “in the next five to seven days,” and said that “I’m not telling you I won’t” eventually sign with MLB. That would seem like the easiest route for the Angels this close to the start of the season, since as Fletcher notes, plenty of “more work and negotiation” would be involved if the Halos pursued an alternative like starting their own TV network.
In signing on with MLB as a broadcast partner, teams can provide their fans with a blackout-free streaming option, but with less revenue going back to the club. Travis Sawchik of MLB.com recently wrote that such clubs get an average of roughly 50% less revenue than in past broadcasting contracts, and naturally it is no small thing having a consistent revenue stream suddenly halved.
With less money coming in, some teams have reacted by curbing or cutting spending on player payroll. The Angels have taken this route, as their 2026 payroll of $180.5MM (as estimated by RosterResource) is well below their $206MM figure from the end of the 2025 season. While Los Angeles has made some notable moves this winter, the club’s most substantial transaction from a payroll perspective might’ve been its agreement to buy out Anthony Rendon’s final season under contract, deferring his $38MM salary for 2026 and spreading out that money over a five-year period.
Rendon’s bust of a contract is one of many high-profile signings that haven’t panned out for the Angels during Moreno’s ownership, so it makes some sense that Moreno would want to alter his approach. The owner is now prioritizing young talent ahead of bigger-ticket free agents as a way to finally get the Angels back on a winning track.
“The question is do one or two players substantially change (the record)? If you go out and spend $15 or $20 million a year times three or times five, it doesn’t get it done,” Moreno said. This doesn’t mean the Halos will keep going forward with a reduced budget forever, as Moreno said “will [payroll] get back to $200 million? Probably. We’ve got to get our TV thing worked out and we just have to improve our brand.”
Moreno bought the Angels in early 2003, and the first half of his ownership tenure has been far more successful than the second. From 2003-15, Los Angeles enjoyed 10 of 13 winning seasons and won six AL West crowns, twice advancing as far as the ALCS. The last decade, however, has been dismal — the Angels have endured 10 straight losing seasons, and are coming off a 72-90 showing in 2025. Between the many question marks on the L.A. roster and how even other teams within the AL West look much stronger on paper, it is hard to see the Angels getting back over the .500 mark this year.
This sustained lack of success has done untold damage to the Angels’ “brand,” which speaks to the catch-22 that Moreno faces in turning the team around while also spending less. Barring either a full teardown or a much stronger minor league pipeline being developed, it’s hard to see the Angels succeeding with what seems to be a half-measures approach to rebuilding.
The headline quote from Moreno’s interview will be his claim that, according to fan surveys, Angels supporters aren’t overly concerned with a winning team as part of their gameday routine. “The number one thing fans want is affordability,” Moreno said. “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….The moms want to be able to afford to bring the kids. Moms make about 80% of the decisions. They want to be able to bring their kids and be affordable and they want safety and they want to have a good experience, so they get all the entertainment stuff or whatever.”
A winning Angels team above all is prioritized just by “the purists,” as Moreno said, though he says he shares that goal. “For me, I’ve always wanted to win. It’s just what’s the cost of winning right now?”
After 10 losing seasons, it seems like a tone-deaf response for Moreno to downplay his fans’ desire to see a winning team. Every fan would naturally want to take their family to the ballpark without having to break the bank, yet it is fair to say that Angels supporters would be more willing to spend a bit more on tickets if the team was competitive. The fact that fans apparently have winning so low on their list of priorities isn’t a good thing, as it may reflect a lack of faith from fans in their team, or a sign that if affordability is such a concern, fans may decide their entertainment dollars are better spent elsewhere than a team that never wins.
Unsurprisingly, Moreno feels “we can compete” in the coming season, feeling his team’s pitching will be substantially better. Moreno praised the work of GM Perry Minasian, but also hinted that this may be something of a make or break year given how the Angels have yet to get over the .500 mark in Minasian’s five seasons in charge of the front office. The possibility of a GM change may be one reason new manager Kurt Suzuki was only given a one-year contract last fall, as 2026 is also the last guaranteed year of Minasian’s contract.
“I really like Perry. At the end of the day, you have to start adding up wins and losses,” Moreno said.
In terms of his own stewardship of the franchise, Moreno said he has no plans to sell the team. Moreno did explore selling the Angels back in 2022, but pulled the team off the market in 2023, and reiterated today that he continues to love owning the team.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Who did they survey? Dodgers fans?
I would like my team to win. Good thing it’s not the Angels.
Of course what want the team to win. But you be surprised how some people really don’t care. Sad but true
Guy needs to hire someone to speak for him. Does anyone believe A. He is making less $ so moms can bring kids to the game or B he is charging as much as the right ratio of people are willing to pay.
“The question is do one or two players substantially change (the record)? If you go out and spend $15 or $20 million a year times three or times five, it doesn’t get it done,”
Yes
Don’t believe me watch the Pittsburgh Pirates this year. And it’s only 1 or 2 year deal not 3 or 5 and not 20 million. Just don’t go after Soler
What a mission statement to guide the franchise: “Winnjng isn’t even a top 5 goal.”
It’s the fans who don’t care about winning according to him.
Not encouraging.
Arte Moreno is not “cheap” as alleged by many people. At the end of the day, Arte’s biggest problem is an ego that just won’t allow him to cede baseball management control to another person who has a better feel for baseball management.
Arte is not cheap, he’s never met a bad contract he wouldn’t sign. And that’s the problem; too many big money deals, especially to aging sluggers and ignoring the pitching staff and minor league systems has caused the last decade of futility
I think of the no-trade decision of Ohtani and their foolish attemot to chase a wild card in 2023. It really doomed this franchise to mediocrity for the foreseeable future . I assume that it was Moreno’s call and it was primarily driven by financials.
Of course it was. Two months of people coming out to see Ohtani’s last stand was more valuable to Arte than the prospect haul and empty seats he would have gotten. Arte hasn’t made a decent decision regarding this team in decades (including the name change)
I completely agree, not trading Ohtani turned out to be a move almost as bad as their drafting.
Good thing they use “Los Angeles” in their name. Can you imagine how much worse off they’d be financially sticking with “Anaheim?”
Arte is cheap. He spends the least of any major league team on player development, on scouting, on facilities, on technology, and on analytics. I saw posts on here that for several years the workout facility at spring training was in a tent. In ARIZONA! Even on his radio broadcasters who do not travel with the team. They call the games via the TV broadcast, WHAT THE ACTUAL BLEEP!!
When he spends on players, he spends on big name position players. I did not say good players, I said big name players. He does not care if they are bad at the point when he signs them. he just wants players that the casual fan will recognize their name.
He is completely cheap when it comes to pitching, He has not signed a single starting pitcher to a deal longer than 3 years in over a decade. No good pitcher will be signing a 1-2 year deal in free agency.
Consequently his teams suck and have for more than a decade. Now he is saying fans don’t care about winning. How unconnected from fans can you possibly be? Is it any wonder that attendance at Angels games is plummeting?
worst owner in MLB
what a joke.
I’m glad im not a Angels fan. You have a owner who really seems out of touch.
“Fans don’t care about the team winning, actually” is an absolutely insane take.
“The number one thing fans want is affordability,”
What Pirates fans don’t seem to love Bob Nutting for giving them all that affordability?
“They want safety”
This agree. Winning is up there but not if it means losing your life attending a game.
I don’t care for Mr. Moreno but I get his point. Families that go to the stadium want affordable. Individual fans that may or may not ever visit the stadium want a winning team, Some of those think spending money means winning or at the very least it shows effort.. He’s spend big money in the past, poorly, and it hasn’t brought home a winner. He’s trying a different approach. It’s not likely to do any better. It sure couldn’t do much worse.
Except Attending Angel games isn’t exactly affordable. Sure, you can grab nosebleeds for under $20, but the food and drink prices are just as egregious as any other park. He’s an absolute baffoon.
I thought I heard beer was cheaper in Anaheim.
Nice owner. I just assumed he was charging as much as he could. I will give up a lil winning to enjoy a $4 beer and $2 dog.
Arte is a total loser who just slapped the fans in the face again.
I crushed him in my write up at my new spot today. It’ll make getting credentialed harder but screw Arte.
Maybe Disney can buy them again and make a terrible remake of Angels in the Outfield
If they’ll get a real GM who drafts the core of a World Series winner and another decade of success, I’m all for it.
Arte the owner needs to fire Arte the GM. Arte turns 80 in August.
Hey HalosHeavenJJ, how can I read your writeups?
I now run Angels On SI.
Type that into Google and you’ll find me.
Good articles JJ. On your opening day roster prediction you accidentally put Brandon Lowe instead of Josh Lowe at LF.
The audacity for him to say that the fans don’t want to see a winning team after all of this
To be fair, he said it’s not a top 5 priority.
For the most part, they have wasted their draft picks. The team doesn’t have top of the line prospects and has a second division players at most every day positions.
Bad owner, bad GM, no success.
I don’t see any way to pin the Angels results on the GM. He has been constrained by the owner in what he could do.
What you rather have KG instead of Christian Moore?
I’ve defended his spending a few times, I think he tries. That said those were some wild statements, I legitimately cannot believe he said that stuff out loud.
Historically he has spent, but not at the level you’d expect for such a large market. Also alot of that spending has been on ill-advised contracts that he pushed through the finish line despite many around him cautioning against.
At the least, hire a great president of the baseball operations and let him run the team. If you are not going to do that, sell the team!
In October of 2009 the Angels lost the ALCS in 6 games. They had won 3 straight division titles.
In November of 2009 Arte installed his college buddies as president and chairman of the team.
It’s been all downhill since then.
Are those guys still there?
Sell the team if you don’t think the fans that k winning is in the top 5 of important things for MLB franchise. We don’t want participation trophies.
This guy makes Frank McCourt look like she was a good owner.
How does he have a marketing and advertising background and says foolish stuff like this?
Yikes, the dissonance on this guy is wild. At some point, you have to look around and realize you’re the problem. He can’t even lose right because he takes nearest to Majors instead of drafting talent.
he’s a disgrace
Three teams that used to have DSG/Main Street as their broadcast partner have increased spending while 2 have said publicly that they have not lost any broadcast income. Income for MLB as a whole went up according to Manfred. I doubt that teams lost any income from having MLB negotiate for them with the carriers. I doubt even more that if a team lost 50% of their broadcast income that they would be increasing spending. That would make absolutely no sense.
You said the magic words “according to Manfred”. He has shown to be tone deaf in the income disparity in the game increasing over the years under his watch so you think he is not going to downplay the RSN fiasco?
You keep saying income as a whole went up without anything to back it up. If you are looking just at the large markets you seem to stand up for, probably so as they are the only ones (other than the players going to play for them) making out in this screwed up system.
Arte is an idiot for sure and one of a handful of people who own teams just to own them it seems, but don’t use idiocy to downplay the game’s problems.
“Oh brother, this guy stinks!”
-Fred from SpongeBob
I’m not confident about that fan survey. I mean, isn’t everyone’s top priority for ANY recreational activity that they make it home in one piece? You could poll moviegoers instead and I bet they’d name their safety as a priority over whether the movie is any good, but that still doesn’t mean anyone wants to pay to see awful movies. Is Arte Moreno saying the Angels are going to put an extra $50M into stadium security instead of upgrading the roster?
Arte cracks me up, he says Mom’s make 80% of the decisions and “they want to have a good experience, so they get all the entertainment stuff or whatever.” Is there lots of extra “entertainment stuff” going on at the stadium besides the baseball game? Do they have singing grounds keepers or a dance team full of hot chicks??
What year do you think it will be when the Angels win a division title ? 2028?? 2032 ?? 2036???
Having to really hold back here. No accountability by Moreno. Excuses, as though he were a 5 year old child. HalosHeaven hit the mark. Cronies in positions of management where they have no business being. This is Morenos doing yet he wants to place blame every where else.
Art Moreno: 5 billion dollars net wealth. Please, tell me more about what I want. Tell me more about how you, the billionaire, must charge more if you field a fully paid roster. You paid $183 million to buy this team. Stop arguing and realize it’s the ultra rich versus the rest of us, including athletes talented enough to make bank.
God. Idk how you all feel. Winning sucks omg. We went 1-9 my first year on varsity football. Two seasons later my senior year we went 10-0 and won CIF. That was the worst time in high school. Winning a championship. What a drag. I had to start therapy. It messed me up so much mentally. I look back at that 1-9 season and cannot forget how much fun it was and how amazing it was. Winning sucks.
Thanks for memories Artie
Operation extreme redundancy the quest for the first 100 loss season starts soon