When the Anaheim Angels opted out of their stadium lease in October 2018, Long Beach officials reached out immediately to offer the option of building a waterfront baseball stadium downtown, in an area now occupied by the Long Beach Arena.
When the Anaheim City Council on Tuesday night, May 25, voided a deal to sell Angels Stadium and the surrounding land to Angels owner Arte Moreno, Long Beach was back on the phone. The 13-acre Elephant Lot next to the arena was still available, and Long Beach officials were ready and willing to resume talks.
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“The Long Beach waterfront downtown has always been the perfect location for a major league sports stadium,” Mayor Robert Garcia said in an email. “If any sports team is interested in engaging the city we would welcome those discussions.”
Preliminary estimates in 2019 pegged the price of a new stadium at $900,000 to $1 billion. That did not include provisions for fan parking when the downtown area already is short on parking.
City officials have been looking for ways to develop the lot as the largest available waterfront property. It currently is used as parking for Arena and Convention Center events, and as part of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach course. It also is earmarked for use as an event venue for the 2028 Olympics.
The Olympics likely wouldn’t create an obstacle — it would take several years to figure out how to finance a stadium, complete an environmental impact study and get all the necessary government permits, including state Coastal Commission approval.
And the Angels don’t necessarily have to move all that quickly — the lease on Angel Stadium runs to 2029.
After lengthy negotiations, Anaheim agreed last year to sell the stadium and its surrounding 150 acres to Moreno for $320 million, with Moreno’s company taking responsibility for stadium renovation and development of the property. But Tuesday, the Anaheim council voided the sale in the wake of an FBI corruption investigation and resignation of Mayor Harry Sidhu, who is accused of giving the Angels inside information in an attempt to get a large campaign donation.
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“The city of Long Beach has long sought to activate the 13-acre Elephant Lot parcel next to the Convention Center for a project that can bring significant community benefit, additional activation of the Downtown waterfront and benefits to the coastal region,” an official city statement released Wednesday says. “All documents from those initial negotiations (in 2019) have been made public, and no negotiations have continued since those initial discussions. If the Angels are interested in continuing those initial discussions, Long Beach would reengage in those discussions and seek direction from the City Council.”
Not everyone was thrilled with the idea of a Major League Baseball stadium in downtown Long Beach when it was first proposed. Steve Goodling, president and CEO of the Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau said then that a stadium in the lot — and the potential destruction of Long Beach’s longtime Arena — would severely impact the city’s ability to attract conventions.
Kelly Ruggerillo, president of the Long Beach Symphony, said there would be a need to accommodate the symphony, which performs at the Arena and the nearby Terrace Theater.
When the discussions were taking place in 2019, residents complained that an already-stressed street system would be gridlocked with a sports stadium, and others worried about fans parking in neighborhoods nearby.
As of Wednesday, there had been no official contact between Angels management and Long Beach officials, Long Beach said.