MLB franchise Los Angeles Angels are exploring the possibility of selling the team, the franchise announced on Tuesday.
Owner Arte Morenohas started a formal process to examine his alternatives, including the possibility of selling the club. The Angels have retained Galatioto Sports Partners as financial advisors, and the 76-year-old owner released a statement regarding the situation.
The latest evaluation (via Sportico) of the franchise, estimates that the Angels could be sold for $2.5 billion which would eclipse the $2.4 billion that Steve Cohen paid for the New York Mets back in November 2020. The present financial assessment sees the LA team as the eighth highest in the 30 MLB teams.
“It has been a great honor and privilege to own the Angels for 20 seasons,” Moreno said. “As an organization, we have worked to provide our fans an affordable and family-friendly ballpark experience while fielding competitive lineups, which included some of the game’s all-time greatest players.”
“Although this difficult decision was entirely our choice and deserved a great deal of thoughtful consideration, my family and I have ultimately come to the conclusion that now is the time. Throughout this process, we will continue to run the franchise in the best interest of our fans, employees, players and business partners.”
Moreno bought the club in 2003 for $184 million from The Walt Disney Company. The Angels have won six division titles since he bought the club but none since 2014. Despite having superstars such as Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, the Angels haven’t had a winning record since 2015, the longest such streak in the Majors.
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The Angels were close to purchasing Angel Stadium and the surrounding acreage for additional development earlier this year, only for the deal to fall apart due to a corruption scandal involving the mayor for the city of Anaheim. The Angels have not been accused of any wrong-doing in the deal, which was canceled by the city council.