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BOB: Anaheim and Angels back at it and more Marlins stadium news

by Brian Borawski
September 05, 2007

Angels, Anaheim continue fight

We’re about a year removed from the legal battle over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim name change and once again the city of Anaheim and the ballclub are butting heads. This time it’s over a proposed development that the City of Anaheim gave exclusive development rights to builder Archstone-Smith and Hines to build a mixed-use commericial, residential and entertainment project. The fight is over the residential arm of the development. Under the terms of the lease between the Angels and the City of Anaheim, housing is forbidden on the proposed site which is currently a parking lot for the ballpark.

For now, it appears to be more of a battle of words. One Anaheim councilwoman said she thought that the city would go ahead with the development without the apartments, which would mean the Angels would have no say in the process. Others thought that, once presented with the project, the Angels would go for it. Apparently there’s still some animosity over the name change lawsuit though and the Angels are going to play whatever card they can.

Final Ottawa game means less Canadian baseball

The Ottawa Lynx finished up their season yesterday; with the team set to move to Allentown, Penn., the game is the final one for a Canadian Triple-A affiliate for the forseeable future. That leaves the Toronto Blue Jays as the lone baseball team above the Single-A level located in Canada. Like the Montreal Expos' final game, the Lynx’s final game took place without much fanfare, and it was in front of a paid crowd of 7.468.

Twins Break Ground on New Stadium

After a delay because of the tragic collapse of the bridge near the site of the proposed site of the Minnesota Twins' new stadium, Hennepin County and the club finally held their groundbreaking ceremony last week. MLB commissioner Bud Selig and about 5,000 fans were on hand to witness the celebration. Assuming things stay on track, the Twins are set to begin play in their stadium for the 2010 season.

The estimated construction price is supposed to come out at $522 million, although the purchase price of the land where the ballpark is set to be built still hasn’t been completely resolved. Still, the county owns the land and the only question at this point is how much will they end up paying for it.

Online ticket sales breaks record in 2007

MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) announced last week that online ticket sales represented 38% of all tickets sold at MLB.com this year. This is the seventh consecutive season that online sales have increased The league also announced that ticket sales are 4% ahead of last year’s pace and it appears that for the fourth straight season, MLB will set an overall attendance record.

This doesn’t even take into account the revenue generated in the secondary ticket market. For an excellent analysis on how the league could tap into the secondary ticket market, be sure to check out Vince Gennaro’s excellent column from last week.

Bud Selig makes an appearance in Florida

Up until now, MLB’s chief operating officer, Bob DuPuy, has been the lead on helping the Florida Marlins procure a new ballpark. While his role in the process hasn’t been diminished, his boss, Bud Selig, decided to make an appearance in the Miami area to meet with county and city officials to see what can be done to get the Marlins their stadium. He apparently left the meeting satisfied that, at least with the parties he met with, there’s a positive environment to move the stadium process forward.

The problem is he met with the people who have mostly wanted the stadium all along. The major road block has been the state legislature, which has been unwilling to push forward a sales tax subsidy that would help pay for the stadium.

Miller Park sales tax revenues sets record in August

The Wisconsin state department of revenue recently announced that it collected a record $2.38 million in sales tax from the Miller Park stadium district in the month of August. Five counties pay the 0.1% sales tax which helps pay for the financing attached to Miller Park and so far this year, $17.1 million has been collected, a 4% increase from the year before. Since the tax was enacted back in 1996, $257.1 million have been collected to help pay for the park.

Brian Borawski is a member of SABR's Business of Baseball Committee and writes about the Detroit Tigers at his own website, TigerBlog. He welcomes comments, questions and suggestions via e-mail.

Do you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. Please include your whole name and location to be considered. If you have a comment about this specific article, please email the writer.

The best online source for major league baseball tickets is Ticket City.

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