The California State Auditor says Anaheim has not been able to ensure that Angel Stadium is properly maintained and that future agreements with the Angels should better specify maintenance responsibilities and inspection requirements for the aging stadium.
The audit, requested by two state lawmakers who said they had “deep concern” that the Angels haven’t been living up to their end of the agreement, asked the California State Auditor’s office to examine whether the team has met its revenue-sharing and maintenance spending obligations to maintain the city-owned Angel Stadium, one of the oldest ballparks in the majors.
The report, released Thursday morning, found no instances where Angels ownership violated the lease agreement.
Moving forward though, auditors said the city should audit the Angels’ ownership records yearly to verify the team is giving its fair share of revenue. The auditor’s office also said the city should regularly conduct stadium inspections and make those records public.
The report recommends future lease agreements for the city-owned stadium include clear language about the city’s right to inspect the property and better delineate who is responsible for what maintenance. The city, according to the report, does not know the physical condition of the stadium, which might need hundreds of millions in maintenance and repairs.
The city, in a statement, said it welcomed the recommendations and noted the current lease was negotiated 30 years ago when the team was owned by the Walt Disney Company.
Lawmakers last summer approved the emergency audit of the team’s 1996 lease agreement with the city. The California State Auditor’s Office was directed to see if the team had shirked its responsibility and if it had denied the city any revenue that should have been shared.
The city has not said the team hadn’t been meeting its requirements under the lease.
The lease requires the Angels to maintain the stadium to be “at least equal to first-class (a) professional baseball stadium, such as … Kansas City and Dodger stadiums.” Those stadiums are the closest in age to Angel Stadium, which opened in 1966.
State Sen. Tom Umberg and Assemblymember Avelino Valencia made the initial audit request that a joint legislative committee then approved. They quoted past estimates the stadium requires nearly $150 million in maintenance and said the team has demanded the city help cover the expense.
Anaheim is currently conducting an assessment of the aging stadium’s condition, looking at what repairs might be needed. City officials are finalizing an agreement this week with the Angels to allow access to the stadium to conduct a detailed assessment of its condition.
Anaheim and Angels ownership disagree over the city’s right to access the stadium for inspections, according to the report.
The Angels share revenue with the city once certain benchmarks are hit yearly. For example, the city gets $2 for every ticket after the first 2.6 million are sold for a baseball season. The city also gets a quarter of the parking revenue once it surpasses $8.1 million a year.
Auditors found that in the nearly 30 years since the lease was agreed to, Anaheim has netted $415,000 from the stadium over that time. That amount excludes the $76 million in base rent the team paid in 1997 that the city later returned to Angels ownership to pay for renovations, and it doesn’t include the additional $20 million the city kicked in.
The Angels provide annual letters to the city indicating stadium revenue, but they do not include supporting documentation.
Future lease agreements should require rent throughout the lease and any extensions and mandate periodic stadium inspections by an independent third party, auditors recommend in their report.
City officials told auditors that generating revenue from the lease agreement was not a priority during the initial negotiations.
Valencia, one of the lawmakers who requested the audit, is a former Anaheim councilmember and was on the council that voted to cancel the deal following revelations former Mayor Harry Sidhu was being investigated by the FBI, in part because of his actions in the negotiations.
Sdihu later admitted to providing confidential pricing information about the stadium to a consultant working for the Angels so the team could buy the stadium on favorable terms. He has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and is set to be sentenced on Friday.
In February, the Angels exercised the first of three options to extend their stay at Angel Stadium by three years to 2032. The team can use two more options to keep playing at the stadium through 2038.
That same month, Moreno told MLB.com that the team puts about $5 million to $7 million into the stadium each year, but isn’t willing to spend big to do a major redevelopment for a stadium the city owns.
“But I’m not going to put $200 or $300 million into a stadium that a city owns without any of their participation,” Moreno said. “Maybe we’ll get a new mayor and council that want us to stay.”
City and team officials have said no talks to either enter a new lease or sell the stadium have resumed since the $320 million deal – it would have allowed Moreno and his business partnership to develop the parking lots with housing, offices and retail and resulted in either a new or revamped stadium – was canceled in 2023.
The audit’s release coincided with MLB’s opening day on Thursday. The Angels are in Chicago to face the White Sox for a three-game series.
This is a developing story.