Should Anaheim Stadium Be Split into 60,000 Pieces — and Sold for Souvenir Parts?

By
Greg Diamond
– February 20, 2014Posted in: "The OC", anaheim, angels, corporate welfare, Corporatism, Corruption, cronyism, Fresh Juice
Angels stadium divided

Fancy a piece of history?

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper’s publicist has been having a great month or so getting gullible broadcasters and assignment editors (I won’t say journalists themselves, because they’re probably just taking orders) to talk about his extremely stupid plan to divide California into six states, which serves Draper’s apparent goal of talking about the greatness of Silicon Valley and how they should be allowed to set their own state tax rate low enough to make Tim Draper an absolute yachtful of extra money.

While other venues ask “Should California be split into six states?” — seriously, a Google search for the precise phrase “Should California be split into six states” combined with “Tim Draper” produces exact matches to stories from CNNMoney.com, CNBC, Business Insider, something called “Tech Crunch,” and more — we here have a better question to ask:

“Should Anaheim Stadium be Split into 60,000 pieces”?

Even as the prospect of the Angels moving into a dream stadium — literally, only a dream — in Tustin sinks into the liquefacted soil of financial reality, the worst case possibility remains: that Arte Moreno will take his ball team and go … well, not “home,” but elsewhere (within the media contract area.)

And then, while the Stadium could still be used for soccer and special events — or even as the centerpiece of Disney’s third park, with one rollercoaster circling the stadium and visible from the freeway and another taking fans from the highest bleacher seat in centerfield to hurtle towards home plate before curving off in one or another direction — damn, I really should have patented that idea before publishing it  — it is possible that, as City Council majority doomsayers say, it would instead have to be demolished.  And that would be expensive for the city, we are told.

Except that they’re forgetting something: “Would you like to own a piece of history?”

How much would you pay, baseball fan from anywhere in the world, for a seat certified as being from Anaheim Stadium (and signed by, oh, who knows, Mike Trout?)  How much would you pay for a square foot of turf?  For the contents of a luxury box?  This is a famed and stories venue, so let’s ask:

How much would (reverting to its old name in this scenario) Anaheim Stadium bring in if, prior to selling the property to Disney (for a permanent share of parking and gate receipts that could fund Anaheim’s future general fund for many decades) or to some college or hospital or corporation that wants a REALLY visible campus), the City of Anaheim stripped it down and sold off the parts?

Let’s get that conversation going!  If you could buy something from Anaheim Stadium as a souvenir, would you?  Would you pay $100 for a bench with a certification plaque?  $200?  $500?  In some famed stadiums, they sold off turf in square-inch units.  Let’s make it 3×3, nine-square-inch units — devout Angels fans, how much would you pay?

How much would you play for home plate?  Because, right now, the City of Anaheim owns it — and, if worst came to worst (thanks to the three year extension of Moreno’s opt-out period), it can sell it!  Any bids?


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)