Clipping the Angels’ Wings Calls for Some Teamwork

Apparently coveting this year’s Art Modell/Georgia Frontiere Community Achievement Award, Angel owner Jackie Autry says she can’t guarantee the team will stay beyond its current lease. Frustrated by the collapse of negotiations between Anaheim and the Walt Disney Co., Autry says she’ll entertain other offers to buy the Angels, including suitors who might someday move the team.

We can live with posturing for now, but keep in mind that today’s posturing is tomorrow’s brinkmanship. A few more ruffled feathers and, before you know it, your hometown heroes are playing in Memphis or Nashville. They said Modell would never move the Browns out of Cleveland or that Frontiere would never relocate the Rams.

Once again, we fans sit and wait until the fat cats have made their play.

Isn’t there an owner out there who won’t worry about profit margins and who would promise never to move the team out of Orange County?

Yes, there is.

It’s me.

And you. And you. And you. And all your friends.

All Orange County has a stake in the Angels situation, and yet we’re at the mercy of negotiations between the Anaheim City Council and prospective buyers. Maybe they’ll do right by us, maybe they won’t. Anaheim is talking about building “Sportstown” but without the Angels, they might as well call it “Ghost Town.”

So, let’s buy the team. When the stadium announcer said, “And now, for your California Angels!” he wouldn’t be kidding.

Impossible, you say? Don’t tell that to the people of Green Bay.

The Packers struggled financially through much of their early franchise history, according to Dan Alesch, a professor of public administration at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. What evolved over the years was a nonprofit stock corporation that owns the team. The last significant threat to move the team came in 1951, but local fans revolted and reworked things so that no one could own more than 4% of the stock. The result, Alesch says, is that it’s virtually impossible to form a coalition to move the team.

Currently, the Packers have about 2,000 “owners” who live in all 50 states and three foreign countries. Season-ticket holders live in 47 states. “A couple owners have 200 shares,” Alesch said. “Then it drops down to nine, and a whole bunch of people have one.”

I told Alesch about the Angels situation. He said it’s inconceivable that the Packers would leave Green Bay. “Nobody wants to get rid of them. Even as bad as they’ve been [in some years], the damn stadium is always full, and the reason is that the Packers are an amenity here. We don’t have mountains or seashore or Mighty Ducks or Disneyland. What we’ve got is a lot of water, a small pleasant town and the Green Bay Packers.”

An unsalaried five-member executive committee runs the team, Alesch said. Revenues go to the corporation to run the team (including stadium improvements) and to the city from which the Packers lease Lambeau Field. Concession revenues largely go to local charities or community groups.

What shareholders get in return, Alesch said, is the certainty they’ll keep their prized franchise.

“Look at Cleveland,” Alesch said. “Art Modell said, ‘I’m leaving you, honey, and I’m taking the kids and the checkbook.’ The city had poured resources into the stadium, invested emotion into the club, and the club became what it was because of the fans. It was more than a customer relationship. What I visualize in Green Bay is that this is how you build a community amenity and make sure you’ve got it. It’s not going to walk out the door and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it.”

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

The Angels are worth about $125 million. Disney planned to come up with $30 million now and the rest later.

We could never pull off a Green Bay here, I told Alesch.

Don’t be so negative, he said. “You have to have an organization create itself, and then cut a deal with the Autrys. Maybe you’d want to get an option, but then go out and have a stock offering. If you wanted to prevent the asset from moving, make sure no one could ever have a majority share.”

How soon could it happen, I asked.

“In two months, you could have it done,” Alesch said. “It would depend on how excited people get about it, how much press you could do. You could have it done by the All-Star break.”

I thanked Alesch for fueling my fantasy. It was kind of nice thinking about baseball being treated as a community treasure instead of a cold, hard commodity.

Dana Parsons’ columns appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.