Word: moreno
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Maybe laid-back Southern Californians don't like pregame shouting matches (imagine Bronx fans smiling at George Steinbrenner if he tinkered with the hallowed Yankee name). Or maybe the Angels faithful know that despite the garbled name, with Moreno they still have it good. In building Outdoor Systems, a small outfit based in Phoenix, Ariz., into the country's largest billboard-advertising company, which Infinity (now part of Viacom) swallowed for $8.3 billion in 1999, Moreno, 58, has been guided by a basic mantra: "When you take a risk, you're either thinking you're real smart...
...Moreno's critics are scratching their heads. Why would an owner who last season generated so much good will, and extra revenues, by cutting ticket prices and signing American League MVP Vladimir Guerrero provide fodder for late-night comedians? (Craig Ferguson joked of another name change: "The San Francisco Giants on Steroids"). More important, why would Moreno potentially alienate an affluent suburban fan base in Orange County? Says Anaheim mayor Curt Pringle, a red T shirt that reads THE ANAHEIM ANGELS OF ANAHEIM hanging in his office: "We're sad, and we're very disappointed...
...city is suing Moreno and the Angels for violating the spirit of a 1996 agreement with prior team owner Disney. The city conceded the bulk of revenue sharing with the Angels in exchange for the Anaheim label (the team was called the California Angels from 1965, the year before it moved from Los Angeles to Anaheim, through 1996). "He's stepping on the little guy, the taxpayer," says Pringle, who claims that under the pre-1996 contract the city would have received $11.5 million more from the team last season. The Angels note that Anaheim is still in the title...
...rancor isn't keeping fans, or sponsors, from the ball park. Under Moreno, who purchased the club from an indifferent Disney ownership in May 2003 for $183.5 million, the Angels are soaring. Soon after buying the team, which was a surprise winner of the 2002 World Series but finished under .500 the next year, Moreno did the unthinkable for a sports owner: he lowered the cost of family-ticket packages and upper-deck seating, cut the price of premium draft beer from $8.50 to $6.75 and increased payroll to field a competitive team. The Angels have the 22nd lowest...
...outdoor-ad magnate pasted the team's A logo on 480 billboards throughout the Los Angeles metro area. "We're not trying to sell a city," says Moreno. "We're selling Angels baseball, period." He has tapped into the region's booming Hispanic population by ramping up Spanish- language advertising and signing Latino stars like Guerrero and pitcher Bartolo Colon. The Angels say they doubled the percentage of Hispanic fans over the past four years and have attracted more season ticketholders from Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, beyond the team's base. In-stadium advertising revenues have more...