Column: The Ducks are O.C.’s model sports franchise. Could their owner save the Angels?

For the Angels, Sunday is the last day of the worst season in franchise history. There is a dreary emptiness around the ballpark.

On the field, the Angels now own the longest streak of futility of any major league team: 10 years without a playoff appearance. Their roster is filled out by men described by their manager as “not big league baseball players.” Their minor league system is dismal.

They have grudgingly acknowledged the desperate need to rebuild without fully committing to do so. This team is not one player or one year from being competitive.

Off the field, the 130 acres that surround Angel Stadium sit barren and soulless. Fans still do what they did six decades ago: drive in, watch the game, drive home.

On the other side of Katella Avenue, Orange County’s other major league team is on the rise. The Ducks embraced a rebuild, and the Hockey News says they have the brightest collection of young talent in the NHL. Off the ice, the Ducks are surrounding Honda Center with the kind of ballpark village the Angels once hoped to build around Angel Stadium.

“Where do you go when you want to have fun?” Ducks owner Henry Samueli said at a launch event Wednesday. “That’s what we’re trying to build here.”

The Angels’ plan was derailed when the city of Anaheim killed their stadium deal, amid a federal corruption investigation into the mayor. However, even if the deal had gone forward, nothing had to be built around the stadium for 15 years.

Samueli’s $4-billion development, called OC Vibe, already is under construction. Bill Foltz, the chief executive of OC Vibe, said project inspirations included the Battery, the village surrounding the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark, and Texas Live, the entertainment center adjacent to the Texas Rangers’ ballpark.

For the first time, fans will be able to come to Honda Center early, enjoy dinner in a restaurant or drinks in a bar, and walk a few steps to the game.

“We always thought we were a ‘stop twice’ venue, meaning that a lot of people would go have dinner somewhere else and then come over to the show or the game,” Foltz said.

“It’s really creating, for the first time, a ‘stop once’ place to go.”

OC Vibe is scheduled to open in 2026. Foltz said he expects Angels fans to make the short walk from Angel Stadium to eat, drink, shop and play at OC Vibe before or after the game. The Ducks will thank baseball fans for spending money that can be used to make the fan experience better — for hockey fans, that is.

This is all unapologetically and enthusiastically Orange County. The Ducks now are wearing orange uniforms, featuring a return of the beloved angry duck, and staking their territory as “Orange Country.”

“We are obviously in love with Orange County,” Samueli said, speaking for himself and his wife, Susan. “This is our permanent home. We will never move.”

The 28 restaurants around Honda Center will include a branch of A Restaurant, a Newport Beach restaurant that opened in 1926. The four concert spaces will include a revival of the Golden Bear, a legendary Huntington Beach club that closed in 1986 after hosting performers including Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Buffett.

OC Vibe is to include a revival of the Golden Bear, the Huntington Beach club that closed in 1986.

(OC Vibe)

Samueli’s company also received approval last week from the city of Anaheim to run the Grove, the theater on the edge of the Angel Stadium parking lot. Under the deal, the city gets three-fourths of operating profits.

The Ducks, then, are in good shape. The Angels? The development intended to generate revenue to renovate their aging stadium and anchor the team in Anaheim never materialized. The Angels’ stadium lease expires in five years.

For now, the city is largely at the Angels’ mercy. The city has backed away from two deals with the Angels within a decade; the team is under no obligation to try to negotiate another.

The team has the option to extend the lease, under which the Angels pay no rent, until as late as 2038. The city can cash in if the Angels eventually build something in the stadium parking lot, but the lease permits the team to control development of the lot.

“The door is always open for negotiations for a great deal that makes sense for the Anaheim taxpayers,” Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said. “I look forward to hopefully making that happen one day.”

If Angels owner Arte Moreno decided to sell his team, Samueli would be the most logical buyer. He’s embedded in the community, an experienced sports owner whose team has won a championship, and is uniquely positioned to complement his OC Vibe development with something different within the Angel Stadium parking lot. A quarter-century ago, Samueli and several associates considered putting up an indoor surf and snowboard venue on the Angels’ parking lot.

If Moreno were to put the Angels up for sale anytime soon — and multiple people with knowledge of the situation said there is no indication that he would — would Samueli consider buying the team?

“At this point, I am fully consumed with the Ducks,” Samueli said. “That’s nothing that we’re thinking about.”

In August 2022, Moreno hired a sports franchise broker and said he would explore a sale of the Angels. Six months later, Moreno reversed course and took the team off the market.

Samueli said he did not bid on the team then and did not envision bidding on the team if Moreno were to decide to sell now.

“It’s a lot of work to run a sports team,” Samueli said. “If you want to be involved, it’s hard to do more than one. I am deeply involved.

“I wouldn’t even have the time to go to the games, let alone manage the team.”

So goes sports in Orange Country. For the Ducks, the new season is here. For the Angels, yet again, the postseason is not.