Los Angeles Angels fans appear to have successfully hit Arte Moreno right in the ego.
The longtime Angels owner Moreno was affected by negative chants that had been aimed at him by the team’s fans, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported this week. Rosenthal notes that Moreno became motivated to sell his controlling interest in the Angels in part by the increasingly negative atmosphere at the team’s ballpark.
Moreno, 80, has been the majority owner of the Angels since 2003. But he finally decided to sell the team this year, securing a purchase price earlier this month at a $4 billion valuation from Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke.
Angels fans had been openly protesting Moreno all season with chants of “sell the team” during games. Moreno’s unpopularity was nothing new though as he had already been getting booed at Angel Stadium for years now.
The Angels have MLB’s longest active postseason drought (failing to make the playoffs since 2014), and they also own the worst record in baseball this year at 54-89. Many of their issues have stemmed from Moreno’s flawed leadership, including constant meddling in baseball decisions, spending extravagantly on horrific free agent contracts, and then total penny-pinching in just about every other aspect of the organization’s infrastructure.
The news of Moreno finally deciding to sell the team was thus met with widespread celebrations from Angels fans. While Moreno will still be staying on as a minority owner, his extreme (and deserved) unpopularity within his own team’s fanbase had apparently started to take its toll on him.
