Two California legislators are asking for an audit of the Angels’ stadium lease with Anaheim, questioning if the team has met its revenue sharing and maintenance spending obligations.
State Sen. Tom Umberg and Assemblymember Avelino Valencia submitted the request to the state’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee asking its members to approve an emergency audit that would examine the lease agreement between the city and the team.
“There is deep concern that the Angels have not been faithful or compliant to their end of the agreement and have been taking steps to shirk responsibility in maintenance,” the legislators wrote in a July 11 letter to the committee. “In addition, there is concern that the Angels have denied the city owed revenues from both baseball game attendance and contracts for use of the stadium for ancillary events.”
Their request would task the California State Auditor to look at the current status of any lease or sale negotiations regarding Angel Stadium, identify how the value of the stadium has been determined in recent years, determine if the city and the team have complied with all terms of the leases and account for how much net revenue the lease has brought the city.
The Angels share stadium revenue with the city once certain benchmarks are surpassed yearly. Once 2.6 million tickets are sold in a season, the city gets $2 from every ticket after that. The city also gets a quarter of parking revenue once it surpasses $8.1 million a year and other shared revenue from the stadium housing other events.
The letter says the Angels have said the stadium requires nearly $150 million in maintenance and the team has demanded that the city help cover the expenses. It also says there appears to be “a disconnect between attendance numbers of baseball games and resulting ticket sales revenue for the city.”
The Angels and Anaheim agreed to the lease in 1996. It runs through 2029, but extensions would let the team play until 2038.
If approved as an emergency audit, state auditors would begin their work immediately. State auditors have the power to subpoena records and take depositions.
In January, the state auditor’s office released a report detailing how the city hadn’t properly managed its tourism contracts and millions in related funding. Valencia, a former Anaheim councilmember, had requested that audit.
Angel Stadium is the fourth oldest stadium currently used in the majors. It opened in 1966.
The city is conducting an assessment of maintenance needs at the aging stadium.
Anaheim and the Angels in July reached a $2.75 million settlement over the canceled stadium sale from 2022. The city is crediting the Angels $2.75 million of its share of future stadium revenue. The Angels had sought $5 million plus legal fees to cover costs associated with arranging the sale, which was an option written into the deal.
Representatives for the Angels and the city did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
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