Angel Poll Finds Residents Back Team Against City

Anaheim residents think city government is in the wrong and the California Angels baseball team is in the right in a court battle over development of the Anaheim Stadium parking lot, a ballclub official said Monday in reporting the results of a poll commissioned by team officials.

According to the survey, 95% of the respondents think Anaheim Stadium is an asset to the community, 61% think the Angels are right in their suit against the city, 65% think the city should not develop the stadium’s parking lot with high-rise parking garages and office buildings, and 81% think the offices and garages will significantly increase local traffic.

“The people think that the Angels are right . . . and the city is not living up to its contract with the Angels,” said Michael Schreter, executive vice president of Golden West Baseball Co., the Angels’ parent company. “The Angels have been telling the City Council this is the way the citizens believe. This is not an opinion of ours, but actual objective research.”

Hope to End Trial

Angels officials hope the survey results will make city government call an end to the four-month trial, settle the lawsuit and prevent the construction of office buildings and parking garages on the stadium parking lot, Schreter said.

The Angels filed the $100-million lawsuit against the city and Anaheim Stadium Associates--a partnership of Los Angeles Rams interests and a Boston developer--in 1983. The suit charged that Anaheim had violated its 1964 contract with the baseball team when it offered the Rams the development rights to Anaheim Stadium’s parking lot as part of a package to woo the football team to Orange County.

Anaheim City Manager William O. Talley said that commissioning a poll and publicizing its results shows that Angels officials are “running scared.”

“We’re, I think, a little saddened that the Angels are resorting to this kind of activity rather than (solving) our problems,” Talley said. “The Angels are trying to run the Rams out of town by advocating that the city stop defending itself over Angel litigation and give in to what the Angels want us to do, which is to cancel our agreement with the Rams.”

Polled 265 Voters

The survey of 265 registered voters was conducted on April 9 and 10, and the pollsters, Arnold Steinberg & Associates Inc., said the results were correct within a 6% margin for error.

Respondents were first asked what they thought was the major issue facing their city, and most answered that the possibility of a jail being built in Anaheim was their greatest concern.

“Virtually no voters in Anaheim see this litigation as a priority, compared to other issues confronting the city,” the survey concluded. “Voters are relatively well informed about the lawsuit, and they clearly favor the Angels over the city--both in general and when specifics are discussed, such as building and parking garages.”

Schreter announced the results of the poll during a press conference Monday at Anaheim Stadium, where he was flanked by aerial photographs of the Big A and stood before a huge reproduction of the Angels’ red, white and blue emblem. He said he plans to present the poll results to the Anaheim City Council at its regular meeting today.