Strike Losses Not Merely Peanuts : Angels: They could lose millions, which would mean having the same team (or worse) next season.

The Angel front office staff recoiled when it heard the news Wednesday, visualizing the traumatic damage that will incur not only this season, but for the future.

The staff was informed during the conclusion of its two-day organizational meetings at Anaheim Stadium that the franchise will lose $1.5 million each month of the strike, and if it lasts the duration of the season, the Angels are projecting losses exceeding $7 million.

This could not only mean further layoffs in November, after already firing three full-time employees last Friday, but making it nearly impossible to field a winning team in 1995.

The Angels, whose $23.5-million player payroll is second-lowest in the American League, will be forced to maintain nearly the same budget for the 1995 season.

“If that happens, they can forget it,” said Whitey Herzog, former Angel general manager. “You’ve got to have a payroll of at least $27.5 million to $30 million to even have a chance, and then you’ve got to get lucky.

“I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, and it’s not going to work.”

The Angels’ budgetary restraints are one of the biggest reasons Herzog resigned as general manager in January, realizing it was hopeless to field a championship team unless money is spent.

“They say they need to draw people to spend money,” Herzog said. “Well, hell, if you don’t win, you ain’t going to draw people. It’s pretty simple.

“I personally don’t think the Angels are hurting, but they’ll tell you they are. They’re like the rest. They never tell you about all those years they made $6 to $8 million, and when they don’t one year, they cry poverty.

“I know for a fact (the Angels) made $4.5 million last year. I mean, they even told me that.”

Angel President Richard Brown confirmed that the club indeed turned a “modest” profit last season but said the Angels certainly will lose money this season.

“We’ll do a postmortem when the strike ends, but this is very damaging to us,” Brown said. “The monies that are taken out of the system are monies that can’t be paid back into the system.

“Who’s going to suffer? The ballclub. Those are monies lost that can’t be paid to the players. We don’t want to just be competitive. We want to have a winning ballclub. But to do that, we need additional revenues.

“And right now, we have to keep cutting back to make this thing work.”

The Angels’ hopes of resurrecting a prominent team lies with a new collective bargaining agreement, say Angel owners Gene and Jackie Autry. They insist a revenue sharing plan, tied to a salary cap, is necessary to stay competitive.

“People forget that with a salary cap you must have a salary floor,” Jackie Autry said. “That would actually bring up the payroll.”

If the owners’ revenue-sharing plan is implemented, the Angels are expected to receive about $5 million in a pool from large-market clubs, which then would be required to be spent directly on player payroll.

Yet, few expect a salary cap to be implemented, and the Major League Players Assn. vows that it will never happen.

“There ain’t going to be a salary cap,” said player agent Tom Reich. “It would be an industry-wide disaster. It’s an ugly, unfair system.

“Baseball will never see it in our life, or the next one.”

If the system remains unchanged, however, the Angels concede it will be difficult to compete, much less win a division title. They already have committed $16 million to eight players for their 1995 budget, and that does not include the projected $3 million to $4.5 million they’ll need to pay designated hitter Chili Davis.

Davis is eligible for arbitration at the end of this season, and the Angels desperately are trying to avoid the process by signing him to a three-year contract worth a minimum of $9 million.

“There’s no question that Chili Davis has established himself as one of the premier cleanup hitters in baseball,” said Reich, Davis’ agent. “He has not been too ecstatic about the way things have gone with the Angels, but if there’s fair dealings, he’ll stay. If not, he’ll go.

“Believe me, he won’t have any trouble getting a job.”

The Angels say that re-signing Davis is their No. 1 priority, but if they abide by their budgetary constraints--which include $5.95 million in raises alone to the seven players already under contract--they could wind up with nearly the same team.

“When you talk about building this team, the first name that comes to mind is Chili Davis,” Brown said. “But if Chili Davis wants a substantial increase, we’re not going to have enough money to do the other things we want.

“And I do not want the same team.

“If we do that, we could have a mirror season.”

The Angels, 47-68, have the worst record in the American League, and the second-worst in baseball to the San Diego Padres at 47-70.

This is why although the Angels hardly are the only team suffering during the work stoppage, few teams may be adversely affected for the 1995 season.

Gone may be their opportunity to acquire a high-priced stopper Gone may be their opportunity to acquire another proven starter. Gone may be their opportunity to acquire another bat in the lineup.

The Angels not only plead for a revenue-sharing plan, but a quick end to the strike to cut their losses. They are scheduled to open a six-game home stand Tuesday that includes a potential large promotional draw Saturday, Aug. 27, against the Cleveland Indians.

The Angels received $24.4 million of their total $53.8 in revenues last season from gate receipts, venue advertising, concessions and parking, according to Financial World magazine. But considering the Angels had no home games scheduled during the first 11 days of the strike, they would not be badly hurt if the strike were to suddenly end this weekend.

By not making the trip to Detroit, Milwaukee and Minnesota, the Angels saved $1.132 million in players’ salaries, $95,218 in air fare, $27,216 in lodging, $22,860 in meal money, $3,000 in buses, $1,500 in trucks, and $1,500 in incidentals. Considering they expected to receive about $402,840 in visiting gate receipts, the Angels will have actually saved about $878,803 in expenses during the first 11 days of the strike.

The problem is that it does not reflect the money the Angels are scheduled to receive from their television package. KTLA was scheduled to broadcast five games on the trip, paying the Angels $190,000 per game, for a total of $950,000.

In fact, if the entire season is canceled, the Angels are expected to lose $2.53 million in local TV revenue, and $5 million in national TV revenue. Last year, the Angels earned $26.7 million alone in local and national broadcasting revenues, according to Financial World.

“Considering our season-ticket base is 12,500, the economy is off, we’ve only had one winning season since ’86 and now this,” Brown said, “let’s just say we have a problem.

“Now I’m afraid it will only get worse before it gets better.”

Said Reich: “The blood is running on the streets now, but if this goes past Labor Day, you’re going to go from a conventional war to a nuclear war. There will be irreparable damage.”

The Angels fear they already know the feeling.