Disney Gives a Boost to O.C.’s Slumping Image : Economy: The company’s bid to buy a share of the Angels is seen by many as a needed vote of confidence.

It’s a lot like a solidly hit single with runners on base: far more important for what it touches off than for what it is.

Walt Disney Co.’s bid to buy a share of the California Angels provides welcome relief to a county that has been beaten down by floods, fires, recession, falling home sales and the bankruptcy of its government.

More important, to a community heartily sick of bad news, “it provides much-needed reassurance,” said UC Irvine urban development specialist Louis H. Masotti. “One of the big money players is getting into the game.”

If played properly, Disney’s $30-million vote of confidence could help advance the county’s image in quarters where Orange County now is synonymous with financial failure.

The entry of a deep-pocketed marketing maven like Disney Co. is sure to benefit Anaheim and environs: increased attendance at Angels games, a possible new stadium and widespread sales of Angels memorabilia all will pump cash into the area economy.

But the benefits can be much farther reaching. With the possible exception of its money-losing Euro Disney venture, Walt Disney Co. isn’t known for making boneheaded business decisions, so its investment in the Angels “will reinforce the idea that there is a solid future for the county,” said Richard Recchia, who has heard a lot of negative views about the county lately in his travels around the nation as chief operating officer of Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America Inc.

After all, how long can people remain afraid to buy new houses or businesses put off hiring needed new employees when a company like Disney isn’t afraid to buy a baseball team?

And the message gets stronger when combined with other bits of good news that have crept in amid the gloomy reports of the county bankruptcy and the generally moribund regional economy.

Disney, after all, may be the biggest name to invest a hefty chunk of change in the county’s future, but is hasn’t been the only one.

The county’s business community--which has a big stake in the image that Orange County projects to the world--cheered late last year when Taco Bell stopped mulling a move to Texas and said it and its 1,000 jobs would stay in Irvine.

There were cheers again last month when Unocal Corp. said it plans to move its largest subsidiary and 500 jobs from Los Angeles to Orange County.

Last week alone, Orange County was tabbed to be the site of a major entertainment center featuring the West Coast’s only giant 3-D Imax movie theater; a major real estate research firm announced that home foreclosures have fallen off in the county after several months of increases, and the state Employment Development Department reported that despite a seasonal increase in the jobless rate, county employers had added 6,000 new jobs to their payrolls in the past year.

And the 5.3% unemployment rate for April remains the lowest among the state’s urban counties and one of the lowest in the West. To top it off, the county was the fastest growing in the state last year, a sign that it is still an attractive place to live.

“Things are not terrible, there’s no doubt about that,” said Anil Puri, chairman of the economics department at Cal State Fullerton. “The underlying state of Orange County’s economy actually has been doing very well . . . and Disney’s decision is going to be seen as another long-term strategic decision that says a lot of good about the county.”

The benefit to a county that needs to attract a steady stream of new businesses and to retain those already in place is that “executives all around the country hear this and they remember,” said Palo Alto business consultant Dan Stephan.

“News like, ‘Gee, did you hear Disney is buying the Angels?’ sticks in their minds,” he said. “And then they might hear that Unocal moved a bunch of people to Orange County, and they think, ‘Whoa! I thought it was broke. I guess it isn’t.’ ”

Certainly, the county continues to face serious problems. Home sales are dramatically down and the government is still mired in bankruptcy.

Some business leaders have warned that if voters don’t pass a half-cent sales tax hike this summer the county could be forced to default on its debt, which would further bruise its reputation on Wall Street, and schools could end up bankrupt, forcing a state takeover that would kill property values.

And it’s true that no one is going to base a decision to move a business to or from Orange County solely on the strength of the future of the Angels or the headquarters preference of a Taco Bell or Unocal.

But knowing that other large companies had faith in the underlying strength of the economy can be a big influence, said Sally Harris, a business recruitment specialist with the Spokane Economic Development Council--a group that has made several ventures into Orange County in recent years to try to woo business away to Washington state. “People like to be where the economy is healthy,” she said.

That holds true for investors as well as business owners, said Esmael Adibi, director of the Chapman University Center of Economic Research. The Disney deal alone can’t cover up the black eye Orange County’s bankruptcy gave it, he said. But it is the kind of news that, combined with a solid plan to pay off the county’s bond debt, can restore investors’ faith.

Adrian Sanchez, regional economist with First Interstate Bank in Los Angeles, sees something more basic in the Disney deal: cash in hand.

Disney has money and it is likely to spend it to help boost the Angels’ performance by buying or building the players the team needs to win. “Nothing attracts Southern Californians like a winner,” Sanchez said. “And if that happens, there will be a lot of economic benefits as more people come into the area to attend games. They’ll be spending money in the stadium and outside, and that all will help.”

The exposure that a winning team can gain a community is nothing to be scoffed at, either. While difficult to value in dollars and cents, “it’s a real bonus in advertising the community.” And if Disney uses its considerable clout to extract a new baseball stadium from Anaheim city officials--negotiations already are underway--the hard cash benefits of having a team in town could more than double, according to economic impact studies of new stadiums in several other communities.