Anaheim Mayor Defends Stadium Deal

Under fire from critics who believe the city is about to enter into a lopsided agreement with Walt Disney Co., Mayor Tom Daly on Friday defended the tentative decision of a majority of the City Council to contribute $30 million of taxpayers funds toward a Disney-sponsored $100-million renovation of Anaheim Stadium.

“This will be one of the best professional sports deals in recent years anywhere in the United States,” Daly said. “When you can attract $70 million of private funding to improve an aging public facility, there are clear economic benefits. It’s going to be virtually a brand-new stadium just as attractive and fun as the Pond has been.”

The pending deal was still being negotiated in marathon meetings between city and Disney officials on Friday. Those negotiations are reportedly going well, several sources said.

Disney had set a March 17 deadline to reach a deal to share the cost of renovating Anaheim Stadium into a baseball-only facility. If an agreement is not met by then, Disney can walk away from its partial purchase of the California Angels.

Daly has been largely silent this week as Councilman Bob Zemel and others complained that the city would have to dip into its budget reserves to pay for its share of the renovation costs. Zemel also said the deal gives Disney virtually all of the stadium’s revenue and eliminates any chance of bringing football to Anaheim Stadium in the fall.

But Daly said there is a possibility that the city will not have to use its reserves. He said that at least $10 million of the cost will come from stadium advertising revenue and that a large portion will come from redevelopment funds.

The mayor also endorsed the concept of turning operation of the stadium over to Disney, in an arrangement similar to the Pond, which is city-owned but run by a private operator.

“We will have privatized a major function in the city and eliminated the risk of operational deficits,” Daly said.

The mayor cited an unreleased study, completed last year by the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche, that projected $33 million in economic benefits if a new baseball stadium were built in Anaheim.

The city abandoned plans to build a new stadium for the Angels when Disney purchased 25% and operational control of the team and favored renovating the existing stadium over building a new one.

“While numbers for a renovated stadium would need to be adjusted somewhat downward, the study is still a strong indication of the economic impact a new or newly renovated facility could have on the local economy,” Daly said.

The mayor acknowledged that the deal would eliminate the chance of a football team playing at the Big A next fall. The city has been in negotiations to allow the Seattle Seahawks to practice at Rams Park with the hopes of having the team relocate to the city permanently.

“We are setting our sights long-term,” Daly said. “We hope to reach an agreement to bring football back to Anaheim, then constructing a new, state-of-the-art facility that the team would play in.”