ANGELS-DISNEY: A DONE DEAL : Sportstown City Limits: Just 40 Acres

Call it Sportstown Lite--less new development; easier on city revenue.

Anaheim retreated Wednesday from its grand vision of a proposed 167-acre entertainment, retail and sports complex called Sportstown Anaheim, to be built in the Anaheim Stadium parking lot.

The city scaled back its plan in order to placate the Walt Disney Co., which three weeks ago had walked away from negotiations to buy the California Angels largely because it had reservations about the proposed complex and “the baseball experience.”

Unveiled with considerable fanfare in January, the first incarnation of Sportstown envisioned the complex anchored by a renovated Big A and a new football stadium, in addition to being linked to the Pond of Anaheim nearby. Planners intend for visitors to spread their leisure time out among the restaurants, shops and entertainment halls before and after events at the stadiums.

But those plans have changed.

Instead of 80 acres, Sportstown now would occupy 40 acres around the Big A.

The city unveiled two possible scenarios for how the land would be developed--one with a football stadium and the other without one--by 2004. With or without a football team, both proposals would still feature retail, office and restaurant space and a hotel, city officials said Wednesday.

City officials did not provide an estimate for construction costs of either of the proposed versions of Sportstown.

Some applauded the city’s decision to meet Disney’s demand to reduce the scope of the ambitious project, for which there are no known investors.

Critics doubted whether Anaheim officials could have realized their dream of a sports complex without the entertainment giant.

“They originally had a pretty aggressive plan, but you had to ask yourself whether it ever would have come about,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Economic Development Corporation of Los Angeles. “The city made a smart move today. In the long run, they may have just picked up the key to Fort Knox.”

Disney’s vast marketing and monetary resources should attract investors eager to profit from Sportstown, predicted Esmael Adibi, a Chapman University economist.

“It’s going to be much easier now to get financing now that the name of Disney is attached,” Adibi said. “It’s much wiser for the city this way than shopping a large ambitious plan with no funding and no [baseball] team.”

But others were less optimistic about Sportstown’s future. Sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who was a leader of the effort to keep the Rams in Anaheim before the team left for St. Louis last year, said he fears the substantially less acreage will jeopardize the sports complex and any possibility of landing a new football team.

“From the city standpoint, it’s not rational to lose a baseball team that is here in hopes of getting a football team and Sportstown,” Steinberg said. “On the other hand, it remains to be seen if they are still committed to building Sportstown. It can be done; it just becomes more difficult now.”

Projected revenue in net 1996 dollars between the two Sportstown proposals differ dramatically, according to city officials. Without a football team, the sports complex would generate $23 million at the end of 33 years, according to city officials.

In contrast, a sports complex with a football stadium would bring in significantly less: about $1 million at the end of 33 years, according to city officials.

Revenue from Sportstown would be used to replenish city reserves, which will be tapped for $10 million of the $30 million the city will pay to help refurbish the Big A. Disney will put up the remainder of the remodeling cost, $70 million.

Under the Sportstown proposals, a complex with a football stadium would include a 350-room hotel, and 450,000 square feet of office space, 25,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space and a 13-acre football stadium.

With no football stadium, Sportstown would include a 250-room hotel, 100,000 square feet of restaurant space, 200,000 square feet of retail space, 90,000 square feet of theater space, and 350,000 square feet of office space.

City officials said the marketplace will determine the level of development.

“It’s always been flexible,” said city Planning Director Joel H. Fick. “Securing a home for the anchor tenant effectively sets the stage for the first step of Sportstown Anaheim.”

Times staff writers Chris Foster and Greg Hernandez and correspondent Alan Eyerly contributed to this story.