Now, Disney Plays to Win

Once upon a time, Disney pitched an entertainment spectacular from the time you parked your car at the game. Now, after Tony Tavares resigned Friday as president of its Anaheim Sports division, Disney acknowledges that laser shows and rappelling mascots do not compel fans to pay premium prices to watch crummy teams.

“It’s a bit of a misnomer to say that there’s some magic marketing approach that Disney has that can be a panacea,” said Paul Pressler, chairman of Disney’s parks and resorts division and, until Friday, Tavares’ boss.

“It takes a great film, a great show, a great ride, a great team. Marketing just helps communicate that.”

Tavares, who ran the Angels and Ducks, said the same thing for the last few years. Pressler’s personal interest in revitalizing the Angels and Ducks, even if only to make the money-losing teams more attractive to potential buyers, adds luster to teams that had been treated as corporate orphans and adds corporate clout to the promise to long-suffering fans.

“If we build a competitive team, they will come,” Pressler said. “We’re really focused on that.”

Tavares had operated the teams with relative autonomy until last year, when a corporate reorganization resulted in his reporting to Pressler. Recently, as negotiations to sell the Angels to Florida Marlin owner John Henry collapsed, and the fan base contracted further, Pressler took his seat at the Angels’ decision-making table.

While Tavares negotiated a buyout of the final two years of his contract, and took the public criticism for calling off a trade that would have sent outfielder Darin Erstad to the Chicago White Sox for prospects, Pressler was behind the scenes, involving himself in the decisions to scrap the trade, spend $24 million on free-agent pitcher Aaron Sele, swap disgruntled slugger Mo Vaughn to the New York Mets for pitcher Kevin Appier and authorize the pursuit of another hitter. Pressler acknowledged Tavares’ resignation reflected that Disney was not close to selling either team.

“But, more important, I don’t think you go out and sign Sele and do the Appier deal and keep Darin Erstad if you were [on the verge of selling],” Pressler said. “As long as we own these teams, we have to do the best job we can at putting a competitive team on the field and on the ice.”

That could be bad news for Duck President and General Manager Pierre Gauthier, who also lost some autonomy with Pressler’s ascendance. Pressler speaks enthusiastically of Gauthier and Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman, far more enthusiastically than he ever spoke of Tavares. But, when Pressler turns his attention from the Angels to the Ducks, he will examine a team last in the NHL in attendance and on track to finish last in its division for the third consecutive season.

Disney is often criticized for not spending freely on its teams, but the Ducks had the eighth-highest payroll in the NHL last season and spent more per point than any team except the New York Rangers.

Pressler said he would conduct a national search for a replacement for Tavares, but not in any hurry. Pressler, the former president of Disneyland, first wants to evaluate the business operations of Anaheim Sports, to be run on an interim basis by three vice presidents.

“I will be spending more time with the teams to assess the competency of the talent and what we need,” he said.

Corporate interest is a good start. Disney, weary of negative publicity surrounding the teams, years ago changed the name of its sports division from Disney Sports to Anaheim Sports. In recent months, a publicist at Disney’s corporate headquarters in Burbank asked a reporter why stories about the woes of the Angels and Ducks inevitably included references to Disney.

And, for a company that all but invented the word “synergy,” Disney has been strangely reluctant to share its beloved characters and theme parks with its sports teams. Fred Flintstone wanders the grounds of Turner Field before AOL Time Warner’s Atlanta Braves play, but Mickey Mouse rarely visits Edison Field. Fans can buy Brave tickets and merchandise at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, but Disneyland does not sell Angel merchandise, and the park’s Web site makes no mention of the Angels.

With a bittersweet chuckle, one baseball executive noted Disney’s best use of baseball for corporate synergy does not involve the Angels.

Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando includes the spring training home of the Braves, another attraction for fans and families visiting Disney World.

Amid the euphoria that surrounded Disney’s purchase of the Angels in 1996, Tavares virtually guaranteed that the world-renowned entertainment company would revive a franchise slumbering in the final years of Autry family ownership.

“If they can average 2.5 million fans with a marketing effort that was not viewed by their peers as being exceptional,” Tavares said at the time, “then with our marketing skills I feel confident we’ll be able to get [almost] 3 million people a year.”

Tavares said it, but everyone thought it and assumed it, including his corporate bosses and officials from the city of Anaheim. The city paid $20 million toward Disney’s stadium renovation; Disney agreed to pay the city $2 for each admission beyond 2.6 million.

The city has yet to make a dime that way. Under Disney, the Angels have failed to draw more than 2.5 million to Edison Field.

“When you cut to the chase, the product you put on the field or on the ice is what determines how many people you have in the stands,” Tavares said Friday. “You can market until you’re blue in the face. If you don’t have products that people believe are high-quality products, if people believe you’re headed in the wrong direction for whatever reason, they’re not going to buy tickets.”

The Ducks, once the darlings of the NHL, play to a half-empty arena, with an average ticket price of $50.66.

“We haven’t had sustained winning with the Ducks or the Angels,” Tavares said. “As a result, especially with the Ducks where the situation is more price sensitive, people are saying when you put a product on the ice that is highly competitive and we can expect will be in the playoffs every year, we’ll come back. But, at the type of ticket prices you get in the NHL, people are much more discriminating.”

Yet, barring continued deficit spending, the Angel and Duck revenues would appear to preclude Disney from assembling a winning team and keeping it together. Disney Chairman Michael Eisner once said he did not regret buying the Angels instead of the Dodgers, but the Dodgers last year took in $52 million more than the Angels, according to figures released by Commissioner Bud Selig.

With the labor agreement expired in baseball, and two years from expiration in the NHL, both sports must wrestle with issues of competitive balance. Tavares pointed to the Oakland Athletics, who qualified for the playoffs in consecutive years but have now lost first baseman Jason Giambi, closer Jason Isringhausen and outfielder Johnny Damon in free agency.

“For a couple years they had that window of opportunity,” Tavares said. “What you won’t see is any team that’s at an economic disadvantage building a dynasty anymore. The clubs that have the most money are the teams that will dominate the leagues under the current systems.... Both commissioners have their hands full trying to get the situation back to where there’s true competitive balance.”

With several potential buyers complaining that Disney’s asking price for the Angels is too high, Tavares suggested Pressler’s moves reflect the realization that buyers will not pay a premium for a losing team with an evaporating fan base.

“It’s much easier to sell a winning franchise than a losing franchise,” Tavares said, “and I say that with finances in mind.

“You’re not going to go hog wild and drive your losses up exponentially. These moves haven’t done that. I think they have an opportunity now to compete with anybody in the [American League] West, and I say that with one hesitation. I, like everybody else, would like to see one more bat in this lineup, and Bill [Stoneman] is trying to get that done.”

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Times staff writer Ross Newhan contributed to this report.