Phoenix Businessman Agrees to Buy Angels

The Walt Disney Co., which shepherded the Anaheim Angels from hard-luck losers to World Series champions, agreed in principle Tuesday to sell the baseball team to Phoenix businessman Arturo Moreno for about $180 million, sources familiar with the negotiations said.

The agreement requires approval from Major League Baseball owners. Once approved, Moreno would become the first Latino to own a major league team and the first party from outside Southern California to own the Angels, founded by legendary entertainer Gene Autry in 1961.

Moreno, 56, described by associates as a friendly but intensely private man with a passion for sports, amassed a fortune of nearly $1 billion by building -- and then selling -- an outdoor advertising empire. Those ads dot sports venues, malls, bus stops and billboards across America.

A former minority investor in the Arizona Diamondbacks, Moreno is expected to receive approval before the current baseball season ends in October. Since Disney has yet to submit the proposed agreement to major league officials, it is unlikely that approval could be granted as soon as next month, when owners next meet. The team will continue to play in Edison Field under a lease that runs through 2030.

Disney officials declined comment, as did a spokesman for Moreno. As of late Tuesday afternoon, Disney executives had not informed team employees, competing bidders or city officials of the agreement.

“Disney didn’t want us for years,” Angel pitcher Jarrod Washburn said, “and has been trying to sell us for how long? Now we finally have someone who wants us, so it can’t be a bad thing, can it? I don’t hate Disney, but they didn’t want us.... I don’t know nothing [about Moreno]. I read somewhere that he likes to win, though, so that can’t be bad.”

Disney’s entrance into baseball seven years ago was less than grand, alienating longtime fans by putting cheerleaders and bands atop the dugout roof and adopting cartoonish uniforms because the older ones were not best-sellers. But Disney yielded to criticism, acknowledging that the best promotion was a winning team.

The company hired General Manager Bill Stoneman, who assembled a championship roster around the talented nucleus he inherited. Stoneman also hired former Los Angeles Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia, who became a manager of the year. Last year, as Disney approved a then team-record $62-million payroll and the traditional halo graced a newer, classier uniform, the Angels won their first World Series championship.

Disney also invested heavily in replenishing a depleted minor league and player scouting system, providing hope that the Angels’ success can be sustained. In addition, after the Autry family had failed to persuade the city of Anaheim to pay as much as $200 million for a new stadium, Disney paid $100 million to renovate Edison Field, on top of its $140-million purchase price.

“I take my hat off to them,” said Richard Brown, the Angel president under the Autry family. “They started off rocky, and they tried some things that antagonized the fans, but they’ll be remembered for the world championship. You have to give them an A. “

But the joy of a World Series title could not obscure financial losses, reported by Disney in excess of $100 million during its management. Even with the ticket and merchandising bonanzas that accompanied the championship run, the Angels still reported an $11-million loss last season.

With the Angels anchored in Anaheim -- and in a sparkling ballpark -- and with the collapse of a proposed cable channel that would have carried games of Disney’s Angels and Mighty Ducks of the National Hockey League, Disney no longer needed or wanted to own a money-losing team. Disney first negotiated to sell the teams four years ago, in a package that valued the Angels at $300 million and the Ducks at $150 million.

Last September, the company retained Lehman Bros., a New York investment bank, to identify and solicit potential buyers, with that pool shrinking and asking prices dropping rapidly. Corporations would rather sell sports teams than buy them -- News Corp. is trying to sell the Dodgers, and AOL Time Warner is trying to sell its three Atlanta teams -- and individual portfolios have been battered by the fall in stock prices and the collapse of the high-tech sector.

In addition to theater operators James and Robert Nederlander, who had already negotiated with Disney, the investment bank lured Moreno and Boston real estate developer Frank McCourt. Lehman declined to recommend the bids of Alabama businessman Donald Watkins and Mexican billionaire Carlos Peralta, citing the uncertainty of approval from major league owners. Former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who lost out to Disney when the Autry family sold the Angels, declined to participate in the auction.

In Anaheim, city officials expressed caution about the deal, which would transfer ownership from the city’s largest employer to an out-of-towner.

So long as major league owners approve the agreement, Disney can transfer its stadium lease to Moreno without city approval. The lease has a onetime escape clause in 2017.

Moreno has not requested any change in the lease, city officials said. With the deal still pending, he has yet to contact the city.

“We were very happy with Disney as an owner,” Anaheim City Manager Dave Morgan said. “We expect they’ll take great care in selecting a new one, as will major league baseball.... It’s certainly in Disney’s interest to look for a quality owner. They have as much at stake as we do.”

Moreno, whose net worth is estimated at $940 million by Forbes, parlayed his fortune into minority stakes in the Diamondbacks and the National Basketball Assn.’s Phoenix Suns.

He retains his limited partnership in the Suns, but his investment in the Diamondbacks ended messily, after he failed to persuade managing partner Jerry Colangelo to sell him a controlling interest and then sold after a dispute with other shareholders over the need for new investors.

Still, Moreno is respected in Arizona for what one friend called a “modern-day Horatio Alger story,” growing up poor in Tucson and serving in the military in Vietnam before striking it rich selling billboards.

Moreno visited Anaheim last month, when his hometown University of Arizona played in the NCAA West Regional basketball tournament at the Arrowhead Pond. Christopher Del Conte, the university’s associate athletic director, said Moreno attends every Wildcat football home game and coaches baseball and football teams in the youth leagues in which his children participate.

“When I have a meeting with him, I’d have to go to the baseball park,” Del Conte said, “because they were having a practice and he’s the coach.”

Del Conte said Moreno will be a fervent fan and will be “dedicated to the players” when he assumes ownership of the Angels.

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Times staff writers Ralph Frammolino and Ben Bolch contributed to this report.