Anaheim or L.A.: Which Is Baseball’s City of Angels?

For years, Inglewood was proud to be the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, while Anaheim happily hosted the Los Angeles Rams. The New York Giants and Jets play in New Jersey -- and no one seems to care.

But Arte Moreno’s proposal to turn back the clock and rename his Anaheim Angels the Los Angeles Angels -- despite its nearly four decades in Orange County -- has struck a nerve, outraging many fans of the team and prompting both cities to oppose the change.

For Moreno and Anaheim, the dispute revolves around branding and economics: Moreno wants to draw from the largest possible fan base, which could translate into millions in added television revenue each year. Anaheim, with a population similar to that of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, wants to be seen as a major city, a regional hub of commerce and entertainment.

The Anaheim City Council has threatened to sue Moreno for breaching his stadium contract, which calls for the team to bear the city’s name.

And in a backhanded gesture of support for Anaheim’s position, the Los Angeles City Council this week approved a nonbinding resolution that only the Dodgers deserve the Los Angeles name. Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla on Wednesday called the move “disrespectful” and accused the Angels of trying to “capitalize upon our good name for their benefit.”

But for many Orange County fans, who make up about two-thirds of the team’s 22,000 season-ticket holders, the question goes deeper, touching on cultural issues that have long divided the Southland’s suburbs from its behemoth central city.

While not of one mind, for many the debate taps into feelings of regional pride, a sense that Orange County is a metropolis unto itself -- and, perhaps more importantly, an age-old antipathy toward Los Angeles.

“Just about everybody I’ve talked to is against it,” said Chuck Richter, 34, of Mission Viejo, who says he has received a flood of e-mails about the name change to his unofficial Angels fan website www.angelswin.com.

“What everyone says is: ‘We’re not L.A. This is Orange County.’

If anyone has conducted a poll on the subject, they’ve kept the results to themselves. But those whose business is assessing fan sentiment say the reaction has been highly critical. The “McDonnell-Douglas Show,” which airs on Angel flagship station KSPN (710 AM), for example, gauged public opinion on Moreno’s plan last week for an hour. Eighteen of the 20 people who called opposed the name change, said Dave Vassegh, the show’s producer.

“One guy called in and told Moreno he could raise the beer prices again if he didn’t change the name,” Vassegh said.

One could look at this rift as the latest chapter in a feud dating back to 1889, when Orange County broke away from Los Angeles County over that most enduring of American complaints: taxation without adequate attention.

Los Angeles eventually grew up, became cosmopolitan, diverse, an economic powerhouse. Orange County remained the little sibling, politically conservative, slow to change, largely white. Some outsiders derided what went on behind the Orange Curtain. Many inside its folds resented that.

“We don’t want to be the poor-stepchild to Los Angeles,” said John Christopoulos of Rancho Santa Margarita. “We used to be, but now we’ve got our own economy, our own lives and we should be able to stand on our own two feet.”

Disneyland put Orange County on the national map in 1955, and big-time sports arrived when Gene Autry moved his Los Angeles Angels south in 1966. Through the decades, Orange County became urbanized and demographically diverse. More recently, it has earned its own national identity with the television show “The O.C.”

The Angels’ World Series championship in 2002, coming after decades of disappointment, seemed to many fans an announcement of Orange County’s arrival as a major league sports area. Michael I. Miyamoto, a cardiologist from Mission Viejo and an Angels season-ticket holder, said he feels as though he has been used by Moreno.

“After all the tough times, they finally have some success, win a World Series and have an MVP, and now they want to go big-time because Los Angeles has more mass appeal?” Miyamoto, 38, said. “They’re going Hollywood. It’s sort of like a struggling young actor who dumps his first wife after he becomes famous and then marries a glamorous model.”

But even the beloved Autry -- who, like Moreno, was a shrewd marketer -- had no interest in his Angels bearing the name of the city in which it plays. When he moved the team from Los Angeles to Orange County, he called it the California Angels; Anaheim civic leaders, grateful to have the team at all, sucked it up.

It took three decades -- and $30 million in city money for a 1997 stadium renovation sought by then-owner Disney -- for Anaheim to get its name on the team.

Albert Perez, a Little League director in Santa Ana and longtime Angels fan, said he is offended by Moreno’s marketing strategy.

“If he wanted L.A., he should have bought the Dodgers,” Perez said. “They were for sale too. If he feels he has to change the name, then go back to the California Angels. California has a broader base than L.A.”

Moreno, who has not spoken publicly about the issue, already has dropped the name Anaheim from the team’s uniforms, logo, website, schedules and tickets. But in an apparent olive branch to the city, the team this week offered a compromise on the name proposal: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

“The Angels have no intention of taking Anaheim out of the name any time,” team spokesman Tim Mead said. “That’s a contractual obligation that we are very well aware of.”

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle isn’t interested in the compromise. “It’s just a ruse,” he said. “I still think [it] is a violation of the contract and also disrespectful to the fans.”

The city is actively enlisting the support of disgruntled Angels fans. To help keep them involved and monitor their opinions, the city plans to launch a website www.savetheanaheimangels.com. They also set up an e-mail address: savetheanaheimangels@anaheim.net, to solicit feedback.

“Out of all of my time in public service,” added Pringle, a former state Assembly speaker, “I have never had more people respond to me more aggressively on any subject than this one. People are very whipped up and concerned and frustrated and angry and saddened.”

Whatever the outcome, marketing experts say fan support depends less on the team’s name than on its record.

“It matters more in the short term than in the long term,” said Robert Hollander, president of Brand Sense Marketing, a Century City firm. “It’s like uniform changes. Over time, I don’t think fans accept or reject a team over that. It’s not as meaningful as having a winning team.”

A significant minority of fans appear to agree. “I live in Garden Grove, not Anaheim, and it won’t offend me if [Moreno] changes the name,” said Jay Jones, who attends about 20 Angels games each season and was shopping at the team’s stadium store Wednesday.

“What I care about is whether Moreno puts together a good team. Put a winner on the table and no one will worry about the name. If the team is doing good, who cares what we call ‘em?”

Russell Patterson, a contractor from Villa Park and an Angels fan since 1961, views the name change as a brilliant marketing ploy by Moreno.

“I want the Angels to be able to maximize their revenue any way possible,” he said. “If this is the way to make them more competitive so they can compete with the Yankees, then let’s do it. I’d rather have a winning club called the Los Angeles Angels and have another $10 million so you can go out and sign another pitcher. I say give this marketing genius a chance.”

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Times staff writers Jessica Garrison, Joel Rubin and Kimi Yoshino contributed to this report.