Angels’ Ads on O.C. Buses Rile Correa

Smarting from the addition of “Los Angeles” to the official name of the Angels baseball team, an Orange County supervisor wishes he could yank the team’s advertising from county buses.

Supervisor Lou Correa said he had asked fellow board members at the Orange County Transportation Authority to rethink doing business with the Angels.

“In light of the city of Anaheim’s litigation against the Angels, I think it appropriate ... to discuss the future of Angels advertising on its buses,” Correa wrote Tuesday in a memo to OCTA officials.

Angels’ spokesman Tim Mead declined to comment late Tuesday.

Correa said the idea occurred to him while he was waiting in traffic behind an OCTA bus that carried an ad for the team, which owner Arte Moreno has renamed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The front of the bus also flashed a computerized “Go Angels” message, which should be reprogrammed to “Go ANAHEIM Angels,” Correa wrote in the memo.

The issue of county identity is important, said Correa, who grew up in Anaheim and graduated from Anaheim High School. “We can’t continue to be the stepchild of Los Angeles,” he said in an interview.

He asked the 18-member OCTA board to take up the matter at its March 28 meeting.

Baseball season begins in April, and this would be the first local move that would crimp Moreno’s marketing tactic. Moreno, who made a fortune in the billboard industry, sold his company before buying the Angels. The billboard company is now owned by Viacom Outdoor Advertising, the company that holds the OCTA contract.

OCTA officials said Tuesday that the Angels had been a major advertiser during baseball season, but they couldn’t say what percentage of ads on local buses promote the team. The top advertisers on county buses are movie studios.

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and other officials of the city couldn’t be reached late Tuesday for comment.

Anaheim is suing Moreno, alleging that he breached his lease to use Angel Stadium by changing the team name from Anaheim Angels. A Superior Court judge rejected a city request for a preliminary injunction to bar the team from using the new name; a trial is set for Nov. 7. On Tuesday, the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal, in Santa Ana, scheduled a March 28 hearing on whether the Angels should be allowed to use the new name for the current season.

Moreno’s renaming decision sparked reactions ranging from outrage over the perceived slap at Orange County to acquiescence over his rationale that using Los Angeles allows broader marketing that will benefit the team in the end. A unanimous Orange County Board of Supervisors asked Moreno in a letter last month to reconsider his decision.

Earlier this month, Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) introduced a bill targeting the new name. It would require California pro sports teams that use one geographical area in their name but play in another to disclose that fact on tickets and advertising.

Umberg said Tuesday that he favored barring Angels bus ads until the suit was resolved. He said that because Moreno agreed to feature Anaheim in the name in exchange for lower rent, “the taxpayers got the short end of the bat.” Public resources shouldn’t be used to endorse the new team identity, he said.

The authority’s bus and bus shelter advertising contract, which expires Sept. 1, called for Viacom to pay $9.4 million annually to OCTA. The contract gives OCTA discretion over advertisements; the authority can order the removal of any advertisement, with Viacom responsible for finding replacements. The authority already prohibits ads for alcohol and tobacco on its buses and property.

The Angels have blanketed the Southland with 480 billboards this winter, with the team logo, color and the words “City of Angels.”