Angels Close to Big Cable Deal With Fox

The Angels are close to a 10-year deal with Fox Sports Network that could be worth as much as $500 million, would increase the number of FSN West telecasts to roughly 150 games a season and would shelve for at least a decade any talk of the Angels starting a cable television network.

Angel owner Arte Moreno, fresh off his victory over the city of Anaheim in the name-change trial, would not discuss specifics of the deal, but in an interview with Times columnist T.J. Simers on 570 radio Sunday, Moreno confirmed the team is “close to a 10-year agreement” to air Angel games exclusively on FSN West.

The deal could double the Angels’ average annual local television revenue -- the team made about $24 million from FSN and Channel 9 in 2005 -- and was expected to surpass the 10-year, $340-million FSN offer the Angels turned down last October.

The new package, which will supersede an existing deal for FSN to televise 50 Angel games a year through 2008, also is expected to be worth more in total dollars than the 10-year, $320-million deal FSN awarded the Dodgers in 2004. But the Dodger pact calls for FSN to televise 100 games a year.

The Angels had been searching for an over-the-air network to replace Channel 9, which had dropped the Angels in favor of the Dodgers this season, but the new FSN deal, once the final details are hammered out over the next week or so, would go into effect this season.

The package ensures that virtually all of the Angels’ 162 games will be televised, with national broadcasts by Fox and ESPN filling out the rest of the schedule.

“I am optimistic there will be a positive outcome to their television situation,” Randy Freer, FSN’s chief operating officer, said of the Angels.

“Everyone involved would like to get it resolved as soon as possible.”

The new television deal would seem to affirm Moreno’s assertions that changing the team name from the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, a move that was upheld by an Orange County Superior Court jury last week, would give the team increased stature in the nation’s second-largest media market and help increase revenues.

But Freer said there would be no correlation between a new television package and the Angels’ court victory, which allows them to keep the name permanently.

“We’ve always looked at the Angels as a Southern California team and distributed them to the widest possible territory, including Las Vegas and Hawaii,” Freer said.

“So from our standpoint, the name is not a factor in the value of television rights.”

The Angels’ recent success -- they won the 2002 World Series and the 2004 and 2005 American League West championships -- is a factor.

“On-the-field wins drive the value of TV rights more than any single factor, especially when there’s a consistent belief in the potential to win at a very high level,” Freer said.

“The things Arte has implemented to put the team in position to win, to increase attendance, to increase sponsors, that’s the true measure of what will ultimately drive the value of TV rights.”

Moreno explored the possibility of starting a cable network, much like the New York Yankees established with the YES Network, but Tim Mead, the Angels’ vice president for communications, said those plans “are not close to reality.”

“You look at the situation and say, ‘What’s viable? What makes sense?’ ” Mead said. “You have to use foresight. Is a long-term deal with Fox the best? Whatever route we go, it will again give us maximum coverage and will show the status this organization has reached.”

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Moreno says the Angels continue to pursue free-agent pitcher Jeff Weaver, but they would like an answer from the former Dodger right-hander by Wednesday, the day pitchers and catchers report to spring training. The Angels are believed to have bumped their original offer of one year plus an option for 2007 to two years. Weaver, who pitched 224 innings and was 14-11 with a 4.22 earned-run average last season, is expected to command about $9 million a year.... Moreno also said he would seek to recoup the Angels’ attorneys’ fees -- believed to be about $7 million -- from the city of Anaheim, which is liable for the fees because it sued the Angels and lost the case.