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FEATURE
Hard Ball
By: Aurelio Rojas
 As
the first Hispanic owner of a major U.S. sports
franchise, Arturo “Arte” Moreno has
charmed fans with his amiable public persona and
shown he can play hardball.
The
up-from-the-bootstrap billionaire ignited a legal
battle with the Southern California city of Anaheim—home
of Disneyland—when he changed the name of
his baseball team last year from the Anaheim Angels
to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
The name change, he argued, would expand the team’s
marketing reach and broadcasting revenues beyond
Orange County while allowing the Angels to remain
competitive for top-salary players and hold down
ticket prices.
“From Day One, I walked in the door and
said, ‘We are in the No. 2 media market—and
the No. 1 when you count Hollywood,’”
he said in a written response to a series of questions
for this story. “From a marketing perspective,
I want to market to a population of almost 18
million in the metropolitan area.”
Anaheim officials sued, alleging that the team’s
new, geographically awkward name, violated the
Angels stadium lease with the city and asked Moreno
to pay up to $373 million in damages.
On February 9, following a year of acrimony and
nearly five weeks of testimony, an Orange County
Superior Court jury ruled in Moreno’s favor—finding
that the Angels did not violate the stadium lease
that required the team “include the name
of Anaheim therein.”
A week later, Moreno announced a new television
deal with Fox Sports Net, doubling the Angels’ average annual broadcast revenue. The 10-year
contract could be worth as much as $500 million.
Since becoming the team’s owner in 2003,
Moreno has proven as adept at baseball as he was
in the billboard industry. As chief executive
and co-owner of Outdoor Systems, he helped build
the Phoenix firm into the country’s largest
billboard-advertising company before it was sold
for $8.3 billion in 1999 to Infinity Broadcasting/CBS.
Forbes magazine last year ranked him the 346th
richest American, with a net worth of more than
$940 million. It placed the value of his team
at $294 million, which will surely increase with
the team’s new TV contract.
When he bought his way into baseball’s elite
fraternity for $184 million from the Walt Disney
Company the fourth-generation Mexican American
was hailed as a Hispanic pioneer, a distinction
he has played down.
“The door of opportunity is opened wider
for people of all nationalities,” he says.
“Rather than an individual being the ‘first’
to hold a certain position, I think we’re
entering a time when we don’t have to differentiate.”
Moreno allows that he is “extremely proud” of his heritage, but adds:
“I also view myself as one of 30 owners
of a major league baseball team with a responsibility
to our community and fan base to put forth the
best baseball team possible on a yearly basis
and provide a quality baseball experience for
all who attend our games.”
The eldest of 11 children raised in a two-bedroom
home in Tucson, Arizona, Moreno grew up working
in his parents’ print shop, where they published
a Spanish-language newspaper. After serving in
the U.S. Army and a two-year stint in Vietnam,
he worked himself through the University of Arizona.
Today, he lives with his wife, Carole, and two
of his three children in a Spanish- style, 8,750-square-foot
mansion in Phoenix, when he’s not at his
seaside home in La Jolla, California.
Until his legal battle with Anaheim, which angered
Orange County residents with antipathy toward
Los Angeles, Moreno had received nearly unanimous
acclaim in his new community.
Immediately after taking over the team, he slashed
prices on tickets, souvenirs and concessions,
including beer, which had fans toasting him.
On the field, the Angels have won two American
League divisional titles in three years under
Moreno. Fans have responded by breaking team attendance
records each year. Last year, the team drew 3.4
million customers, including a growing Hispanic
fan base.
Neither Gene Autry, the singing cowboy who was
the team’s original owner, nor Disney made
a concerted effort to attract Hispanic fans. Under
Moreno, the Angels have increased the numbers
of games televised in Spanish, and even incorporated
bilingual messages on their scoreboard.
“The significance of Mr. Moreno being the
first Latino owner—and (his) aggressive
moves to welcome Latinos to the ballpark—are
indisputable signs that the good old boy network
is changing because the marketplace is changing,”
says Luis Garcia, founder of Garcia 360°,
a San Antonio- based Latino communications and
marketing agency. But Moreno says too much has
been made about his ethnicity and targeting of
Hispanic fans.
“I think winning and a ‘peoplefriendly’
approach are universally understood by any culture,”
he says. “Those will always be the objectives
of the Angels’ organization.” H
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