City of Anaheim v. Angels Baseball LP

[1] Owned by actor Gene Autry and his wife Jackie, they played their inaugural season at Wrigley Field in South Los Angeles (not to be confused with the Chicago stadium of the same name).

Early in the 2003 season, Disney sold the team to Arturo "Arte" Moreno,[5] a fourth-generation Mexican American billboard magnate from Arizona.

[citation needed] Some fans suggested that Moreno, an Arizona native, did not take into account the alleged animosity between residents of the two counties when he changed the team's name.

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and other city officials asserted that the name change violated the spirit of the lease clause, even if it was in technical compliance.

[8] Disney and the city of Los Angeles filed amicus curiae papers in Orange County Superior Court supporting Anaheim's position in its lawsuit against the team.

The city also sought a preliminary injunction to immediately reverse the name change in advance of the trial, which was rejected by the superior court judge.

Though a ruling had been anticipated by April 7, 2005 the three judges of the appellate court merely urged the city and the team to work towards a settlement prior to trial.

[10] On January 13, 2009, Anaheim's city council voted not to further appeal the court's decisions, bringing a conclusion to the legal battle.

[11] Despite the legal victory, the team only used the full name on official press releases and website, and continued to market itself without direct reference to location wherever possible.

Major League Baseball and the national media have recognized the name change from the beginning, and team ownership correctly predicted that the national media and the general public would drop "of Anaheim" out of convenience and refer to the team as simply the "Los Angeles Angels.

Despite the prolonged legal battle, organized fan resistance to the new name subsided long before the appellate court ruling.

[15] It also had little to no impact on the team's on-field performance—they won four American League West division titles over the same timespan, marking the most successful era in franchise history.

"[16] In 2007, the Angels' name change was the inspiration for the independent minor league Long Beach Armada baseball team's tongue-in-cheek name change to the Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska.