What's In A Name?

Saturday, December 20, 2008

While the Angels are trying to wait and see if their offers are enough to land Mark Teixiera's services long-term, the organization does have a victory in the off-season of note: a four-year legal battle over their mockery-worthy full name is just about over now. A California appellate court has decided that the Angels can call themselves the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" without violating an agreement with the city of Anaheim.

It's a battle of ownership changes -- Disney agreed to the Anaheim Angels name in exchange for public funding to renovate Anaheim Stadium, but when they sold to Arte Moreno, he wanted to expand the fan base and potential money from broadcasters by trying to make it more of a regional team -- although everyone out West with any suss considers the Dodgers the real Los Angeles team. Anaheim sued the franchise when the name change was first made in 2005, and the "of Anaheim" bit isn't likely to survive when the lease runs out.

So, our jokes an mockery are still good for the next six or seven years until the Angels can opt out of the lease. To note: if you're going to pump public money into any stadium/arena project and you want some naming choice, make it legally airtight -- considering the recent overtures of moving by teams, there's a very real chance we will face the "Oakland Athletics of Fremont" or the "San Francisco 49ers of Santa Clara" rather soon.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim win case to keep name [Los Angeles Times]

Posted by Signal to Noise at 12:15 PM

4 Comments:

Woulda been worse. It couda been "The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Orange County California USA Western Hemisphere Third Rock From The Sun Milky Way Galaxy Crab Nebula."

JamesCraven said...
Dec 20, 2008, 1:39:00 PM  

My suggestion has always been "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of The United States of North America of The Earth of The Milky Way of The Universe." Try fitting all of that on a graphic.

Anonymous said...
Dec 20, 2008, 1:45:00 PM  

Michael - that's coming in the next century. I bet Jerry Jones will be the first to go there.

Signal to Noise said...
Dec 20, 2008, 1:55:00 PM  

@S2N, Jerry Jones will name the Cowboys "The Dallas Cowboys of Arlington Texas of America'a team of the Universe"

49er16 said...
Dec 20, 2008, 5:59:00 PM  

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