Could the long Orange County nightmare be coming to an end?

[Gothamite]

But Orange County seems like a a smug market and it seems fun to irritate them.

This is the crux of the biscuit here, I feel, the whole "we're another world, we're not like them" fart-sniffing.

I think you're right. As late as the early 1990s, the "Orange Curtain" seemed to me largely a matter of overt racism. I don't think that's necessarily the case anymore, thanks to changing demographics, but the sense of not wanting to be part of LA remains.

[The Six]

The separateness of the two counties is evidently on the commute between them. Just get on the 5 South from LA. Everything is grimy and depressing, and the freeway itself is narrow, worsening traffic. As soon as you cross into Orange County it's like a revelation: you got more lanes, and everything is clean and new-looking. LA is so poorly-run and dirty

[Funky Bunky]

To all of those who want "Los Angeles Angels", would you also want the "San Francisco Sharks"?

[Gothamite]

Wouldn't bother me. But that's my East Coast bias.

[McCall]

To all of those who want "Los Angeles Angels", would you also want the "San Francisco Sharks"?

Seeing as how San Jose is the largest city in Northern California and third largest in the state, it's not the same comparison at all.

Orange County may have issues with being considered a part of LA and LA residents may feel the same way about OC, but from a national perspective, Anaheim is basically considered just the largest suburb of LA simply a way to spread out the LA teams. Just seems to be sentiment. And I think that's what Moreno is going for.

[Funky Bunky]

It's totally a similar comparison, as the Sillicon Valley and Orange County are both "wealthy, white, and relatively self-sustaining", and both are viewed as suburbs of another city/area. San Jose is viewed as a suburb of San Francisco for all intents and purposes (it's not called the "San Jose Bay Area"). Everybody who wants "Los Angeles" says it's because Los Angeles is the better brand... well, I'd say "San Francisco" is the better brand than "San Jose".

Oh, and by the way, the largest suburb of Los Angeles is Long Beach.

[wildwing64]

Anaheim may be viewed as a suburb of LA but it's still the 10th largest city in the state.

Also, Anaheim has a larger population than a more "well known" sports town, Pittsburgh. Just sayin'.

[The_Admiral]

To all of those who want "Los Angeles Angels", would you also want the "San Francisco Sharks"?

Yeah. They should have stayed closer to San Francisco.

[Digby]

To all of those who want "Los Angeles Angels", would you also want the "San Francisco Sharks"?

Not quite the same, but they will still be the San Francisco 49ers once they move to Santa Clara, which is very nearly in San Jose.

[monkeypower]

[DaytonBlue]

If I were the city of Anaheim, I'd let them call themselves whatever they want, but in exchange for that lease extension and land for development the stadium name would revert to Anaheim Stadium for the length of the lease. Anaheim gets some PR, Moreno gets his real estate and can market the team however he wants.

[illwauk]

Metro LA has a large Latino population, right? Well, why not pay tribute to it with the road uniforms that say "The Angles" in Espanol: "Los Angeles."

Problem solved.

[FiddySicks]

To all of those who want "Los Angeles Angels", would you also want the "San Francisco Sharks"?

Yeah. They should have stayed closer to San Francisco.

No. They shouldn't have.

[The_Admiral]

I was thinking more along the lines of Schaumburg or Naperville, you know, the whole Edge City phenomenon, though the region as a whole is too provincial to renounce the city itself the way people outside Los Angeles and Phoenix like to do (though Napervillians are getting a little big for their britches as of late).

EDIT: this was in response to an illwauk post that supposed that blue-collar satellite cities were more likely to be "self-sustaining" as far as the Midwest goes. I don't see that post anymore, so this is a response to nothing.

To all of those who want "Los Angeles Angels", would you also want the "San Francisco Sharks"?

Yeah. They should have stayed closer to San Francisco.

No. They shouldn't have.

I was thinking that paradoxically, being closer to San Francisco would have made the fanbase be less of a bunch of weirdos. And that you can't go wrong positioning yourself closer to higher population density.

[Brian in Boston]

Oh, and by the way, the largest suburb of Los Angeles is Long Beach.

Long Beach... ranked second in population in Los Angeles County, seventh in population in the State of California, and thirty-sixth in population in the United States.

Gene Autry's preferred site for a ballpark the Angels could call their own was in Long Beach. He liked the fact that Long Beach was located about midway between downtown Los Angeles and the center of the then fastest-growing areas of Orange County. He liked the fact that the city could be reached via easy freeway access. The proposed ballpark was to be built on land that is now part of El Dorado Regional Park, about 14 miles west down Katella Avenue from the current Angel Stadium of Anaheim. However, Long Beach municipal officials insisted that the team be named the Long Beach Angels, which Autry felt sounded too minor-league.

[bosrs1]

Honestly the name thing isn't even that big of a deal. No one calls them the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They're etiher referred to as the Los Angeles Angels by the media and fans or the Anaheim Angels by some other fans. This just formalizes the former which seems to be the predominant usage in recent years.

The bigger deal seems to be that Angel Stadium is going to get yet another major renovation keeping it an active park into the 2050's. This now brings Angel Stadium to 4 major renovations. Has any park other than Fenway gone though so many major facelifts? I'm also curious what this renovation will entail. I'd imagine this renovation will deal more with the underlying infrastructure than the last one did since the stadium does have most of the modern amenties, scoreboards, etc... But I could see them doing some major work to things like plumbing, electrical, the suite level, etc...

[bosrs1]

It's totally a similar comparison, as the Sillicon Valley and Orange County are both "wealthy, white, and relatively self-sustaining", and both are viewed as suburbs of another city/area. San Jose is viewed as a suburb of San Francisco for all intents and purposes (it's not called the "San Jose Bay Area"). Everybody who wants "Los Angeles" says it's because Los Angeles is the better brand... well, I'd say "San Francisco" is the better brand than "San Jose".

Oh, and by the way, the largest suburb of Los Angeles is Long Beach.

Hate to break it to you, but San Jose hasn't been viewed as a suburb of San Francisco for about 3 decades now and has been smaller than San Jose for almost 4. And the region is named after the Bay, not the city of San Francisco.

[WSU151]

And the region is named after the Bay, not the city of San Francisco.

Isn't the Bay named after the city? Ipso facto...

[bosrs1]

And the region is named after the Bay, not the city of San Francisco.

Isn't the Bay named after the city? Ipso facto...

Actually the Bay was named before the city existed on November 4, 1769 (and technically that was due to a mistake with the Portola party thinking they'd reached what is now called Drakes Bay which at the time was called Bahia de San Francisco leading to two bays having the same name. The larger bay got to keep the San Francisco name ultimately). So the city is named after the bay as the region wasn't settled by Europeans until September 1776 when the Presidio of San Francisco was founded which the city of San Francisco then grew from.

/history lesson

[The_Admiral]

Okay cool but San Francisco is a world-class city and San Jose is sprawl no one cares about.