...doesn't quite have the ring of "Chicago, Chicago," OR "New York, New York." Still you work with what you've got. Up to a point. The City this week was still pondering whether to pursue a trial after losing a second court round to prevent the Anaheim Angels baseball franchise from changing their name to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

If you want a major league name for your town, hire major league lawyers. That's my advice to Mayor Curt Pringle. The city has spent about $200,000 so far on the case, and taking the matter to trial could cost a million dollars or more, according to this LA Times report yesterday.

Pringle sounds like he's laying the groundwork for moving forward:

We're sepnding money for a purpose that is right and to defend the economic value of our name.

Only problem: the lease agreement the city has with the baseball team to use the stadium requires only that "Anaheim" be somewhere in the team's name, but not necessarily right next to "Angels."

As noted in this LA Times piece, courtesy of the blog Can't Stop The Bleeding:

It was standing-room only in the lobby of Anaheim City Hall, with civic leaders and baseball executives gathering for a celebratory news conference. The Walt Disney Co. had agreed to buy the Angels, keep them in town for decades and pay for most of an ambitious and costly stadium renovation.

And, as city officials happily noted on that sunny afternoon in 1996, their team no longer would be known as the California Angels. The city would contribute to the renovation, and in return the team would be called the Anaheim Angels.

“After being known as California for the last 30 years, this team is now going to be called Anaheim,” Mayor Tom Daly said then. “That’s huge.”

Not so huge, however, for the city to insist upon contractual language that would force the team to call itself the Anaheim Angels or market itself using that name. The stadium lease agreement demands only that the team name “include the name Anaheim therein,” providing (ed.-new) Angel owner Arte Moreno with a potential loophole to exploit should he decide to call his team the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

“There’s no question the city could have written a lease provision that would have given the team no wiggle room. This provision does give the team some wiggle room,” said Robert Jarvis, professor of law at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and co-author of a sports law textbook.

Save the million-plus on a futile lawsuit, Mr. Mayor. That'd be a Big League move.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 28, 2005 03:04 PM

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