Final week, after Angels proprietor Arte Moreno completed his annual state of the workforce dialogue with reporters, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com revealed a number of quotes from the dialog. Between settling with Tyler Skaggs’ household over the wrongful demise swimsuit, not having a tv companion for the upcoming season, and slicing payroll after eight straight shedding seasons, there was lots to cowl. A number of of Moreno’s quotes raised eyebrows, however the one which caught probably the most headlines involved his description of a fan survey. He was merely attempting to clarify that he’s targeted on ensuring the fan expertise is an effective one, however it got here out very fallacious.
“The primary factor followers need is affordability,” Moreno mentioned. “They need affordability. They need security, they usually desire a good expertise once they come to the ballpark. Imagine it or not, successful just isn’t of their prime 5… The mothers need to have the ability to afford to deliver the youngsters. Mothers make about 80% of the selections. They need to have the ability to deliver their youngsters and be reasonably priced they usually need security they usually wish to have a great expertise, so that they get all of the leisure stuff or no matter. The purists, , it’s simply straight successful.”
It wasn’t precisely inspiring to listen to the proprietor of a baseball workforce come dangerously near accusing followers of zealotry for simply wanting their workforce to complete above .500 for the primary time since 2015. After avoiding native media for years, Moreno began giving these spring coaching state of the workforce appearances in 2023. His solutions will not be at all times properly obtained, and time tends to not do them any favors. In 2023, Moreno mentioned, “You’ll be able to’t begin shedding $50 to $100 million a 12 months and preserve the enterprise,” then two years later, he mentioned the workforce was doing simply that, claiming it could “most likely lose $50 million to $60 million, minimal.” In 2023, he mentioned, “I at all times take a look at the followers. What are we doing to ensure the followers have an excellent expertise and the followers are pleased with the workforce that we placed on the sphere?” Now he says successful just isn’t even a top-five precedence for the followers.
This isn’t the primary time Moreno has cited survey outcomes to bolster an argument. It’s a deadly train, as a result of two can play at that recreation. Lately, The Athletic has performed its personal surveys of Angels followers. In 2023, followers had been requested to grade Moreno’s efficiency as proprietor, and 87.4% rated it both poor or under common. Out of 1,956 respondents, one solitary particular person rated the proprietor as glorious. Moreno will need to have performed one thing proper, although, as a result of the following 12 months, that quantity tripled. These Athletic surveys have by no means requested followers how a lot they care about successful, as a result of why would they? Isn’t that the unspoken assumption of fandom?
You could possibly postulate all day lengthy about why successful isn’t within the prime 5. Possibly it’s as a result of, as one fan advised The Athletic’s Sam Blum, the survey “didn’t have successful as a class we might decide.” That’s one option to get the reply you need! Or possibly it’s easy survivorship bias; if you happen to care in any respect concerning the efficiency of the workforce, the Angels most likely drove you away way back. It’s a bit of like surveying the diners at Olive Backyard. After all, affordability is their prime precedence. That’s why they’re at Olive Backyard as a substitute of the flamboyant Italian place down the road. However it doesn’t imply that they wouldn’t like for the meals at Olive Backyard to be higher. What Moreno illustrated greater than anything is simply how simple the house owners have it. He purchased right into a enterprise that pays him handsomely and will increase in worth 12 months after 12 months regardless of persistently failing at its putative objective. Actually, he can summon reporters and boast that his clients don’t truly care whether or not the enterprise fulfills that objective.
As a lot as Moreno’s feedback might rub you the fallacious approach, he’s not completely fallacious. Baseball video games are wildly costly. It’s not shocking that affordability tops the checklist, and it’s really refreshing to listen to an proprietor acknowledge that. I do know I personally would go to much more video games in the event that they had been extra moderately priced. In keeping with nearly each examine on the market, the Angels present one of many extra reasonably priced ballpark experiences round, from ticket costs to concessions.
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Nevertheless, utilizing all this as an excuse to justify not making an effort to enhance the workforce in free company is one other matter. Moreno kind of mentioned the $2.75 billion franchise he owns is only for dad and mom who want one thing to do with their youngsters, and he’s not utterly fallacious. My spouse grew up within the space, and that’s completely what Angels video games had been for her household. Though she doesn’t care about baseball, she loved sitting within the low-cost seats and consuming ballpark meals. It’s truthful to surprise, although, whether or not she may need taken extra of an curiosity within the both the workforce or the game had the baseball there been extra compelling. The Angels by no means made the playoffs within the first 14 years of her life, they usually completed higher than third within the division solely thrice.
My sister lives not too removed from Anaheim now. Years in the past, she and her husband waged an all-out battle about whether or not they’d elevate their youngsters to root for her hometown workforce, the Nationals, or his, the Cubs. He had the higher hand when the Cubs gained all of it in 2016, however the youngsters had been actually younger then. They went loopy when the Nationals gained the 2019 World Sequence. My sister had gained. They had been Nats followers. I made my niece Taylor’s ninth birthday cake in accordance with her specs. She requested a browsing cake, with a cookie model of her on one facet and a cookie model of Max Scherzer on the opposite facet. Then the Nats collapsed and removed all of the gamers she cherished. Once they despatched Juan Soto to the close by Padres, he took her allegiance with him.
All of that is to say that my sister is the mother that Moreno is speaking about right here. She takes her household of 5 to have a great time seeing the Angels. They’re not going to spend one million {dollars} and battle sellout crowds to see the Dodgers or the Padres, they usually don’t care a lot who wins. However unstated right here is the plain fact that had the Angels been the sort of workforce that conjures up devotion, she may need raised three passionate Angels followers. If the Angels had been the sort of workforce that had sellout crowds (and obtained to cost an arm and a leg for the tickets), they could have turned my sister and her household into followers who care whether or not the workforce wins or loses. Affordability would have climbed down their checklist of priorities. So when Moreno says his followers don’t care about successful, he’s partly proper, however it’s as a result of he’s getting the followers he’s earned.
Nonetheless, his feedback beg an apparent query. The place does successful truly rank for Angels followers? Possibly they actually do care about safety and about “leisure stuff or no matter” greater than they care about having a good workforce. But when not successful, what rounds out the highest 5?
I’ve some excellent news for you. We’ve obtained the solutions. Right here at FanGraphs, we’re extra than simply quantity crunchers. We’re journalists. A few of us even studied journalism at school (not me personally, however a few of us). We’ve obtained trade sources (once more, not me). Utilizing our eager investigative instruments, we’ve got tracked down the precise survey responses, that are actual and never made up. Under you’ll discover the precise prime 10 priorities of Angels followers, that are, and I can’t stress this sufficient, not utterly fabricated for the aim of leisure.
1. Affordability
As mentioned, the Angels are the Olive Backyard of Main League Baseball, however with out the limitless breadsticks.
2. Security
As soon as once more, Moreno is true on the cash. Getting stabbed on the ballpark is an actual bummer. Generally my buddy Steve will textual content me to ask if I wish to soak up a ballgame. I at all times reply that query with one other query: “How possible am I to get stabbed?” If he says the chances are anyplace above 15%, I keep dwelling.
I actually admire that the stadiums hung protecting netting throughout the infield. Generally it obstructs your view of the sport a bit of bit, however it’s properly price it to know that there’s a bodily barrier preserving the gamers from climbing up into the stands to stab you. I might moderately watch my workforce lose than watch them win whereas getting stabbed, and I’m not afraid to say it. If that makes me a good climate fan, so be it.
3. Leisure Stuff or No matter
It might have appeared like Moreno was being flippant or unspecific right here, however it is a direct quote from a number of survey respondents. Angels followers actually do like leisure, or stuff, or no matter. They’re not choosy. Is it leisure? Is it stuff? Is it a 3rd, unspecified factor? They’re nice both approach.
In keeping with the surveys, a surprisingly excessive share of attendees at Angels video games truly meant to go to Disneyland, which is lower than a mile away, however simply rolled with it as soon as they realized they’d taken the fallacious exit. A smaller however nonetheless statistically important subset of attendees gave the impression to be underneath the impression that they really had been in Disneyland and {that a} skilled baseball recreation simply occurred to have damaged out in the midst of Frontierland.
4. Meals in Helmets
It’s arduous to argue with Angels followers on this one. Whether or not it’s nachos or gentle serve ice cream, meals simply tastes higher if you eat it out of a novelty helmet. When you advised me I might go to both a recreation the place my workforce gained, or a recreation the place my workforce misplaced 36-1 however I obtained to eat nachos out of a helmet, I wouldn’t even cease to ask you whether or not I used to be going to get stabbed.
The survey respondents had been so obsessed with helmet-based concessions that the Angels are holding discussions about including a 3rd meals choice in a novelty helmet with a diameter of 16 inches, massive sufficient to suit an grownup river hippopotamus. That is a part of the explanation the workforce has been so passive in free company; a variety of the wage funds is getting plowed into hippo helmet R&D. The precise meals that may go within the helmet continues to be to be decided, however the main contender is a nine-pound serving of spaghetti and meatballs.
5. Jumbotron Enjoyable Information
You understand what’s higher than successful? Information. The surveys indicated {that a} sizable portion of season ticket holders are solely on the video games as a result of they possess a lifelong love of studying.
6. Clap, Clap, Clap-Clap-Clap
Clap, clap, clap-clap! Different followers flip as much as Angels Stadium primarily as a result of they actually love the opening of the John Fogerty traditional “Centerfield.” They don’t care who wins or loses. So long as they get to clap, they’ll preserve shelling out for season tickets.
7. Handy Parking
Look, in the future you’ll get to the age when nothing on this Earth brings you as a lot satisfaction as discovering the proper parking spot. That point comes for everybody, and apparently loads of Anaheim followers are nice watching their workforce waste Mike Trout so long as they get to avail themselves of the ballpark’s glorious parking state of affairs. These followers shall be giddy to know that Moreno had the heaps repaved this winter.
8. Unspecified
This class simply beat out successful, and I ought to make clear that it’s not a catch-all. It’s not miscellaneous. It’s unspecified, which is to say that when requested why they got here to the ballpark, a number of followers couldn’t actually provide you with a cause. They only type of ended up there. The survey outcomes indicated that a number of followers responded with an extended sigh, then appeared round balefully and whispered, “What the hell am I doing right here?”
9. Profitable
OK, properly it made the highest 10. That’s fairly good, proper?
10. Fireworks
Bang. Zoom. Enjoyable on the ballpark. It’s nearly nearly as good as successful (except you’re a canine).