Arte Moreno’s $4 billion Angels sale proves that MLB owners are doing just fine

Outgoing Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno earlier this week agreed to sell the franchise to Stan Kroenke for a reported sum of $4 billion. That sale price would be a record for a Major League Baseball team, coming in just ahead of the recent sale of the San Diego Padres for $3.9 billion. Amid the backdrop of the ongoing negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) — negotiations in which owners and the league are pushing for a cap on payrolls — this is a noteworthy development. Publicly, owners and MLB claim that a cap will improve competitive balance and parity, but there's other motivation: lowering labor costs and, the thinking goes, improving franchise values.

Consider, though, the case of the Angels and that $4 billion sale price. This is a franchise that:

And just to reiterate the above, the record-breaking transaction took place even as uncertainty over the next CBA imperils the 2027 season and as negotiations provide no assurances as to what the labor-management structure of the league will look like moving forward. This should not be the kind of environment and suite of circumstances that lead to a record-breaking sale, but the same could be…

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/