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Angels Add Los Angeles to Name
Associated Press
Monday, January 3, 2005; 12:54 PM

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Baseball's Angels have a new name, and it's a mouthful: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The switch will "strengthen the Angels' long-term economic health by enhancing the marketability through this metropolitan area and beyond," the team said Monday.

But the American League club's latest in a series of name changes could provoke a fight with the Anaheim City Council. Anaheim officials claim the change breaks the terms of the team's 33-year lease with the city.

When the franchise began in 1961, owned by singing cowboy Gene Autry, it was the Los Angeles Angels. The team became the California Angels when it moved to Anaheim in 1966. In 1997, when the team was controlled by The Walt Disney Co., the franchise was renamed the Anaheim Angels.

Arte Moreno bought the team in 2003, one year after it won the World Series, and he wanted to change the name.

The Angels drew 3,375,677 last season, the third-highest total in baseball behind the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.