The Southern California city wants to get a sports franchise.
City leaders in Long Beach, California are looking to bring a minor league baseball team into the city. The franchise would not be affiliated with Major League Baseball’s minor league system. Long Beach has housed minor league baseball teams in the past. Hosting an independent baseball franchise is a long step down from the time Long Beach elected officials had Major League aspirations. In 2019, then Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia thought he would induce a sports owner to take a look at a waterfront site and convince that owner to move to Long Beach and build a sports venue. That sports owner was Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim franchise owner Arte Moreno. At the time, Garcia claimed Long Beach had received a “flurry” of other interest from “major organizations and players.” Garcia teased “whether the 13-acre plot of land along the waterfront winds up ‘a home run or a slam dunk’”. Garcia felt the city was sure to attract a sports team or an entertainment company. Moreno turned down the offer. Garcia was not getting a National Basketball Association team with the Lakers and Clippers franchises up the road in Los Angeles. Nor was he getting a National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings franchise and Anaheim Ducks franchise nearby. The National Football League was not going to Long Beach and Major League Soccer had teams in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson thinks getting an independent league baseball team will lead to landing other sports businesses. Long Beach more than 60 years ago was in the running to get the Los Angeles Angels franchise as then owner Gene Autry was looking to move out of Dodger Stadium for a place of his own. In 1964, he found a home in Anaheim.
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