The Los Angeles Angels baseball franchise is owned by Arturo Moreno; he paid $184 million for the team in 2003. Currently, it is worth roughly $2 billion.
The company Moreno sold to Infinity Broadcasting in 1999 for $8.7 billion, Outdoor Systems, a provider of billboard advertising, was the source of his initial wealth.
Who is Arturo Moreno
Businessman Arturo “Arte” Moreno is from the United States. He acquired the Anaheim Angels baseball team from the Walt Disney Company on May 15, 2003, making him the first Mexican-American to control a significant sports franchise in the country.
The oldest of Maria and Arturo Moreno’s 11 children and member of a Mexican American family, Moreno was born in Tucson, Arizona.
His parents moved from Mexico. His grandpa was the owner of Tucson’s first Spanish-language newspaper, while his father maintained a tiny print shop.
After completing high school in 1965, he was drafted into the American Army in 1966 and served in the Vietnam War. He enrolled at the University of Arizona in 1968 after leaving the military and earned a marketing degree there in 1973.
He was given a job with the advertising firm Eller Outdoor after graduation.
He travelled around the country several times over the course of the following seven years until returning to Arizona in 1984 and settling in Phoenix, where he was employed by the billboard business Outdoor Systems.
Moreno and his friend Wally Kelly made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the company from its owner William S. Levine in 1984.
Levine formed a partnership with Moreno and Kelly, and Moreno later took over as the company’s president and CEO.
Moreno went public with Outdoor Systems in 1996. As the value of the company’s shares skyrocketed, Infinity Broadcasting paid $8 billion to acquire Outdoor Systems in 1998.
Baseball was Moreno’s preferred sport, so he used his economic savvy in that field as well. In 1986, he and 17 other investors bought the Salt Lake Trappers, a minor league franchise.
The business endeavor was a great financial success, and the consortium retained ownership of the squad until 1992.
By 2001, Moreno wanted to be the owner of an MLB team. He tried to purchase a majority stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team from his home state, but no agreement could be reached.
Nevertheless, he remained adamant about wanting to purchase a Major League franchise and soon had the 2002 World Series winner Anaheim Angels in mind.