Angels News: Golden State Warriors Owner Joe Lacob is Interested in Buying the Halos
The impending sale of the Angels is officially heating up. Earlier this week, insider Will Carroll wrote that Patrick Seong-Shoon and a Japanese group were both among the potential interested buyers this offseason. Now, we know a third one.
On Thursday, Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob joined The Athletic's Tim Kawakami on a podcast. They talked a lot of basketball, but also spoke about his potential interest in buying the Angels. There were reports earlier in the offseason that he may be interested, and on Thursday, he confirmed them.
"It’s been reported that we’re looking at it, and that’s true," Lacob said. "I don’t know what we’re gonna do yet, but I grew up there — it’s a little bit of an attraction for me. I was a peanut vendor for seven years. I lived a mile from that stadium. It’s an older stadium but it’s been around for a long time and I’ve always felt that it had great possibilities. You know, LA’s a huge market, and it’s part of that LA overall market. And they’ve drawn over three million fans I think 17 of the last 20 years. So, you know we’re gonna look at it. But, you know, it wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world to do because it’s not co-located like perhaps a local baseball team might be. But may be doable, so we’ll see."
Clearly Lacob has done his research, and is at the very least interested in placing a bid. That's great news for Angels fans, who can look at what he's done in Golden State and feel very confident that he'll spend the money in order to build a contender.
The Warriors have won four championships since Lacob took over, and have not been shy in spending money in order to retain their guys. Golden State could be on the hook to pay an NBA-record $483 million next season, going $286 million into the luxury tax. No team has ever spent that much, but clearly, Lacob doesn't care about the money as long as it results in rings.
The Angels have a player of their own who's going to command a record contract next offseason in Shohei Ohtani. If Lacob ends up buying the team, there's a good chance he does whatever it takes to keep him in Anaheim.
