Angel Stadium

About Angel Stadium

The halo still lights up after every win. Angel Stadium, a 45,050-seat ballpark in Anaheim, California, is the fourth-oldest active venue in the major leagues, home to the Los Angeles Angels and to a 230-foot A-frame sign that has become Orange County’s most recognizable landmark. It has survived two full-scale renovations, three names, and one of the greatest World Series comebacks ever played.

The ballpark opened on April 19, 1966 as Anaheim Stadium, a $24 million, three-tiered grandstand with open views of the Chino Hills and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond the outfield. Designed by Noble W. Herzberg, it gave the California Angels a permanent home and Orange County its first major-league team. The Big A, standing 230 feet and weighing 210 tons, was the tallest structure in the county when it went up.

The 2002 World Series is the defining moment. The Angels, a franchise that had never won it all in 41 years, trailed the Giants 5-0 in Game 6 and rallied to win 6-5 behind Scott Spiezio’s three-run homer and Troy Glaus’s go-ahead double. Game 7 the next night was a 4-1 clincher. It remains one of the greatest World Series comebacks in baseball history, and the Rally Monkey, born on the Angel Stadium video boards two years earlier, became a national sensation along the way.

Construction & Design

Angel Stadium was built fast and built big. Ground broke on August 31, 1964, and 42,000 cubic yards of concrete and 15 million pounds of steel later, the $24 million ballpark opened in April 1966. Noble W. Herzberg and Associates designed it; the Del E. Webb Company built it. The signature was the Big A, a 230-foot, 210-ton scoreboard behind left field, funded by Standard Oil for $1 million and, at the time, the tallest structure in Orange County. The City of Anaheim owns the stadium; the Angels operate it.

The place has been remade twice. In 1979 and 1980, a renovation enclosed the open bowl to bring in the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, pushing capacity to roughly 69,000 for football and moving the Big A 1,300 feet out to the parking lot, where it still stands. Then, after the Walt Disney Company bought the Angels in 1996, a $118 million renovation in 1997 and 1998 tore the enclosure back down. HOK Sport and Robert A.M. Stern restored the open-air baseball bowl, Turner Construction did the work, and Walt Disney Imagineering built the California Spectacular, a 22,000-square-foot rock formation with a 100-foot geyser in center field. The stadium reopened as Edison International Field, then took the Angel Stadium name in 2004.

The stadium’s future has been its most contested feature. In December 2019 the city agreed to sell Angel Stadium and its vast parking lots to the team’s ownership for $325 million, but the deal collapsed in May 2022 after a federal corruption investigation engulfed Anaheim’s city hall and forced the mayor to resign. The Angels stayed put. In February 2025 the team extended its lease through 2032, keeping big-league baseball in Anaheim for at least another decade while the question of a new or rebuilt ballpark stays wide open.

Getting to Angel Stadium

Public Transit

Angel Stadium has a commuter rail connection through the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC), plus bus and shuttle options.

The ART shuttle is the easiest option if you’re staying near Disneyland. Metrolink serves Anaheim from LA Union Station and stations along the Orange County Line.

Driving + Parking

The ballpark address is 2000 Gene Autry Way, Anaheim, CA 92806. I-5 and SR-57 are the primary approaches.

The main parking lot has three entrances (Douglass Road, State College Boulevard, Orangewood Avenue). General parking is $20, preferred/oversized $30. Lots open 2.5 hours before game time. Tailgating is only permitted in the Big A Lot near the sign, with no alcohol, no outside catering, and approved gas or propane grills only.

Rideshare

Uber and Lyft drop off via Gene Autry Way near the main entrance gates. Post-game pickup is near Gate 1 toward left field, by the red rideshare light pole near the City National Grove of Anaheim. From downtown Anaheim, expect $8–$12. From Disneyland, $8–$10. From LAX, $45–$70.

From the Airport

History of Angel Stadium

Angel Stadium was built to give the California Angels a permanent home in Orange County, and it opened in April 1966 as one of the era’s grand modern ballparks. What followed was six decades of reinvention: a football conversion, a Disney-era makeover, a championship, and a long fight over who would own the place.

The Angels themselves were the creation of Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy of Hollywood westerns, who owned the club from its 1961 expansion birth until his death in 1998. His name still marks the street outside, Gene Autry Way, and the franchise he founded finally won it all in 2002, four years after he was gone. The ballpark has always carried a little of that showman’s instinct, from the halo on the Big A to the geyser in center field.

First Game (April 19, 1966): The Chicago White Sox defeated the Angels 3-1 in the stadium’s inaugural regular-season game. The Big A, funded by Standard Oil for $1 million, served as the scoreboard behind left field and gave the stadium its enduring nickname.

1967 MLB All-Star Game (July 11, 1967): The first All-Star Game broadcast in prime time on national television. The National League won 2-1 in 15 innings, the longest All-Star Game ever played at the time (later matched in 2008).

Football Era (1980-1994): The 1979-80 enclosure brought the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams to Anaheim, filling the outfield with seats and pushing capacity toward 69,000. The Rams played here for 15 seasons before leaving for St. Louis.

Disney Renovation (1997-98): The Walt Disney Company, which purchased the Angels in 1996, spent $118 million to demolish the outfield upper deck, restore the open-air configuration, and add the California Spectacular. The stadium was renamed Edison International Field.

2002 World Series (October 19-27, 2002): The Angels defeated the Giants in seven games for their only championship. Game 6 is one of baseball’s all-time moments: down 5-0, the Angels rallied to win 6-5 behind Spiezio’s three-run homer and Glaus’s RBI double. Game 7 the next night, Angels 4, Giants 1.

From the Big A to the California Spectacular to the Rally Monkey, Angel Stadium is where Orange County baseball lives, the fourth-oldest active ballpark in the majors, where the halo still lights up after every win.

Sources & Further Reading

• Los Angeles Angels, ballpark information: mlb.com/angels/ballpark. Official seating, events, and visitor details.
• Ballparks of Baseball, Angel Stadium: ballparksofbaseball.com. Capacity, cost, and renovation history.
• City of Anaheim, Angel Stadium lease: anaheim.net. Ownership and the 2025 lease extension.
• Angel Stadium, Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Stadium. Construction, naming, renovations, and the sale saga.