Angels Extend Palm Springs Stay : Team Continues Negotiating for New Training Complex

By MIKE PENNER

Dec. 9, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Their pursuit of a new training facility running the same course as their pursuit of Nolan Ryan and Bruce Hurst, the Angels announced Thursday that their working agreement with the city of Palm Springs would be extended 1 more year, maintaining the status quo through the spring of 1990.

Wednesday night, the Palm Springs city council unanimously approved a 1-year lease extension with the Angels, whose contract to play 13 exhibition games in the city each March was to have expired Dec. 31, 1989.

Now, the Angels are committed to their current Palm Springs arrangement for 2 more springs, shelving, at least temporarily, the team’s grand visions of a multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art training complex in either Arizona or Palm Springs.

“This will relieve some of the burden of the time crunch,” said Kevin Uhlich, the Angels’ manager of stadium operations. “We thought we could buy another year to sort through proposals. . . . No one has given us a complete proposal to this point.”

The Angels had originally sought a new complex--including an 8,000-seat stadium, 1 1/2 practice fields, clubhouse and weight-training room--to be ready for use by February, 1990. But according to Uhlich, construction of such a facility requires 12 to 14 months, and with no solid proposal in hand, the Angels were forced to delay the project at least another year.

Bids from the Arizona cities of Gilbert and Mesa were rejected as insufficient by the Angels, although Uhlich and Angel vice president Michael Schreter said negotiations with both cities would continue. Palm Springs countered with an offer to renovate the existing facility or build a new one, but Uhlich termed the proposal “very generic.”

Palm Springs “has given us these nice plans for either renovation or relocation, but there has been no land designated,” Uhlich said.

So the Angels re-upped for another spring in Palm Springs.

The result? Another in a growing list Angel disappointments?

“No, not all,” Schreter insisted. “What we’re doing is exploring all the possibilities. Basically, we bought a full year to review things.”

Which is about the only thing the Angels have been able to buy this week.