Angel Stadium screws up gate admissions as fans arrive to watch team get destroyed

While some of the Los Angeles Angels' struggles have been good ol' fashioned bad luck and/or underperformance, there has also been a fair sprinkling of incompetence thrown into the mix.

Arte Moreno's reluctance to spend on pitching last offseason (and all offseasons) has obviously cost the team dearly in 2024, and he also made a foolish error in not staying in the Ohtani sweepstakes because he thought his next contract should have started with a "4."

There is an argument that the Angels' training staff should all have to go back to school given their inability to keep key players on the field, but we will give them a pass for now given that some guys, especially Anthony Rendon and Mike Trout, just are injury-prone. However, what happened on Thursday night was an operational failure of epic proportions.

Fans arriving to see the Angels take on the Royals Thursday were greeted by a line that was longer than usual. In fact, it was MUCH longer than usual to the point where fans were still trying to get through the gate(s) when the game was in the third inning.

The reason? There was a surprisingly low number of open gates with scanners, with one reporter saying that only one metal detector was in operation.

Fans forced to wait in horrid line only to see Angels annihilated by Royals

Obviously this situation was embarrassing enough. The ONE thing the game day operations personnel has to get right is ensuring fans get into the ballpark on time. What was even worse was that the fans that were actually able to get through got to watch LA get routed by the Royals 10-4 as Reid Detmers put up yet another poor performance on the mound after starting the 2024 season off looking untouchable.

It is possible that there was a technical issue that was the true root cause of this situation. However, it is hard not to think that the Angels' notoriously cheap owner had a hand in this debacle. This is the same Arte Moreno that decided to keep Angels broadcasters remotely calling road games because it would save him a couple bucks. Does anyone really not think that Moreno might have sent word that he wants to cut down on gameday operations spending leading to Thursday's disaster?

We will probably find out soon enough the cause, but for a team and an owner that seems to want to make more money and not spend it, they may find that ticking off the fans who want to come to games will make the "profit" part even harder than it already is.

More LA Angels News from Halo Hangout