LOS ANGELES Angels manager Phil Nevin talks to reporters in the dugout (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

It was a bittersweet weekend for sports fans in the Orange County area. The Rams and Chargers won a pair of important games, the Dodgers finished the season with 100 victories and USC managed to hang on enough to defeat Colorado and improve to 4-0.

The sole sour note sounded was how the Angels concluded their traditional losing season. The Halos didn’t improve on the disappointing 2022 season, finishing 75-89 again, and even slipped from third to fourth in the American League West.

Manager Phil Nevin, who coached the team to an overall .444 mark in a season-and-a-half, was fired to no one’s surprise. Fans want winners and so does Shohei Ohtani, who has suffered through six seasons of athletic red ink while he adds to his Hall of Fame resume.

As if typical – nearly mandatory – in such cases, followers and journalists start pointing fingers. Apologists and optimists will say, hey, look at all the injuries and bad luck and tone-deaf management.

And realists and meanies – often the same people – will reply, hey, every  team in every sport suffers from injuries and knot-headed front offices, but not for eight years in a row.

The standard answers line up every October. Fire the field manager. Fire the general manager. Sell the team. Sell the players. Dump all the young talent for established stars. Dump all the established stars for young talent. 

Truth is that no one really knows how to catch that lightning in a bottle. But my idea is to not fire any person.

Fire the stadium.

Arte, sell the team for a huge profit. Make a new deal – a proper deal – to tear down Angel Stadium and build a new one, in Anaheim or – failing that – Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Stanton or Westminster. 

A gleaming new home that will make SoFi look like a sandlot will bring in torrents of fans. Despite another heart-breaking season, the Halos had an average attendance of 32,600 fans, or a total of 2.6 million.

Firing the stadium – getting creaky after 57 years of service – will build excitement and attract talent and money.

Or not. The truth is, I don’t know the secret any more than anyone else does.