Angel changes to be unveiled

PROVO — A new name and logo of Utah Valley's minor-league baseball team will be unveiled today.

The new owners of the team previously known as the Provo Angels also will be introduced at a 3 p.m. news conference.

Officials of the baseball club announced Wednesday the sale of majority ownership interest in the team.

Co-owners Rob Owens and Linda Gach Ray sold the team to handful of owners from Southern California led by real-estate developer Jeff Kotofsky.

Katofsky and three other majority owners of the five-member team will be in Orem for the unveiling of the new-look club.

The other owners are Mark Yunkas, Jeff Cohen, Steve Twersky and Harvey Katofsky, Jeff Katofsky's father.

Owens and Ray owned the franchise eight years before the change was made official. Both retain a small minority ownership.

The Angels began playing in Provo in 2000 and won their first Pioneer League Championship over the Billings Mustangs in September.

"We are genuinely pleased that we were able to bring all of the joys of professional baseball to Utah County," Gach Ray and Owens said in a joint statement. "The new ownership group brings fresh resources to the team."

Zachary Fraser, spokesman for the team, said negotiations between the two sides have been going on for nearly half a year.

"They like to call themselves former players, fathers, coaches and friends first," he said, "businessmen second."

None of the five owners have previously owned a minor league team, but each has had extensive baseball experience.

Fraser said the team is going in a new direction with the name, team colors and logo. The team will also unveil a new Web site. "Many inside the game say it's the hottest new logo in minor league baseball," he said.

Angels officials were tight-lipped about releasing information regarding the club's new name and logo. Reports have said the team color will be red, keeping in line with the team's major-league parent club, the Anaheim Angels.

The announcements will be made in the McKay Events Center at UVSC, adjacent to the new $3.8 million Parkway Crossing Stadium where the Angels will play next year.