ANAHEIM – Angel Stadium of Anaheim turns 50 this month and, in the world of big league ballparks, 50 is the new ancient.

Sure, some of baseball’s most beloved venues – Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium – are older, but they’re outliers. Only those three ballparks and Oakland’s curiously named O.co Coliseum (which opened in 1966 but didn’t get the A’s until ’68) can rival the ripe middle-age-ness of Angel Stadium.

And when it comes to ballpark buzz and popularity, youth matters.

RELATED: Angel Stadium seating chart and panoramas

The stadiums that rate highest with fans and owners – in San Francisco and San Diego and Pittsburgh, of all places – are all younger than 20. They’re small-ish, with seats close to the action. They’re tech-friendly. They’ve got unique food options in the stadium, and they’re all within walking distance of even better options beyond the gates.

Angel Stadium has only some of that. And among ballpark aficionados, Angel Stadium typically grades out near the middle or bottom of Major League Baseball’s 30 venues.

“No one is surprised the Angels want to pursue a new ballpark,” said Kevin Reichard, publisher of ballparkdigest.com, a website that tracks baseball stadiums as entertainment venues.

“Angel Stadium isn’t a particularly good one.”

Whether that’s true or not (and on this the Angels and many Angels fans strongly disagree with Reichard), the Big A has hosted plenty of good stuff: A spectacular World Series. Several All-Star Games. Georgia Frontiere’s Jacuzzi-equipped luxury suite. Monster trucks.

Over the decades, a lot of people have had a lot of fun in the Big A.

But today, a couple weeks shy of Angel Stadium’s actual 50th birthday (April 19), all that is just history for the Angels’ bid to celebrate the ballpark’s anniversary season.

The present at the Big A is about deal making. The Angels and the city of Anaheim are in a stalemate over who’ll pay the $150 million or so that’s needed for essential-but-uninspiring internal renovations, such as new plumbing and escalators and cement. If terms can’t be reached, the lease lets the Angels leave Anaheim between now and the end of the 2019 season. After that, the lease runs through 2029.

And the stadium’s future?

On that, the question is simple: Does the Big A have one?

ANSWER NO. 1: HECK YES IT DOES

Aerial photos of Anaheim taken circa 1965 show what appears to be huge flying saucer waiting to lift off from a bean field.

Never mind that the saucer was actually a then state-of-the-art three-sided stadium, and that the crops were actually a churned-up version the stadium’s future parking lot. For a brief, mid-’60s moment, the place that opened as Anaheim Stadium was a “Mad Men” image of the future.

It had futuristic colors (lots of orange). It had futuristic shapes (triangle signage). Its advertising featured stylish, futuristic people (skinny dress pants for dudes; beehives for gals). It even had futuristic paint; a quartz-based covering that made the cement look wet under evening lights.

If Elroy of “The Jetsons” ever played pro baseball, it would’ve happened in the Anaheim Stadium that opened April 19, 1966.

The Big A, in its youth, was hip.

And then, suddenly, it wasn’t.

“Kauffman Stadium opened a few years later (in Kansas City in 1973), and that sort of reset the bar for all the suburban ballparks of that era,” said Reichard, referring to the home of the Royals, which featured huge fountains in the outfield and some of the slickest Astroturf of its era.

“Even then, Anaheim Stadium was starting to slip behind a little.”

That word, “suburban,” is key to why some view the 2016 version of Angel Stadium as only so-so.

The place opened as part of a wave of 1960s ballparks built for teams bent on fleeing their host cities.

Candlestick Park, which opened in 1960, wasn’t built for the Giants in downtown San Francisco; it was stuck on windy, distant Hunter’s Point, near the border of then undeveloped South San Francisco. The Mets’ home, Shea Stadium, which opened in ’64, was placed in Queens, the leafiest of New York’s five burroughs.

In Houston (’65), Atlanta (’66), Montreal (’69)and San Diego (’69), ballparks opened in suburbs, business parks or next to city parks. None was built to serve as the hub of an old-school, pedestrian-oriented downtown.

It all made sense at the time. Baseball fans were moving away from cities, and cities were viewed as hotbeds of crime and decay.

But in this century that thinking has changed. Cities are rebounding and vibrant, and even diehard suburbanites look to downtowns when they want to have fun.

And baseball has responded. The Giants now play in a park in San Francisco’s South of Market district. The Astros’ new home is a block from the heart of downtown Houston.

It’s unclear if Angels owner Arte Moreno wants his Angels to make a similar switch.

Over the past two years, as negotiations with the city have slowed, the Angels have talked publicly about the possibility of finding another home. Angels spokeswoman Marie Garvey said in March that the team continues to “explore all options.”

But if the Angels want a hip, urban ballpark, they might not need to move anywhere. A downtown is slowly popping up around Angel Stadium.

Since 2004, nearly 1,900 condominiums and apartments, along with a smattering of retail and restaurants, have opened within walking distance of Angel Stadium. City officials in Anaheim hope that’s just a start. Long term, the 820-acre district that surrounds the stadium (and nearby Honda Center) is zoned for 19,000 dwellings, plus dozens of restaurants and offices.

Those development plans raise the stakes on the city’s negotiations with the team. All the profitable downtown construction might not be built, or will at least require a new centerpiece, if the Angels pull up stakes.

“They’re essential,” Councilwoman Kris Murray says of the Angels, citing everything from the team’s role as a contributor to the community to its role as a driver for the coming new downtown.

“We want them here for the next 50 years.”

And there’s this: Though Angels spokeswoman Garvey says he believes the team has time to execute any decision, the out clause in the lease expires in roughly 40 months.

That’s a quick turnaround for finding land, getting building approval and building a ballpark in the Angels’ MLB-approved territory – Orange and Riverside counties and a sliver of south Los Angeles County.

“It’d be tough to build a ballpark in anything less than five years,” said Reichard of ballparkdigest.com.

“Obviously, they’ve got a desire to at least consider something new, but time isn’t on their side on that.”

It’s possible the Angels’ real window to relocate is already closed.

ANSWER NO 2: THE BIG A IS DOOMED, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

There are two paths that could wipe out the Big A, and one does involve the Angels leaving town.

Though city officials say it’s a longshot, they say the idea can’t be completely discounted.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, a lifelong Angels fan who has taken the most strident stance against the team in the city’s negotiation over paying for plumbing and the like, doesn’t think the Angels will leave.

But, he said, he isn’t worried if they do.

Tait suggests the city could make between $150 million-$500 million by selling off the parking lot around Angel Stadium. He wonders if the land under a razed Angel Stadium wouldn’t fetch enough to totally revitalize his city’s finances and, with it, the city.

“I love the Angels,” Tait said. “But it’s about taxpayers, too.”

But there’s a second scenario that also could doom the Big A, at least in its current form.

Suppose the Angels don’t leave.

Suppose the planned development around Angel Stadium gains momentum, and the city’s lofty goals – 28,000 residents plus 14 million square feet of shops and restaurants and offices and hotels – come to pass.

By 2029, when the Angels’ lease expires, the area around the Big A might be so vibrant that a totally new stadium makes financial sense.

It’s unclear who would pay for that. These days, a new stadium probably runs close to $1 billion; in 13 years that price could triple. Moreno, 69, has a net worth of $1.82 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

But a new Angel Stadium is an idea that’s been contemplated for years, particularly during its many renovations.

When the Rams moved from Los Angeles to Anaheim in 1980, the ballpark was rebuilt to accommodate football and baseball. In 1996, two years after the Rams left for St. Louis, Walt Disney Co. gained control of the Angels and reconfigured the ballpark yet again, this time as a baseball-only venue. That remodel brought in the faux rocks beyond the center-field fence, the Big A sign in the parking lot, and the huge baseball caps at the front gate.

Through it all, various ideas for a new Big A have been discussed and set aside.

Greg Smith, the former general manager of Angel Stadium who retired from the city in 2008, says renovation ideas have long centered on infusing the stadium with the latest technology.

“We always felt our biggest competition was your favorite couch and the coldest beer in your refrigerator,” Smith said.

“The (technology) has changed since I was there,” he added. “But whatever they might build would have to create a fan experience that’s more than just watching what’s in front of you.”

Reichard, of ballparkdigest.com, said he believes making Angel Stadium truly modern would require a full teardown. Everything from seat configuration to modern WiFi to adjustable luxury suites would be part of any current stadium package.

“It needs the places where the team can get more revenue,” Reichard said.

“The fan experience is part of any new stadium,” he added. “So is the ownership experience.”

But Reichard also noted that it’s feasible, for now, if the Big A changes nothing at all.

“The team sells out a lot of games. The TV revenue is strong. They obviously have an owner who isn’t unwilling to spend money on players,” Reichard said.

“They don’t need to be squeezing dimes,” he added. “They can cruise off the situation, as it is, for many years.”

Smith agrees. He said Angel Stadium could exist, in its current form, even without a baseball team. Various studies over the years showed that maintenance costs for the Big A could be covered by events ranging from motorcycle races and monster trucks to a soccer team.

But, he added, there’s profit in the situation that exists now.

“It sounds goofy, but there’s community spirit in all of this,” Smith said. “When the Angels won the World Series, it brought people together.

“I don’t know who should pay for that, but there’s definitely value.”

Contact the writer: amouchard@ocregister.com