MCA Agrees to Partnership in Santa Ana’s Arena Project

Entertainment giant MCA Inc. has agreed to back a proposed sports and entertainment complex in Santa Ana, filling a major gap in financing and programming for the $75-million project, city officials and other developers disclosed Monday.

Antonio G. Tavares, president of the Philadelphia-based Spectacor Management Group, said MCA is to become an equal financial partner in the proposed 20,000-seat arena, along with his group and a third developer. A final agreement is to be signed in coming weeks, he said.

Santa Ana city officials, pointing to MCA’s emergence in the deal as a major boon in their hopes of developing a sports arena ahead of competitors in nearby Anaheim, said they expect to announce the development publicly today.

City officials said that MCA plays a crucial dual role in the deal, solidifying private financing that had appeared precarious and assuring a broader base of programming from the entertainment world--beyond the sports activities already under consideration for the arena.

“We’re just 100% delighted with this development, and I think the stature of MCA is going to make this project an instant success,” said Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young, who predicted that the arena planned in the city’s eastern end near the Costa Mesa Freeway could be constructed sometime in 1990.

“They (MCA officials) have the ability to bring the expertise and financial backing to this project that we need. But more importantly, they also have access to the best pool of talent in the country to bring to this arena,” Young said. “That’s the gap MCA is going to fill.”

A top MCA official refused Monday to confirm the agreement to join the Santa Ana project, calling such discussions premature. “We’ve not signed any documents,” said Irving Azoff, chairman of the MCA Music Entertainment Group.

But Azoff did say in an interview that “anything that Spectacor (the Philadelphia group headed by Tavares) is planning to do and that they are inviting us in on is certainly worth taking a look at.”

MCA and Spectacor have a longtime business relationship as joint managers of the Los Angeles Coliseum and Sports Arena.

Azoff added that Santa Ana “would be a great site for an arena, and the area certainly deserves one.”

Santa Ana city officials, working with local developers, last month resuscitated their efforts to bring a sports arena to the city, announcing plans to build the complex on 17 acres of land at Edinger Avenue and Lyon Street, near Century High School in an industrial park owned by the Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corp.

The plan was seen as a direct challenge to the city of Anaheim in a race of municipalities to become the first to construct a major sports and entertainment complex in the heart of the county.

Anaheim officials had been planning for the last several years to bring such a facility to the city, but their plans were dealt a severe setback last month when the Orange County Board of Supervisors refused to sell the city a 7.6-acre parcel at Katella Avenue and Douglass Road. Supervisors opposing the plan said they may need the land for a new jail.

Unlike Anaheim, the city of Santa Ana faces no apparent obstacles in gaining access to land for a proposed arena, since Santa Fe Pacific--owner of the parcel--has agreed to participate in the project, along with Spectacor and the King/Guanci Development Co. of Newport Beach and Boston.

But the Santa Ana plan had its own potential problems concerning the depth of its financial backing and the issue of responsibility for the arena’s programming--needs that city officials say MCA now helps to meet.

“Who was the developer going to be? That was a question,” City Councilman Miguel A. Pulido said. “MCA is the missing link. This changes the whole financial picture, and it puts Santa Ana not only ahead of Anaheim, but well on the way to cementing this deal.”

Nonetheless, other questions surrounding the proposed Santa Ana arena remain unresolved. Foremost among these is the need for any public support for the project. Santa Ana city officials said the entrance of MCA into the deal further ensures that no public money will be required for the project and adds what Young called “an extra dimension of security.”

But Tavares reiterated his position that even with the private backing already lined up, the viability of the proposed arena would certainly demand some unspecified taxpayer support.

Another question concerns the arena’s ability to attract a professional sports team, probably either in basketball or hockey.

Azoff of MCA predicted that an arena such as the one proposed in Santa Ana could rely on entertainment acts to succeed, with a professional sports team only providing an added level of attraction. But Tavares said a sports team is essential to the success of the project as it currently is planned.

Times staff member Joe Bel Bruno contributed to this report.