Invitations Out for Arena Rites : Sports venues: Anaheim prepares for Nov. 8 groundbreaking of a $100-million facility similar to one for Santa Ana.

Invitations started arriving last week for the Nov. 8 groundbreaking of Orange County’s first indoor arena, a $100-million sports palace within walking distance of Anaheim Stadium.

Anaheim officials stress that they are not racing Santa Ana, which plans a nearly identical, rival arena, to build theirs first. But both proposals seem to be shifting into a higher gear.

Tony Guanci of King-Guanci Development Inc., a partner in the proposed Santa Ana arena, said Anaheim’s groundbreaking amounts only to “smoke and mirrors.” Actual construction is not expected to begin until after December, when the Anaheim City Council gives final approval for the project’s financing.

Nevertheless, Guanci conceded that Orange County could end up with two indoor arenas with no professional basketball or hockey teams to play in either.

Although conventional wisdom has held that Orange County can support only one indoor arena, Guanci says now that it is “a very possible reality” both facilities may be built, even without teams committed to play in them.

In Santa Ana, a mock-up of a luxury suite is scheduled to be unveiled Nov. 15. The suites, priced from $50,000 to $65,000, are necessary if the arena is to profit, Guanci said.

“I’m really surprised Anaheim hasn’t focused on it,” he said.

But Anaheim city spokesman John J. Nicoletti said the Anaheim arena’s financing does not hinge on the advance sale of luxury suites.

“We’re not marketing them the same way Santa Ana is,” Nicoletti said. “We’re not going to sell them beforehand because we don’t have to.” Anaheim’s suite sales are being handled by Ogden Corp., which will operate the arena under contract with the city.

Three-hundred invitations were mailed out to dignitaries, including every mayor in Orange County and members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, for Anaheim’s groundbreaking ceremony at the Phoenix Club, 1566 Douglass Road, the site purchased by the city for the 20,000-seat arena.

Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter said in recent weeks that a National Hockey League team already is “locked” in an agreement to play in the Anaheim arena, though he declined to identify the franchise. But Councilman Irv Pickler, who opposes Hunter for mayor, has disputed the claim, saying no one else on the City Council is aware of such a commitment.

Meanwhile, Guanci said he is close to disclosing the identities of a group of investors who are seeking to acquire a professional hockey team to play in the Santa Ana arena. The group is headed by a former owner of two National Hockey League teams, Guanci said.

Guanci said that in the long run one of the two arenas may land an National Basketball Assn. team while the other gets an NHL team.

If that happens, he said, the investors will “get less return on their equity.”

The difference, Guanci said, is that the Santa Ana arena is a private venture, while the Anaheim Arena would be owned by the city.