Santa Ana Will Seek Other Options for Arena : Building: Planned sports facility may be scaled down to accommodate other events, mayor says.

No longer confident of attracting a professional basketball or hockey team, city officials have instructed developers of a proposed $85-million sports arena to look at other options, including plans that would call for a significantly smaller facility.

Mayor Daniel H. Young said Tuesday that the city has had recent discussions with the Orange County Arena Partnership and both have talked of possibly scaling down the planned 20,000-seat arena to accommodate other events.

“Our position is wide open,” Young said. “We told him (the developer) to go investigate other possibilities and then we’ll go from there.”

Young declined to say what other options would be considered but conceded that professional sports teams were not in the city’s “foreseeable future.”

The mayor said he had met recently with developer Anthony V. Guanci, who last Friday told The Times that sports franchises were not serious about relocating in Orange County. Guanci said the lack of interest led the partnership earlier this month to close down operations of a model suite that had been assembled to stir interest among local sports fans.

Without commitments from sports teams, city officials and developers had agreed not to begin construction on the arena planned for a vacant 17-acre site on Edinger Avenue. Santa Ana’s building strategy has run opposite of that in neighboring Anaheim where a 19,000-seat facility is nearly 50% complete even though the city has no agreements with sports teams.

“(Guanci) has always been real candid with us,” Young said. “He just doesn’t see the (basketball or hockey) leagues allowing teams to come to Orange County. We have had some brainstorming sessions . . . and he has pursued some specific ideas in entertainment other than sports.”

Discussions have also centered on possible changes in the size of the proposed building, but Young said there have been no final decisions.

Since last October when Santa Ana approved a memorandum of understanding with the partnership, arena developers have been competing with Anaheim to lure professional indoor sports to Orange County.

Young said the fact that Anaheim is so far along in its arena development also contributed to Santa Ana’s decision to seek other alternatives.

“Anaheim is going to be complete in a short time (summer of 1993), and there are going to be more advantages for a team going to Anaheim rather than Santa Ana,” Young said.

Only two months ago, Guanci was touting Santa Ana’s arena efforts as very much alive, saying that he and his arena partners were close to bringing a franchise to the county.

He blamed a poor economy and the costs associated with relocating a team for the sagging interest in the Santa Ana sports project.

Orange County Sports Assn. President Don Anderson said he was not surprised by the city’s decision to pursue other options.

“I think it would have been difficult for two new arenas to survive with only about five miles between them. There are not that many teams out there,” he said.

Anderson, whose organization sponsors a range of sporting events in the county, said he has been working closely with Anaheim officials on plans for that city’s sports arena.

Negotiations are expected to begin soon on a proposal to bring top college basketball teams from other parts of the nation to stage regional challenge matches beginning in December, 1993, Anderson said.

City and arena officials have said negotiations would continue in attempts to bring professional basketball and/or hockey, with most believing that a hockey club would likely be the first major tenant.