Anaheim’s NHL Expansion Team Might Not Be Ready Next Season

An apparent lack of progress in negotiations between the Walt Disney and Ogden Entertainment companies on an Anaheim Arena lease has jeopardized the Disney expansion hockey team’s chances of beginning NHL play this fall.

Only 2 1/2 weeks before Anaheim must inform the NHL of its intentions, a source familiar with lease negotiations said that talks have broken down and that the team will not play until the 1994-95 season.

But several Anaheim Arena officials and Anaheim’s city manager insisted that negotiations are continuing and arena officials say that October, 1993, is still the target date.

“I would think if there was a problem, (Ogden officials in New York) would have contacted me, and that’s not the case,” said Brad Mayne, Anaheim Arena general manager who is employed by Ogden, the managing general partner of the arena.

Said Anaheim City Manager James D. Ruth, “Those rumors are absolutely not true.”

But NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman wasn’t so positive.

“I’ve heard that was a problem,” he said of Anaheim’s lease negotiations.