‘Pond’ Name Continues to Make Waves

The controversy surrounding the Walt Disney Co.’s decision to call the new $103-million arena “The Pond in Anaheim” continued on Tuesday as city officials and arena operators declared that they still have some reservations about the name.

“I think Disney may have gotten a little ahead of itself,” said City Manager James D. Ruth. “It took all of us by surprise.”

Ruth said the city and Ogden Entertainment, the arena operators, were consulting with Disney about the appropriateness of the name. The key issue, he said, was whether the choice would hamper efforts to attract a corporate sponsorship, advertisers and non-hockey events to the arena.

Mayor Tom Daly said he too was concerned that the arena logo unveiled Monday by Disney Chairman Michael Eisner did not have the word “Anaheim” displayed as prominently as it should be under the agreement with Disney, the city and Ogden.

In that agreement, Disney has the right to name the arena. The selection, however, must be approved by Ogden, Ruth said. The city has no legal say in that particular matter.

“It’s really Ogden’s call to make,” Ruth said.

John Nicoletti, the marketing-sales manager for Ogden, said that neither the city nor Ogden have had enough time to research the effect the new name will have on the arena’s overall success.

“The Pond,” he said, is “a unique, novel concept for an arena name,” but “until all our research on the name is completed, Ogden will continue to use the name ‘Anaheim Arena’ on all of its official correspondence.”

Jack B. Lindquist, president of Disneyland and chairman of the Mighty Ducks hockey team, said that Disney was willing to discuss the arena name and “find a solution that makes everybody happy.” He added that the company was “going to test the waters” and get some feedback on the marketability of using the Pond.

“The good thing is there seems to be general agreement that Anaheim Arena might have been too dull, not imaginative enough as a name,” Lindquist said. “The right name can mean so much.”

For now, Lindquist said, the Pond is still the right name.

Other interested parties throughout Anaheim said they liked the idea of professional hockey coming to Anaheim, but were still trying to warm up to the notion of calling the stately new arena the Pond.

“I think Eisner might have gotten a little carried away,” said Allan Hughes, president of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.

For the most part, Hughes said, the business community was “too delighted” by the announcement of hockey being played in the National Hockey League by October to be concerned about a silly name.

“Having a team in the arena is going to stimulate the economy,” Hughes said. “I think the business community is sitting back and saying let’s keep the (name) controversy going. You can’t buy publicity like that.”