The Pond Does Swimmingly in Its 1st Year : The Successes Have Underscored Anaheim’s Identity as an Entertainment Center

The massive building at Katella Avenue and Douglass Road was once informally known as “the white elephant.” Now it is The Pond of Anaheim, successful home to a professional hockey team, touring singers and soccer players. What a difference a year makes.

The indoor sports arena was the result of daring, gambling and extraordinary good luck. The man who said arena backers rolled the dice and won knew what he was talking about.

The Catch-22 of new sports arenas is that most cities will not build an arena until they have a commitment from a professional team that it will play there. But most teams will not commit without a built stadium. In the late 1980s, Santa Ana and Anaheim were battling to be the first in Orange County with an indoor sports arena. It was clear the county could support only one such building, and even that was not a certainty.

Santa Ana waited for a commitment from a team. Anaheim went ahead and signed a deal with investors under which they would pay for the building, the city would provide the land, and both would share in the revenue. Ground was broken in 1990, but it was not until 1992 that the Walt Disney Co. calmed the worries of arena backers.

Disney surprised just about everyone with the announcement that it would obtain a National Hockey League franchise and install the team it called the Mighty Ducks in the building it called The Pond.

The Ducks have been a box office smash, and better than expected on the ice, despite having a losing record.

But in the larger sense, they have underscored Anaheim’s identity as an entertainment center. Yes, the city does have industry. But Anaheim is best known for Disneyland, the Angels baseball team and, for now, the Rams football team, and the convention center. And those attractions support the businesses all over town.

Anaheim took a pretty risky gamble, but all’s well that ends well, even with a bit of good luck to help out. The trick is learning to manage the risks, which in this case Anaheim has done.