Rivalry Heats up in Local Convention Game

Perhaps the most heated rivalry between Los Angeles and Anaheim isn’t in baseball or hockey. It’s in convention business. And this week, the advantage falls to Anaheim. With Thursday’s opening of the four-day National Assn. of Music Merchants trade show, Anaheim steals away from Los Angeles a massive, and lucrative, conference that had been one of the mainstays of L.A.’s January convention schedule for several years. Los Angeles convention officials now must grit their teeth and watch as 62,000 music-product merchants, instrument manufacturers, distributors and sales agents bypass downtown to gather at the newly expanded and refurbished Anaheim Convention Center. Competition between the convention facilities is expected to grow even more fierce once Disneyland opens its 55-acre California Adventure theme park next month.