Honda Center

Honda Center (formerly known as the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Anaheim, California. The arena is home to the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League. For ice hockey games, the arena is referred to as “The Pond at Honda Center.” Originally named the Anaheim Arena during construction, it opened on June 17, 1993 at a cost of US$123 million. Locally based Arrowhead Water paid $15 million for the naming rights over 10 years in October 1993. In the short period of time after the Mighty Ducks franchise was awarded and before the naming rights deal with Arrowhead, Disney referred to the Arena as the Pond of Anaheim.

The idea for a large indoor arena in Anaheim emerged from entertainment attorney Neil Papiano, who in 1987 randomly selected two of the city's councilmen from the telephone directory to sell them his idea. They approved of the concept, and one year later following location surveys, the placement was chosen at a seven-acre parcel at Douglass Road and Katella Avenue, that at the time was owned by the German social group Phoenix Club. Papiano also managed to get financial backing from two New York-based firms, Ogden Corporation and Nederlander Organization. Even if there was a dispute to build an arena in Orange County with a Santa Ana project led by Spectacor, and there were discussions of feasibility of the arena given the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League were at the time unwilling to expand to the area, the city of Anaheim pushed forward to build the Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Inc.-designed arena, which broke ground in November 1990. A tenant was found in 1992, as the Walt Disney Company had just been awarded an NHL franchise for Anaheim, entering negotiations to lease the arena. Once the deal was broken, the arena's final cost ended at $121 million, as $18 million were added to finance hockey franchise fees and facility improvement. The arena opened on June 19, 1993, with a Barry Manilow concert as its first event.