ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Nice Arena--but What About a Team?

Anaheim, the host city for Disneyland, has been doing a little wishing upon a star of its own--hoping to build the first indoor sports arena in Orange County. The dream now seems quite close to coming true. The city has accepted the $60.55-million bid submitted by HuntCor Inc. of Phoenix, a sports-facilities builder with a generally strong record, to build its 19,200-seat complex.

HuntCor’s sound track record is based on work on nationally known projects such as the Superdome in New Orleans, Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis and others. Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter, an enthusiastic cheerleader, has some justifiable grounds for optimism now based on the reputation of the developer for successfully bringing in good projects.

A year ago, both Anaheim and Santa Ana were locked in a fierce contest to be the first to build an arena in a county where everybody agrees that only one can survive. But after both cities raced to the starting line, Anaheim now has managed to break ground and sell $103 million worth of bonds to cover construction costs. Santa Ana, meanwhile, has a private developer trying to sell luxury suites with the idea that the team must come first; then the building. It’s pretty clear at this point that Anaheim is out in front, largely on the basis of its bold strategy of building first and then bringing home the franchises.

But therein lies the rub. Is this a classic case of putting the proverbial cart before the horse? Does the building drive the franchises, or the franchises the building? Those are important questions for both cities. And they will not really be resolved until Anaheim, first in with the developer and the bulldozers, proves whether or not it can bring in teams. It still must reckon with the issue of what happens if they build a stadium and nobody comes to play.

And Anaheim is into this project for some substantial financial commitments. It has an operator for the facility, Ogden Corp., but the city is down for a substantial infusion of municipal funds in an amount that will depend on how successful the project turns out to be.

Construction is supposed to start next month, and there are plans to begin marketing luxury boxes in August. Now that a solid developer is on the case, the dream is looking more and more like reality. But something is still missing in the picture. Where’s the team?