Arrowhead Pond Of Anaheim

The Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim continues to climb the Billboard charts. The city-owned arena, fourth in last year's rankings, trailed only the Sydney Superdome in Australia and Madison Square Garden in New York in ticket sales for concerts and family events worldwide last year. It marks quite a turnaround for a building that was mired in debt over its first decade and didn't appear in Billboard's top-10 ranking of arenas until 2004.

Only weeks after state authorities sanctioned mixed martial arts fights in California, the sport's leading U.S. brand on Monday announced plans for an April 15 card at the Arrowhead Pond. The Ultimate Fighting Championship program marks the first of a series of big-ticket events in California, UFC president Dana White said. "This is very important for us," White said. "The hotbed of MMA has always been California." Rules sanctioning MMA events in California took effect Dec. 28.

The Ducks might not play at the Pond next season. They're not moving, but a name change for the arena could accompany the name change for the team and new logos, colors and uniforms. The sponsorship agreement between Arrowhead and the Pond expires Sept. 30. If Arrowhead does not sign a new deal for naming rights, a new corporate partner could drop "Pond" from the name of the arena.

Ducks on the Pond? No more. The Ducks now play at the Honda Center, not the Arrowhead Pond. Honda agreed to pay $60 million over 15 years for the right to slap its name on the Anaheim arena, a source familiar with the negotiations said Wednesday. The annual value of the deal, which includes advertising within the arena and on Ducks broadcasts, starts at $3.25 million and rises thereafter. If an NBA team moves into the arena, Honda would pay more.

If the National Hockey League lockout lasts the entire season, the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim will lose millions of dollars in income from 45 canceled Mighty Ducks games. But these are hardly dark days for the 11-year-old, city-owned arena that spent its first decade swimming in debt. The 19,000-seat facility is finally approaching profitability after completing a record-breaking year for concerts and gross ticket revenue.

Howard Baldwin and officials from the Arrowhead Pond met Wednesday to discuss a possible partnership should Baldwin buy the Mighty Ducks, a source familiar with the sale of the team said. The discussion included the possibility of Broadcom Chairman Henry Samueli, whose company runs the Pond for the City of Anaheim, joining the group that is attempting to purchase the Ducks from the Walt Disney Co. Baldwin's group has made a $50-million offer for the team.

If there are ghosts that haunt the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim at night, they are these men, 25 in all. While the rest of the world is sleeping, the men -- they call themselves the "conversion crew" -- transform the arena into a hockey rink or a basketball court, rodeo grounds or a concert hall, all in the span of a single work shift.

Hoping to cultivate a receptive audience next month at the World Gymnastics Championships and rekindle fond memories of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, USA Gymnastics officials Wednesday awarded the 2004 U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials to the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. That gives the arena the distinction of playing host to two major gymnastics championships in less than a year. The World Championships will be held at the Pond Aug.

With an eye on expanding the sport's appeal in the United States, the International Badminton Federation on Monday selected the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim to play host to the 2005 world championships. The facility is already host of the world gymnastics championships in August and the U.S. national gymnastics team trials in 2004. The announcement was made at this year's world championships in Birmingham, England. Only once has the event taken place in North America, when Canada was host in 1985.