History
The arena opened on June 19, 1993, with a Barry Manilow concert as its first event. Since then, it has been host to a number of events, such as the 2003 and 2007 Stanley Cup Finals. On June 6, 2007, the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Ottawa Senators, 6–2, in Game 5 of the Finals at Honda Center to clinch the franchise's first-ever Stanley Cup championship. The Ducks have never lost a Finals game played at the arena.
Various World Wrestling Entertainment major events have been held at the venue such as WrestleMania XII and WrestleMania 2000 (XVI), and the Royal Rumble in 1999. UFC 59, UFC 63, and UFC 76, UFC 121 have been at Honda Center and with UFC on FOX next as well. It hosted the 2005 IBF World Championships for badminton in 2005.
From 1994 to 1998, it served as a second home for the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers. It was the home arena for the Anaheim Bullfrogs of Roller Hockey International from 1993 to 1999 and for the Anaheim Piranhas of the Arena Football League from 1996 to 1997. This arena has also hosted a PBR Bud Light Cup (later Built Ford Tough Series) event annually since 1998. Since 1994, the arena has hosted the annual John R. Wooden Classic. In 2011, the arena began hosting the Big West Conference Men's and Women's Basketball tournaments. The arena has also hosted the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament five times, as the West Regional site - 1998, 2001, 2003, 2008, and 2011. It even hosted the Frozen Four, the semifinals and final of the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship, in 1999, underscoring the popularity of hockey in the region. On December 6, 2000, music legend Tina Turner played her last concert at the arena for the record breaking Twenty Four Seven Tour, but after popular demand, Turner returned to the arena before a sellout crowd on October 14, 2008, for her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour.
The Honda Center lies northeast across California State Route 57 from Angel Stadium (where Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim play) and roughly 3 miles (4.8 km) from Disneyland Park. It is also walkable from Amtrak and Metrolink's Anaheim station, which is located on Angel Stadium's parking lot.
The arena seats up 17,174 for its primary tenant, the Ducks. It takes only five hours to convert Honda Center from a sporting arena to an 8,400-seat amphitheater. There are 84 luxury suites in the building, which has hosted 17.5 million people, as of 2003. In 2005, the arena became the first in the U.S. to have two full levels of 360-degree ribbon displays installed. Daktronics out of Brookings, South Dakota designed, manufactured and installed the 1,800 feet (550 m) of full-color LED technology. Outside the venue, the marquee was upgraded with two large video displays measuring 8 feet (2.4 m) high by 21 feet (6.4 m), and a new marquee was built with more LED video displays.
Broadcom chairman and billionaire, Henry Samueli, owns the company that operates the arena, Anaheim Arena Management, LLC, and the arena's primary tenant, the Ducks, giving him great flexibility in scheduling events and recruiting new tenants. Samueli hopes to bring an NBA franchise to the arena, and the Sacramento Kings have expressed an interest in relocating to Anaheim from their current stadium, Power Balance Pavilion (formerly ARCO Arena). On March 3, 2011 a lawyer representing the Maloof brothers, owners of the Kings, filed applications to trademark possible names for a new basketball team at the Honda Center, including the Anaheim Royals, Los Angeles Royals, Orange County Royals, and Anaheim Royals of Southern California. The Maloof brothers had until May 2, 2011 to file paperwork officially requesting a relocation to the Honda Center, but the brothers decided to keep the team in Sacramento for the 2011–12 season. On March 7, 2012, the city of Sacramento, the NBA, and the Kings organization initially reached an agreement on a $391 million arena deal which would have kept the Kings in Sacramento; however, one month later, the Maloof family backed out of the agreement, reviving rumors regarding potential relocation.
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