ANAHEIM : 300 Attend Official Opening of Arena

It was a day for boasting by city officials, as the Anaheim Arena was officially opened Thursday in a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by about 300 people.

It took several cuts with a pair of oversize scissors for Mayor Tom Daly and R. Richard Ablon, president of Ogden Corp., the arena’s management company, to break through the ribbon. The ribbon-cutting coincided with the popping of confetti rockets that launched streamers skyward.

Many of the speakers took shots at those who said the arena would never be built and, if it was, it would never house a professional sports team. The 19,500-seat arena was officially completed Tuesday and will be the home of a new National Hockey League team--the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The arena project cost $121 million.

A free open house is being held today from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. KLOS-FM radio personalities Mark and Brian will broadcast from the arena. The first event, scheduled for Saturday, is a concert by singer Barry Manilow. The arena is on Katella Avenue at the Orange Freeway.

“This city has never had a string of failures, only a string of successes,” Councilman Bob D. Simpson said. “I wasn’t here, but I’m sure Disneyland had its detractors. I know the stadium had its detractor . . . I hope the critics have been silenced and the naysayers as well.”

Councilman Fred Hunter, who originally pushed the project, remembered a lunch six years ago with then-Councilman William D. Ehrle and Neil Papiano, an attorney who came up with the arena concept and who is one of the arena’s investors. It was then that the idea of the arena was first discussed.

“It was Sept. 17, 1987,” Hunter said. “When we left that lunch we had a dream of a world-class arena, and that dream is now a reality. . . . I feel vindicated. I’ve taken a lot of guff for six years.”

Daly said that as a 12-year-old boy he attended the dedication of Anaheim Stadium, and Thursday’s ceremony brought back memories.

“I remember the awe I felt as city leaders unveiled that beautiful building across the street that has become such a landmark,” he said. “Today we dedicate a building that will one day be as much of a landmark and a source of revenue.”

Throughout the ceremony, about 50 members of Local 504 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees were present in the perimeter of the arena. They were peacefully protesting the arena’s hiring of non-union stagehands.

Daniel Hix, the local’s assistant business manager, said the picketers will be at every arena event until Ogden agrees to hire the union’s members.

Brad E. Mayne, the arena’s general manager, said, however, that Ogden has signed a five-year contract with a non-union subcontractor to provide stagehands for arena events and that it cannot be broken.