Seeking a Fair NBA Deal

Anaheim’s always-fluid combination of sports and entertainment attractions has become a bit more interesting with the recent courting of a National Basketball Assn. franchise for the Pond. It could add a promising new attraction to the mix in Orange County.

A few things must happen. The Walt Disney Co., which already has the Mighty Ducks hockey team in house, will have to accept some modification in its lucrative deal with the arena; it says it’s willing to do that. The city of Anaheim will have to be sure it obtains a community benefit if it agrees to pay for a training facility for the Vancouver Grizzlies basketball team. The Grizzlies must pick Anaheim over other suitors.

Pro basketball has been the missing guest at the party ever since the Pond was constructed during the 1990s. The price for not securing an NBA team in addition to the hockey team has been that the city has had to pay annual contributions to help subsidize losses.

So the question always has been, how does the city make the Pond a true asset for the long term? The attraction for Michael Heisley, owner of the financially troubled Grizzlies, centers on the value of Southern California as a sports center. There is money to be made here. For example, although his club would be the third NBA team in the area, there still could be more revenue in broadcast rights than he would get in Louisville, New Orleans, Las Vegas or Memphis.

Disney has made no secret that its investment in sports in Anaheim has been a way of securing the area as an entertainment draw for its theme parks. If it decides to sell the Mighty Ducks, it would have a potential buyer already in the building.

There was a time when it appeared Anaheim might really be out on a limb because Disney entered with hockey at a time when there were no tenants for the Pond. Now the city will need to be sure that the community gets to use any publicly financed training facility and that a thorough public discussion comes first.