Honda Center

Honda Center (formerly known as the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim) is an indoor arena located in Anaheim, California. The arena is home to the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League. It was finished in the year 1993 as the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

Originally named the Anaheim Arena during construction, it was completed in 1993 at a cost of US$123 million. Locally based Arrowhead Water paid $15 million for the naming rights over 10 years in October 1993. In the short period of time after the Mighty Ducks franchise was awarded and before the naming rights deal with Arrowhead, Disney referred to the Arena as the Pond of Anaheim. In October 2006, Honda, whose American headquarters are based in Torrance, paid $60 million for the naming rights over 15 years, and renewed the deal for another decade in 2020.

The idea for a large indoor arena in Anaheim emerged from entertainment attorney Neil Papiano, who in 1987 randomly selected two of the city's councilmen from the telephone directory to sell them his idea. They approved of the concept, and one year later following location surveys, the placement was chosen at a seven-acre parcel at Douglass Road and Katella Avenue, that at the time was owned by the German social group Phoenix Club. Papiano also managed to get financial backing from two New York-based firms, Ogden Corporation and Nederlander Organization. Even if there was a dispute to build an arena in Orange County with a Santa Ana project led by Spectacor, and there were discussions of feasibility of the arena given the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League were at the time unwilling to expand to the area, the city of Anaheim pushed forward to build the Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Inc.-designed arena, which broke ground in November 1990. A tenant was finally found in 1992, as The Walt Disney Company had just been awarded an NHL franchise for Anaheim, entering negotiations to lease the arena. Once the deal was broken, the arena's final cost ended at $121 million, as $18 million were added to finance hockey franchise fees and facility improvement.

The arena opened on June 19, 1993, with a Barry Manilow concert as its first event. The then-Arrowhead Pond's first NHL game was also the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim season opener on October 8, 1993, against the Detroit Red Wings, preceded by a 20-minute pregame show at the cost of $450,000. The Ducks lost 7–2. Since then, the arena 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 five of the Final at Honda Center to clinch the franchise's first Stanley Cup championship.

Honda Center has hosted several UFC events, starting with UFC 59 in 2006. It hosted the 2005 IBF World Championships for badminton in 2005.

From 1994 to 1999, 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 1994 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 Wooden Legacy basketball tournament. In April 2000, it played host to the WWE's 16th annual WrestleMania supercard event.

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 seven times, as the West Regional site – 1998, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2019. 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.