The district will be fully operational by the 2028 LA Summer Olympics opening ceremonies.
At one time, Anaheim, California was a quiet town that featured orange groves and was best known for being part of a joke on the very popular radio show of its time, The Jack Benny Program during the 1930s and 1940s. “Train leaving on Track 5 for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga!” The joke brought Anaheim publicity, eventually Walt Disney and Paramount worked out a deal which saw an amusement park open in the city in 1955. Major League Baseball moved to town in 1966. Based on the popularity of a movie, The Mighty Ducks, the Walt Disney Company got an NHL expansion franchise in the city’s new arena in 1993. The city’s arena is now 29 years old which in the world of stadiums and arenas means it is a senior citizen. The arena will get a facelift and the building will also get new neighbors as it is no longer enough for sports owners just to sell a game. There needs to be an arena-village complete with an entertainment zone.
In Anaheim, Ducks ownership plans an entertainment district that will be called ocVibe. It will be spread over 100 acres of land by the arena and district will include a 5,700-seat concert hall, new housing, a 50,000-square-foot food hall, acres of public park space, dozens of restaurants and retail, two new resorts, and an office tower. The price tag will be around $4 billion for the construction. The entertainment district is not far from Disneyland which means Disney might be fine with the district. Disney calls a lot of shots politically in Anaheim. ocVibe CEO Bill Foltz said, “Our ambition is for ocV!BE to be the social and entertainment center of Orange County and Southern California.” The plan is to have the district open in time for the 2028 LA Olympics which is a 25-mile trip from Anaheim.
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