Pond Owners Talk With Rockets About Moving Team to Anaheim

The operators of the Arrowhead Pond have held preliminary talks with the Houston Rockets about moving the NBA team to Anaheim, Mayor Tom Daly said Tuesday.

The Rockets’ lease at the Compaq Center expires in 2003. NBA Commissioner David Stern has said the team would leave Houston if the city and team cannot agree on a new arena.

Houston voters rejected a financing proposal for a new arena last November. The Rockets have since proceeded on dual tracks, negotiating a revised plan with local officials while talking with other cities interested in the team.

Baltimore and Las Vegas officials have courted the Rockets, but neither city has a new arena. Since Daly confirmed Anaheim’s interest in the Rockets last month, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley said the city cannot afford to build an arena. In addition, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he postponed a meeting with an unnamed NBA owner--believed to be the Rockets’ Leslie Alexander--pending a study about how the city might pay for a new arena and whether non-NBA events there would harm similar venues at local hotels.

Tim Ryan, the general manager of the Pond, had no comment. George Postolos, the chief operating officer of the Rockets, did not return calls Tuesday.