HONDA CENTER
STADIUM DUDE’S NHL ARENA RANK: #30
ARENA INFORMATION
- Location: Anaheim, California
- Opened 1993
- Capacity 17,174
- Games attended: 3
- Last visited: 2026
ARENA REVIEW
With the dark green accents, pink brick and beige marble floors, The Honda Center screams 1990’s luxury.
The Ducks are the classic suburban team playing in a classic suburban arena. Currently, it is surrounded by freeways and parking lots, making it a fairly easy place to get in and out of assuming you’re driving. For those staying nearby who want to get their drink on, there are some decent options in the arena area for pre-gaming, but (for now) most involve a 15-to-20-minute walk to the rink. This will change with the completion of the OCVIBE project which will add eateries, housing and entertainment venues to the area, but for now, it’s largely a get-in/get-out place.
Massive Change is Coming
The Honda Center is currently undergoing a $1 billion renovation which includes a new 5-story glass entrance, updated food and beverage concessions, redesigned restrooms, renovated suites, and perhaps most necessary, escalators that will take you up to the upper deck. As a dude with a bad knee that seems to get worse each day, it will be nice to avoid the stairs that are the current main mode of carriage between levels.
Even with the construction, the arena still looks bright and clean throughout. The concourses are wide, the HD scoreboard is a good size, a lot of HD Monitors pepper the arena, and new LED displays circle the bowls. There’s a wine cellar with 240 different wines accessible for fans seating on the Club Level, and some already-updated local concessions on the Upper Deck. Alas, the 15,000 square-foot indoor-outdoor Brewery X Biergarten and the large team store are victims of the massive renovation (technically, the team store has been relocated outside the arena to the nearby ARTIC train station, but that means you need to grab your gear pre-game.)
Perhaps as an olive branch to fans coming during this transition, the team is offering free parking in the nearby lots to any fans holding a ticket for that night’s game. (A nice touch, but I’m not sure it offsets the lack of amenities expected in a modern rink.)
I’ll give credit to one specific feature: the duck drone. During select stoppages in play, a large blimp-like duck “flies” through the seats, often dropping coupons and vouchers to lucky fans. While this isn’t the first time I’ve seen something like this, I’ve never seen one flap its “wings” before.
Chill Fans
Fans are jovial but lack the intensity seen in other hockey markets. Perhaps they’ve were spoiled by all those years of Ducks’ success and are not used to the “hard times”. Or perhaps they’re just chill Southern Californians used to wonderful weather who feel little need to act like a maniac in a cold arena. Regardless, you’ll feel a real laid back crowd here. It’s the most “Californian vibe” of the three rinks in the state.
You could probably bring your kids without fear they’ll hear something you wish they didn’t. With a combination of palm trees and hockey, “Pleasant” is the best word I can use to describe a game here.
In Conclusion…
I’m sure once the changes are done, this place will elevate in the rankings. But for now, it feels like you’re not getting the full experience. Instead, you’re in a nice-but-dated arena with a lot of areas blocked off for construction.
