When she first took the job as a ticket taker/usher at the still-under-construction arena off the 57 Freeway and Katella Avenue in Anaheim in 1993, Orange County resident Robin San Roman told herself that it would only be a temporary gig to make some extra money that summer.
She was already working full-time as an instructional assistant for a nearby college district and since she had summers off, she figured “Why not?”
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“I drove by and saw this really cool building being built and I was like ‘What is that?’” she recalled during a recent interview inside that very building, which is now the Honda Center. “I did some research and I found out what it was going to be and I thought ‘Wow, that seems like it would be a lot of fun.’ I told myself I’d do it for one month. That was my plan. Now here we are, 30 years later.”
Honda Center, first known as the Anaheim Arena and then The Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, officially opened its doors on June 17, 1993. San Roman said she became addicted to being an usher because of all the cool concerts she was able to see, but the arena was also designed to be home to a new NHL hockey team, the Anaheim Ducks.
“I knew nothing about hockey, but I was curious and wanted to stick around to see what it was all about,” she said. On October 8, 1993, the Ducks, then known as The Mighty Ducks, played the Detroit Red Wings in their very first game at the venue.
San Roman was hooked.
“I fell head over heels in love with ice hockey and that’s what has kept me here for 30 years,” she said. “I love hockey, I love my Ducks, that is my team. This place, Honda Center, it’s a special place to me. It feels like home to me.”
Of course, San Roman said she enjoys he perks of being an usher, which includes interacting with regular season ticketholders and concert fans, as well as being able to see thousands of concerts during her part-time shifts. She’s gotten to see the Rolling Stones, Andrea Bocelli, the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, among many other acts.
“I couldn’t believe I was even in the same building as Paul McCartney,” she said of the famous former Beatle stopping by. “We could hear him warming up while we were in the locker rooms and then we heard him say to his band with his English accent, ‘OK, let’s open the doors and let ’em in.’ It was amazing.”
She also considers herself lucky because she’s been able to see artists that she normally would have never heard of, including some up-and-coming K-pop groups and several Latin acts.
“Pepe Aguilar. I love him, he’s amazing,” she said of the American-born Mexican singer-songwriter, who has performed at the venue numerous times and will be back this year for two shows in September. “He comes in on these beautiful horses and I just loved it. I don’t think I would have ever bought a ticket for something like that before, but now I would. I’d pay to see him.”
She’s not the only employee at the venue that has been there since the beginning.
Quinn Mackin, vice president and assistant general manager of Honda Center and OCVibe, was first brought on as the venue event manager. He said there are dozens of staff members that have been on board since the start.
“We’ve seen so many life events together,” he said. “We’ve seen people get married, buy their first homes, have kids and then send those kids off to college.”
Like Mackin and San Roman, for Dion Beckton, vice president of operations at Honda Center and OCVibe, his favorite moment in the 30-year history of the venue is when the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007.
“I’m sure probably everybody who was here will say that was their favorite moment, but it was electric,” he said. Beckton started working in event setup at the venue in 1993. “The building was electric, the fans were energized and we had an outstanding team on the ice at that time. It was an amazing thing to be a part of on the interior of the building, but on the exterior there were fans everywhere and it was a big moment I’ll never forget.”
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Facilities manager Joe Barrett is another 30-year full-time staff member who worked his way up from where he started as an usher. The Riverside County native was able to quit at least one of his many side jobs as a cab driver to take up part-time usher work. He was only in that first position for a few months before he started working full-time in maintenance.
“That was the first job that I ever had — and I had a lot of jobs, I started working here when I was 34 — but this was the first job in my life where I found a place where it felt like a family love. Like my boss was concerned for me and my family and made my family a priority. I felt a real loyalty not only to him, but from him to me, so I’ve always loved my job here.”
Though he’s worked his way up the corporate ladder, Barrett said he looks back fondly on the early days and he has a lot of fun stories to pass on to friends and family. One day in 1996, he was working on something that was needed for the set-up for a huge concert event in his maintenance shop when an unexpected visitor stopped by.
“This fella comes walking in with a baseball cap on and a bag with baseball bats and gear and he asked if I knew of a park nearby with a baseball field because they wanted to play a pickup game of softball,” he recalled. “So I told him there was one nearby and he asked if I wanted to join them. I said ‘Well, Garth, I’d like to go but I’ve kinda gotta finish this thing for the show, but I appreciate the invitation.’ So I was invited to play softball with Garth Brooks.”
Then there’s the time he got a private concert during one of the Rolling Stones’ stops at the venue.
“They were having a closed rehearsal, but the stage manager asked me to come in and mop this part of the floor in the pit while the Rolling Stones were on stage,” he said. “I was the only one in the bowl and I was kinda dancing a little with my mop and the whole band was looking at me. That was awesome.”
For Santa Ana resident Janine Kammeyer, who is a part-time ticket taker located at the east entrance of the venue, she just likes chatting with fans.
“I have my season ticketholders, and I call them my season ticketholders because they always come through my door and we talk as they come through,” she said. “I always like working things like Disney on Ice because I like to see the families and the little kids coming dressed up as princesses.”
She said she’s stuck with the gig for three decades because it’s part-time work that’s not every night and weekend.
“I’m at the doors, so I don’t get to see everything, but I can hear it and if I do want to see it, I’ll request to be an usher that evening,” she said.
She doesn’t make the request very often, but she was sure to put her name in when singer, actress and comedian Bette Midler came to town.
“I remember that because it’s when she was doing the mermaid scene with the wheel chair,” she recalled. “We’ve had some great, great artists come through, like Cher, too.”
She also remembers the often talked about Jet Jam. It was a professional jet ski race and water stunt event that took place in 1996 and 1997, for which the venue filled up the adjacent Santa Ana Riverbed with 20 million gallons of water and hosted its first outdoor/indoor events.
“Jet Jam was wild,” Kammeyer said. “It was crazy but such a fun, fun event.”
