When Being a Couch Potato Hurts Southern California’s Reputation : Athletics: If spectators fail to turn out for Olympics Festival ‘91, are promoters going to be eager to stage future events in the Southland?

There was high drama at Dodger Stadium when Orel Hershiser returned to pitch late last month after recuperating from shoulder surgery. But the crowd of 39,127 was hardly one of the biggest of the year. In fact, it wasn’t as big as the Dodgers’ average of 40,724.

Three years earlier, take another scene--bottom of the ninth inning of the first game of the 1988 World Series. Kirk Gibson at bat. I distinctly remember looking around just before he hit the ball out in one of the most celebrated home runs of Dodger or World Series history. Many of the spectators in our section had already left for home.

It seems that it is taking more and more not only to get us to events, but also to keep us there. It’s not a happy trend.

And if one of Los Angeles’ legendary professional-sports franchises can’t draw or hold capacity crowds even in its greatest moments--despite its strong overall attendance through the years--what chance does the U.S. Olympic Festival ’91 have when it debuts in the city July 12 for a 10-day run?

It isn’t surprising that the Los Angeles market is tough to crack. International champions in various sports cause scarcely a ripple when they compete here at individual meets. The Raiders, the Kings, the Clippers all struggle for attention and are frequently unhappy with the amount they get.

So how can we have much hope for the Olympic Festival? And, some might ask, why should we care?

We should care, and not only because the festival offers what we have come to associate most with the world Olympic movement: youth and excellence. There will be competition in 37 different sports, all geared toward developing American athletes to compete in the 1992 summer and winter Olympics or other international competition.

There is a long tradition in Southern California of devotion to sports in general and to the Olympic movement in particular. The 1932 Olympic Games marked a coming of age for the city; the 1984 games showed off its organizational talents. A good time was had by nearly all after years of false predictions of all kinds of trouble. Los Angeles’ reputation was enhanced over the long term, which is far more important than any one-time economic benefit that may have been realized. And the Olympics probably contributed to international understanding, despite the Soviet-led boycott.

Now, however, we should think about the ultimate effects on our community of an apathy that seems to be spreading as we sit at home with our choice of 50 channels. Mike Moran, spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee, warned last week that Olympic authorities would be watching to see how well the festival does here.

“I assume that L.A. has an abiding interest in being an Olympic city again,” Moran declared. “Well, there’s been a change in the U.S. Olympic Committee. We’re a much better business organization now and very attentive to the kind of reception we’re getting in cities that court us now.”

Moran wondered aloud whether San Antonio, St. Louis and Denver, the sites of the 1993, 1994 and 1995 festivals, might be more enthusiastic about them than Los Angeles would be about its festival next month.

Pretty unkind of Moran to raise such points.

But while none of the summer Olympics have been held in the United States in any city other than Los Angeles since 1904, times are changing. An Olympics is scheduled for Atlanta in 1996. Under the rules, only one American city at a time can be chosen by the USOC to present an Olympic candidacy to the International Olympic Committee; other cities are waiting in the wings for the future--New York, Washington, Miami and the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

So, it is not a foregone conclusion, as Moran was suggesting, that Los Angeles, a few years after Atlanta, will become the next American host and the first city in the world to claim a third modern Olympic Games. A successful festival might help, and the value of enticing other sporting events short of the Olympics also should be taken into account.

“I understand the perception that this community is so sprawling it doesn’t warm up to events until the last moment. Maybe that’s what’s at work with the festival,” said David Simon, president of the Los Angeles Sports Council, the private group that solicits events ranging from world figure-skating championships to the Super Bowl.

“But if those we seek to attract see a well-run organization and a good turnout here, they will be encouraged to come, too.”

Simon believes that sports have major value for the city. “They bring spirit,” he asserted. “They are a rallying point for pride . . . . There are so many disparate communities in L.A., and sport is one thing that makes people come together and feel a common bond.”

The Los Angeles Olympic Festival, of course, is only one event. All these other developments will not rise or fall with it alone. USC, UCLA and the other colleges contribute to it. The Dodgers, the Lakers and other professional teams have vital roles too.

But the festival, organized by some who put on the 1984 Olympics and staffed by thousands of volunteers, as those games were, will be an important symbol of interest in amateur athletics in the Southland. As members of the community, we all have a stake in its success.