SOCCER CONCACAF GOLD CUP : It’s Hard Sell, but Blackout Might Empty Easy Chairs
Responding to an appeal by promoters concerned about lagging ticket sales, the Galavision television network of Mexico City agreed Tuesday to pull the plug on live telecasts into the Los Angeles area of soccer’s Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean Assn. Football (CONCACAF) Gold Cup.
Dick Jolliffe, general manager of Galavision’s local affiliate, KWHY-TV (Channel 22), said that the tournament’s remaining eight games today, Friday and Sunday at the Coliseum will be televised the next day on tape delay.
Announced attendance for the tournament’s first eight games was 42,950, an average of 10,225 for four two-game sessions at the Coliseum and Rose Bowl. But sources said the official attendance figure for the first session last Friday was inflated by more than 5,000.
“Live television was killing us,” said Henry Sroka, one of the tournament’s organizers. “Why should people pay to see games in person when they can see them live on television? Channel 22 bought bigger ads to advertise their coverage of the games than CONCACAF did to promote them.”
Sroka said tournament officials were not aware until a few days before the opening session that games would be televised live in Los Angeles. “In Mexico, games are shown live and people still go to the games,” he said. “(Galavision) just didn’t understand the market here. This is the reason the NFL has blackouts for games that aren’t sellouts.”
Chuck Blazer, CONCACAF general secretary, said other factors have affected attendance, among them the absence of name identification for the event among soccer fans.
“Like any other new event, this has to have a history before it gains any measure of attendance,” he said.
He also said that Los Angeles’ Mexican-American population, the largest target group for soccer promoters, was too sophisticated in its knowledge of the sport to buy tickets for Mexico’s first two games against Jamaica and Canada.
“With Mexico as a favorite, I think the Mexican-Americans have decided to wait and see the team in the semifinals and finals,” he said. “Until now, they’ve been able to watch the games on TV. They’re waiting until later to see the games in person.”
In a further effort to boost attendance, Blazer said children 14 and under will be admitted free.
Four games are scheduled for today at the Coliseum; Jamaica vs. Canada at 2:30 p.m., Trinidad and Tobago vs. Guatemala at 4:30, United States vs. Costa Rica at 6:30, and Mexico vs. Honduras at 8:30. Mexico and Honduras already have qualified for Friday’s semifinals, and the third undefeated team, the United States, needs only a tie today to guarantee its advance.
When the tournament was awarded Los Angeles, Chuck Cale, co-chairman of the 1994 World Cup organizing committee, said that its success or failure would serve as a litmus test for the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl in their efforts to bring World Cup games to Southern California. He backed away from that stance last week.
“This is not a local promotion, it’s a CONCACAF tournament,” he said. “It’s a difficult time because summer vacations have started, and there hasn’t been a lot of time to get the word out about the tournament.”
Regardless of attendance, Blazer said he considers the tournament a success.
“We’d like to have more attendance . . . but this is really a television event,” he said. “We’ve got 20 million people watching on television throughout the region. It’s the most attention ever focused on CONCACAF.”
Times staff writer Julie Cart contributed to this story.
