U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : Attendance Figures Causing Problems : Information: USOC ‘very disappointed’ at Festival’s inability to provide accurate crowd counts.

The U.S. Olympic Committee is “very disappointed” with the Olympic Festival organizer’s inability to provide accurate attendance figures, a spokesman said Sunday. Spokesman Mike Moran said that Sheila Walker, the USOC’s Director of Olympic Festivals and Competitions would meet with Festival Director Elizabeth Primrose-Smith today to discuss the problem.

As the Festival moved into its second day organizers were scurrying to come up with figures for Saturday’s events. By Sunday night, some numbers were provided, but were based on estimates rather than actual ticket counts.

Moran said there was concern about the situation, saying he could remember only one other city--Baton Rouge, La.--out of the 11 that have hosted the event where attendance figures were a problem.

According to “projected attendance” figures from Saturday, total attendance for the first day was 20,000 for the day’s 15 events. The boxing competition, expected to be a big draw, drew an estimated 1,300--well short of the capacity of 4,250 at Gersten Pavilion. Another sport that was down on Saturday was figure skating, always a brisk ticket seller. The afternoon session drew 2,650 and the evening session 1,750 to the 15,000-seat Forum.

“We are very surprised about the boxing figures,” Moran said. “It’s really disappointing. This is our strongest team in the Festival and there are local favorites boxing. The figure skating numbers are the lowest in the history of the Festival.”

Moran said that swimming, softball and rhythmic gymnastics were drawing well.

On Sunday night figures were provided for some of the events but the numbers were arrived at by a combination of advance ticket sales and crowd estimates.

“We’re still working out the kinks,” said Festival spokesman Jim Goyer.

Ticket sales are of great interest to both the organizers of the event as well as the USOC. Primrose-Smith has said the event needs to realize $3.4 million from ticket sales in order to break even. The USOC also has a stake in the matter, having loaned the Festival organizing committee $300,000 to meet expenses.

Attendance from Sunday’s events appeared to be in line with Saturday’s estimates. Basketball at UCLA’s 12,000-seat Pauley Pavilion was not a good draw, with 950 reported at the noon session and 1,000 at the evening session. Figure skating figures were unavailable. Swimming was near capacity at the McDonald’s Swim Center at USC with an estimated 2,200 fans at Sunday’s session. Soccer was disappointing, drawing only 600 to El Camino College’s 12,000-seat stadium.

According to the Festival’s figures, field hockey has drawn crowds beyond expectations, and, apparently, even well beyond the capacity of the field at Loyola Marymount University. Festival organizers report that 500 fans showed up for Sunday’s 8:30 a.m. matches, at a field that lists a 180-person capacity.