U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : NOTEBOOK

If you walked into Pauley Pavilion to watch basketball during the U.S. Olympic Festival, you had no trouble finding a seat. Same story at the boxing and figure skating venues.

Small crowds at those popular events appear to answer the question whether or not the festival could play in Los Angeles.

But officials with the local organizing committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee are quick to point out the festival is playing pretty well.

Through the first four days of competition, plus opening ceremony, attendance in Los Angeles totaled 112,535.

Mike Moran, director of media services for the USOC, said the early boxing crowds--6,800 attended Tuesday night’s finals--and most of the figure skating crowds were a disappointment. But he said attendance was good at several venues.

Robert J. Kane, who founded the festival while he was USOC president in the late 1970s, says the focus on attendance is being overdone, but also admits he was among those who had misgivings about bringing the festival to Los Angeles.

“Los Angeles just has too many things,” he said, “and as much as I love the festival, I didn’t think the focus was going to be on it here.”

Moran: “Possibly in an area like Los Angeles, the amount of budget needed to put this event into the ‘winner’s circle’ in terms of recognizability in an area of 14 million people . . . would be astronomical.”

Recent festivals have been buoyed by the opening and closing ceremonies, but the 26,500 at Dodger Stadium for this opener was the smallest crowd since 1981.

Attendance this year has been of particular interest for two reasons. This is the first of the 11 festivals to be held in such a large city. Also, Primrose-Smith disclosed before the festival that the organizing committee had secured short-term “bridge” loans totaling $1 million to ensure that bills would be paid at all venues.

The loans are to be repaid with ticket revenue. Primrose-Smith, who expected strong walk-up sales, said about $3.5 million in ticket sales would be needed to break even.

She contends too much is being made of the day-to-day numbers, and said the final figures will tell the story.