Arena Wants to Be a Contender : Boxing: Anaheim’s new facility hoping to prove that live boxing shows can work in Orange County.

Hit hard by a depressed economy, a shrinking number of marquee attractions and the rising success of pay-per-view television, the popularity of live boxing events these days appears to be about as healthy as President Clinton’s.

Consider events of the last two months:

--Madison Square Garden, once a mecca for the sport, recently announced it is temporarily discontinuing its shows.

--George Foreman and Tommy Morrison, two of the bigger names in boxing, didn’t fill half of Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center, which seats 18,500.

--Heavyweight champion Riddock Bowe and journeyman Jessie Ferguson drew fewer than 9,000 in Washington’s RFK Stadium.

So why is Brad Mayne, general manager of the Anaheim Arena, considering staging as many as eight boxing shows a year in the complex, which could seat a little more than 19,000 for cards?

“This building has been built for entertainment and sports,” Mayne said. “Boxing just makes a lot of sense.

“Between Orange County and Riverside, there is almost (four) million people. We think we have a lot of boxing fans out there.”

They might be out there, but lately they’ve been staying home and watching their sport on television. Richard DeCuir, executive officer of the State Athletic Commission, said boxing shows haven’t decreased, but attendance has. He said attendance in California has dropped from 225,000 to 144,000 in the last two years, while the number of shows has remained at about 100 per year.

For now, Mayne says he’s simply studying the economic feasibility of staging live shows by year’s end.

“We’re looking at how many people we have to bring in here to break even and what we would have to charge,” Mayne said.

He hasn’t worked out any exact figures, but Mayne said he would charge fans more than $20 for a general admission ticket. Tickets for Saturday’s Terry Norris-Troy Waters card at the San Diego Sports Arena range from $400 for ringside to $15 for general admission.

The most important question Mayne must answer is, who will promote the bouts?

Tim Orchard, national marketing director for Ogden Entertainment Services, the company that manages Anaheim Arena and the Forum, is handling that issue for Mayne. Orchard has spoken with several promoters but hasn’t received any proposals.

“We’re researching this,” Orchard said. “We’re wondering if three cities (Los Angeles, San Diego and Anaheim) in close proximity can all support boxing.”

Orchard said he has his doubts.

“Boxing is not a live event these days,” he said. “It’s all run by cable and pay-per-view. No one sustains themselves in boxing with a live gate. It’s really driven by TV.”

Promoter Dan Goossen sustained himself for 10 years with monthly shows in Reseda. But two months ago, he put on his last show. Goossen said patience and money will be the keys to success in Anaheim.

“The timing is not right to open your arms to the boxing world,” Goossen said. “You need money behind you to get something like that to work.”

The money could come from Top Rank Inc. or Forum Boxing. Orchard is scheduled to meet on Friday with John Jackson, vice president of Forum Boxing.

Orchard said he also has spoken to Arena Boxing’s Scott Woodworth, who co-promotes with Bob Arum of Top Rank on San Diego Sports Arena cards, about promoting fight cards at the Anaheim Arena.

Top Rank’s lure is an ESPN-TV contract and the promotional rights to Olympic gold medalist Oscar de la Hoya. Orchard said Forum Boxing’s main selling point is its reputation for putting on complete events.

“The Forum is basically boxing-in-a-can,” Orchard said. “They’ll supply the boxers, the ring, the officials, the match-maker, everything. All we would have to do is host the event.”

Said Jackson: “Boxing is not an easy show to manage. If I were the owners of the Anaheim Arena, I would trust that we’re going to run quality shows. That’s our MO.”

Jackson said the Forum has been averaging crowds of 6,000 for its bimonthly shows. The San Diego Sports Arena, where Woodworth and Arum are the promoters, has been averaging about 2,000 for its eight shows a year.

Jackson said he won’t make any predictions on Anaheim’s crowds.

“I’m not saying it’s going to sell out the arena, but it could work,” he said. “We’re not going to do it unless it makes money.”

Don Fraser made money promoting cards at the Irvine Marriott for five years, regularly selling out the 1,500-seat auditorium. He also promoted the only world championship fight in Orange County, a bantamweight bout at the Anaheim Convention Center in the early 1970s.

But Fraser stopped making money in his sixth year and sold the promotional rights in 1991.

“Expenses were going up and it was getting harder to get decent fighters,” said Fraser, who is retired and living in North Hollywood. “The recession started taking its toll. There was a just a lack of local talent.”

Things haven’t changed much in two years. Junior featherweight Rudy Zavala of Costa Mesa is the only Orange County fighter ranked in the top 10 by any of the three major boxing organizations. Which means, whoever promotes here will have to bring in name boxers from elsewhere.

Orchard said he would prefer that some of them are Hispanic.

“If we do it, we’d like to draw from the Hispanic community,” he said. “I think they are the strongest supporters of the sport right now and they have some of the best boxers.”

Since Hispanic boxers and their fans have helped sustain the Forum’s shows for years, Mayne said he would like to take advantage of that winning combination.

“Because we also manage the Forum, we’re looking at the possibility of bringing their fighters over here,” Mayne said. “That will help the Forum, too, because it would give their boxers more exposure.”

Orchard said he hopes another draw is the arena itself.

“The venue will have as much to do with the success as the event itself,” he said. “We want to capitalize on the novelty and then sustain it through good events and good services.”

Mayne is confident it can be sustained.

“If they can do it in San Diego and Los Angeles, there’s no reason we can’t do it here,” he said.

But Mayne said he’s also aware of Orange County’s history of never hosting a big-time prize fight.

“That’s true, but remember the fact that there’s never been the combination of promoter and venue in Orange County before.”