Ram Fan Support Matches Expectations : Football: Despite complaints, history shows that attendance has been good when the team wins.

A phone call to the Rams’ Booster Club--the number is 4GO-RAMS--resulted in a somewhat surprising recording: We’re sorry, you have reached a number that is no longer in service . . .

The way the Rams have been driving fans away, there’s probably no need for a booster club hot line.

4GO-RAMS?

It should be FORGO-RAMS, because that’s what football fans have been doing this season in Anaheim.

The Rams are in danger of suffering their lowest average home attendance since moving from Los Angeles in 1980, and speculation that the team might move to Baltimore--along with comments by a team executive questioning fans’ loyalty--have brought fan-disenchantment levels to an all-time high.

“I can endure quarterback and coaching controversies and lean times if we have a goal to win,” said Bob Greathead, 48, an Anaheim Fire Dept. captain and five-year season-ticket holder.

“But as a 40-year Ram fan, my loyalty has been shaken because our executive vice president and owner are not being loyal to us. If they’re going to insult the fans, then our attitude is, ‘We’ll help you pack. Why don’t you leave?’ ”

The prospect of a fourth consecutive double-digit losing season has been frustrating enough, but what has really raised the ire of Ram followers is John Shaw, the team’s executive vice president.

In discussing a possible move, Shaw said Wednesday the Rams might have to “explore other opportunities” if it becomes “increasingly difficult to put a competitive team on the field for economic reasons.”

Shaw said the Rams’ gross receipts are among those at the bottom of the league. They have averaged an NFL-low 45,555 fans per home game this season, and if attendance continues to sag for the remaining four games, the Rams stand to lose some $3 million to $4 million at the gate. Shaw also questioned whether Los Angeles could support two pro football teams.

“We’re disappointed we can’t draw more fans in Anaheim,” Shaw said in an Oct. 31 interview.

Disappointed?

Ram fans’ response: What does Shaw expect ?

Ram fans are simply doing what they’ve always done. When the Rams are playing well, as they did from 1984-86, they flock to Anaheim Stadium. When the Rams stink, like they have the past three seasons, they stay away.

The only aberration was 1990, when the Rams averaged 59,919 during a 5-11 season. But season-ticket sales that year were buoyed by the Rams’ performance in 1989, when they reached the NFC championship game.

“I think that’s nonsense,” Marvin Mayer, an Orange attorney, said of Shaw’s comments. “No one continues to pay for something when they don’t get their money’s worth. They’re not going to draw fans when they play as poorly as they have.”

Mayer compared Ram management tactics to those of American automobile manufacturers, who were overwhelmed by Japanese auto makers in the early 1980s.

“Many of us stopped buying American cars when the quality deteriorated,” Mayer said. “The manufacturers wanted us to accept their inferior products, rather than give us what we wanted. The arrogance, which led to the conclusion that it was the buyer, not the seller, who was the problem, caused disastrous consequences (for U.S. auto makers).

“The same attitude seems to be driving the Rams, and the inevitable result is the same. When team management becomes the issue, the team is in big trouble.”

Mayer has been a Ram fan for 30 years and a season-ticket holder with his brother since the team moved to Anaheim, but he won’t renew those tickets for next season. It’s also getting harder for him--and his friends--to go to Ram games this season.

“My brother couldn’t make it this week, and I asked 15 people before I finally found someone to go,” Mayer said. “In the past, I never had any trouble. I got a guy in the office to go--and he had to think about it for a long time.”

John York, a 46-year-old lawyer from Orange, was planning to attend today’s Ram-Redskin game but changed his mind last week.

“I’m going to the Cal-Stanford game (Saturday),” he said. “It’s a better product. It used to be on any given Sunday any team could win, but on any given Sunday, the Rams are going to lose.”

Bob Barrett, 43, a Mission Viejo resident who is the business manager of a plumbing manufacturing firm, gave up his season tickets after the 1990 season because of the Rams’ ineptitude on the field.

But now, it’s the Ram front office and owner Georgia Frontiere who turn him off the most.

“I don’t think she has the total commitment to bring a Super Bowl contender to Anaheim,” Barrett said. “She wants the money and the hype of owning a franchise, but where is her involvement with the team? The Rams shouldn’t move. Georgia should.”

Then again, perhaps it’s not only Ram management or Ram quarterbacks or Ram special teams that have put this franchise on a course parallel to the logos on their helmets--swirling downward into an ear-hole.

“I think it’s the curse of Anaheim,” Barrett said. “I think the Big A needs to be blown up like those old Jack-in-the-Box drive-throughs.”