Andersen Quits O.C. Sports Group

Don Andersen, whose attempts to promote sports in Orange County were hampered by fan apathy that led to a string of financial setbacks, resigned Friday as executive director of the Orange County Sports Assn.

Saying the organization’s debt of more than $1.5 million “has weighed very, very heavily on me,” Andersen said he will open a Tustin sports marketing and promotion business specializing in golf.

“I think the OCSA has to find a new direction, get out of event management and become more of a chamber of commerce-type thing,” he said. “They could work to bring events into the market but not necessarily manage them.”

Andersen said the change in strategy would allow the OCSA to reduce its full-time staff and perhaps give up expensive Anaheim Stadium office space in an effort to solve its financial problems.

Jack Lindquist, the former president of Disneyland, will replace Andersen for the next month, according to OCSA President Robert Hoyt.

Andersen’s last major role with the sports association was as director of the Toshiba Senior Classic golf tournament, which drew an estimated 30,000 spectators two weeks ago at the Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa. Modest by Senior PGA Tour standards, it appeared most successful when contrasted with the struggles of other OCSA-sponsored enterprises in recent years:

* The Freedom Bowl, a postseason college bowl game whose future is uncertain, has drawn only two crowds of more than 50,000 in 11 tries--and both involved Southland teams, UCLA in 1986 (51,422) and USC in 1992 (50,745). Only 27,477 attended the 1994 game between Utah and Arizona at Anaheim Stadium, which can hold about 69,000 for football.

Andersen said attempts to increase attendance by inviting Pacific-10 teams had not worked because “the Freedom Bowl suffers from the stepchild syndrome to the Rose Bowl.”

“The Pac-10 teams would rather not be here,” he said. “They play here reluctantly.”

That mood translated into lethargic performances and upsets--Fresno State’s 24-7 domination of USC in 1992 being the best example of the kind of performance that tainted the game’s image.

“This market demands excellence,” Andersen said. “Just ask the Rams and the Angels.”

Bank of America signed a two-year deal as presenting sponsor last November, and Andersen had been working to line up additional sponsorship and a new television contract for the event. The NCAA is to decide in May whether to sanction it for another year, but Andersen said he wasn’t sure the sports association would still be interested.

“Some of the membership and board members would probably like to keep the game in its current form,” Andersen said. “Others think it’s probably not viable.

“And I’m not so sure they’re not right.”

* The preseason Disneyland Pigskin Classic ended a disappointing five-year run after the 1994 game--a 34-10 Ohio State victory over Fresno State attended by only 28,153--when Disneyland dropped its sponsorship. Despite a series of marquee matchups between ranked teams, the game never drew more than 49,309.

“It could well be that it is inherent in the Orange County market that they do not get excited about college football in August,” Andersen said.

The 1995 Pigskin Classic will be played in Ann Arbor, Mich.

* The Orange County Sports Hall of Fame at Anaheim Stadium continues to be poorly attended. Andersen said the OCSA’s growing debt meant the organization could not properly market the facility.

“The building of the Hall of Fame is something of which I’m most proud,” he said. “I’m just sorry we couldn’t market it enough to make the public more aware of it. I think it’s a tremendous, terrific place to visit.”

Andersen said he hoped his new company, Andersen Enterprises, would be involved in the Senior Tour golf tournament. Toshiba has two years left on its sponsorship contract, but the deal with Mesa Verde was for one year with a one-year, two-way option. It’s possible the event could return to Orange County but at a different course.

“We’ve had preliminary discussions,” Andersen said. “We’ll be meeting with the people from the Senior Tour again in a few weeks (April 19).”

Andersen came to the OCSA in February, 1990, from Chapman College, where he was an associate athletic director. He also has been publicist for the Southern Section, assistant sports information director at USC and a public relations director for the World Football League and the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.

“We appreciate all that Don has done for the OCSA,” Hoyt said. “He put us on the map.”

But in the end, that might have simply been the wrong place for the kind of events Andersen was asked to sell.

“I don’t know,” he said last August at that final Pigskin Classic. “I guess you come back to location--there’s an awful lot of things to do this time of year in Orange County.”

Andersen was asked if he could have done anything to save the game.

“Yeah,” he said. “Play it in Knoxville. Or Tallahassee.”