No Buzz in a Light Year

It is only one ticket, and he is only one fan, but Alan Elliott, 40, has not attended a Laker game this season, for the first time since he was 8.

When Laker owner Jerry Buss refused to re-sign Phil Jackson, the coach who had won nine NBA championships, the last three with the Lakers, he inadvertently cast off Elliott. And when Buss ordered Shaquille O’Neal traded, he hardened Elliott’s resolve to disregard the organization he’d favored since early childhood.

“It’s simple,” Elliott said moments after Jackson’s replacement, Rudy Tomjanovich, resigned. “It was a boycott because of the mistreatment of Phil Jackson.”

While Jackson lazed Wednesday on a boat off the west coast of Australia, he was rudimentarily aware of the latest Laker crisis, among the first not to involve him in years. But, there are deeper issues that have arisen for the NBA’s golden franchise, beyond the mediocre record and the frayed and spent coach.

In Los Angeles, where buzz rules and yesterday can’t get a meeting, the Lakers have crept toward irrelevance. Based on evidence hard and soft -- falling attendance and attention spans at Staples Center, radio and television ratings and advertising revenue and merchandise sales -- Buss’ plan to restructure around Kobe Bryant’s skills and Tomjanovich’s system has had a trying start.

A league powerhouse and an NBA Finals regular under Jackson, the Lakers enter tonight’s game against the San Antonio Spurs with a 24-19 record. After an era in which postseason success was assumed and, oftentimes, victory parades ensued, qualifying for the playoffs is in question.

Perhaps feeling betrayed by an organization they believed was unnecessarily rebuilt while in its prime, fans have sat quietly in the cavernous Staples Center, or, as Elliott, simply stayed away.

“It’s a very personal thing for me and my friends,” Elliott said. “We were never that influenced by the arena. We didn’t care either way about it that much. And, for me, it wasn’t because I was sitting next to Vin Diesel or whoever. I cared because it was always a big game and we had the best coach and the best team.”

Through 26 home games, the Lakers have announced 19 sellouts, a claim based on seats sold and not on actual turnstile count. But there are more empty seats than ever, perhaps as many as 2,500 on Tuesday night when the Lakers played the Portland Trail Blazers.

Even the rivalry games born of the Jackson-O’Neal-Kobe Bryant years -- against the likes of the Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs -- have generated little atmosphere. The single exception: Christmas Day, when the Miami Heat came to town with its new center, O’Neal.

With its gently sloped lower bowl and stacks of luxury suites, Staples Center lacks the intimacy of many NBA arenas, so fan expression was designed out. The majority of the noise comes from the more affordable levels above the suites, well back and above the floor, and often arrives well after the play concludes.

Therefore, the arena atmosphere suffered even in the best times. In worse times, it has become dreary, reflecting a team that has struggled to match the previous standards of wins and star power. In less than a year, the Lakers lost four likely Hall of Famers -- O’Neal and Gary Payton by trades, Jackson and Karl Malone to retirement -- leaving Bryant and a new team around him, and a new coach to lead them.

The results can be found not only in the standings -- the Lakers are third in the Pacific Division, only three games ahead of the traditionally dreadful Clippers -- but in the other areas that measure them.

Ratings for games televised on FSN West are down 33%, and are down 28% on KCAL. The Lakers’ flagship radio station has sold fewer commercial spots. Laker merchandise has not moved nearly as briskly in the Team L.A. store, according to sources, and even the popularity of Bryant -- his was once the top-selling jersey in the league; now it isn’t in the top 10 -- has not stemmed the decline.

“Obviously losing marquee players such as Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone and Gary Payton, and a legendary coach in Phil Jackson, we knew there’d be a drop in interest,” Laker spokesman John Black said. “Those decisions were made in the interest of the big picture and long-term gains. We knew those players weren’t going to be around forever.

“Although we’d like to be selling out every game and like the ratings to be higher than they are, we’re still operating at a really high level.”

While fans and columnists bemoan the end of the Lakers as they once knew them, many experts believe the Laker brand -- its history of championships, Hall of Fame players and competitive stability -- will rebound.

“First of all, it is absolutely not catastrophic,” said Dean Bonham, a sports consultant with the Bonham Group in Denver. “As soon as the Lakers put a winning team with captivating personalities back on the hardwood, it’ll be almost instantaneous that you’ll have fans and celebrities back in droves.”

While the NBA employs a salary cap that keeps organizations from buying their way back into contention, making rebuilding arduous, Buss has overseen the construction of two dynasties. The only thing more difficult, perhaps, is convincing fans to have patience.

“You look at Jerry Buss and where he’s been and where he is today,” Bonham said, “and anybody that doesn’t believe that Jerry Buss will fix that, and pretty quickly, doesn’t have a very good understanding of that guy.”

Bonham estimated the franchise value at $700 million, and doubted the slight and, he said, temporary downturn in ticket and merchandise revenue would affect it.

“You have one of the most storied franchises in American sports sitting in the No. 2 television and sports market in the United States,” he said. “That’s an extraordinarily valuable franchise. If you have two, maybe three, bad years, you can survive. You start looking at five, six, seven, eight bad years, there’s permanent damage done. But, I’ll tell you, if I had $700 million of disposable net worth, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second writing Jerry Buss that check.”

Marc Ganis, president of the Chicago-based consulting firm Sports Corp., watched first-hand a similar fall by the Chicago Bulls in the late 1990s. Almost seven years later, the Bulls remain one of the NBA’s downtrodden teams, though they continue to draw well. The Lakers have not yet tumbled that far and, in Bryant, still have one of the league’s premier players.

“Los Angeles is different than Chicago,” Ganis said. “There’s more of a stability here, where in Los Angeles it’s more of a roller-coaster ride.

“Part of the problem is the height in which they reached, and the length of their precipitous fall when the team starts disintegrating, which is what they are doing. Clearly, the bloom is off the rose. This was such a beautiful flower; when it crumbles, it goes quickly.”

Bonham also noted the eccentricity of the Los Angeles fan, the Laker fan, ever surrounded by the Los Angeles experience, the Laker experience.

“Those fans hold that organization to a higher standard,” he said. “So, when they’re living up to the standard, it’s fine. When they don’t, the level of disappointment by the fans compounds.”

Seven years ago, Derrick Hall was public relations director of the Dodgers when that organization was sold. Fox, the new owner, had barely learned its way around town when it fired Manager Bill Russell, traded fan favorite Mike Piazza, and fired General Manager Fred Claire, leaving fans wondering what they’d find at Dodger Stadium every night.

“It’s completely a grind,” Hall said. “You have to struggle and battle, because you’re explaining these decisions. At the same time, you’re trying to assure the fans that you’re taking them somewhere.... You can’t panic and you can’t overreact. Fans are loyal to the organization, its history and its brand. We knew if we could get through that period, everything would return to normalcy. You get through it.”

The fans, he said, do too. And, he predicted, Laker fans would. Already, there was hope to be had. Jackson, let go in June, has said he would consider a return, and the Lakers are believed to be considering letting him.

In Hollywood, Alan Elliott considered his boycott and admitted, “I’m looking forward to coming back.”