Boxing : Olympic Tries to Hook Fans Again

Last Thursday’s crowd at the Olympic Auditorium was estimated at 3,500, which seemed way out of line with the reported gate of $3,620.

A dollar a head?

Actually, the Olympic, which is fighting to re-establish itself as a weekly boxing showcase, papered the house, floor to roof, giving away 5,814 tickets, which must be some kind of record. The 357 people who actually paid for tickets must feel pretty foolish.

The strategy is transparent but possibly necessary. Don Georgino will do anything to get people back into the habit of showing up at the Olympic every Thursday night.

So far, it has been a costly strategy. One show cost him $18,000. Another earned just $10,800 at the gate, about the purse of the main-event fighter. That show cost $20,000. Last week’s show, an artistic success, cost about $3,000.

But Georgino is not folding up his tent. He remains dangerously optimistic. “When you go into business, you should be prepared to back it up for a year,” he said, adding that he’s in for the long run.

He claims to need just 700 paying customers a week for the promotion to break even. That’s because he doesn’t present gala cards with three, or even two, 10-round main events. Each week is budgeted at $6,800, cheap by today’s standards.

In addition, Georgino is optimistic about attracting a sponsor to finance his cards for a 26-week stretch, giving him room to breathe and to bring in better fighters.

By then, one presumes, people would not only have fallen back into the habit of going to the Olympic but of actually buying tickets to get in.

Boxing Notes The Stroh’s featherweight tournament at the Forum will resume Monday night with Adrian Arreola, ranked No. 8 by the WBC, taking on Ernie Johnson. Other elimination bouts have Myron Taylor fighting Lupe Suarez, and Jorge Garcia fighting Jorge Ramirez. The prize money for the tournament winner has been increased to $50,000. . . . A busy week in boxing will get busier as the week goes along. There will be three shows Thursday night, two in direct competition. While Don Fraser is catering to the Orange County Yuppies with Freddie Roach vs. Martin Morado and Avery Rawls vs. Keith Moore at the Irvine Marriott, former Olympic promoter Rogelio Robles will spite current Olympic promoter Don Georgino by going with junior-welterweights Rene Arredondo and Hugo Hernandez at the Sports Arena. That undercuts the Olympic, which is presenting bantamweights Enrique Aguilar vs. Oscar Cristerna the same night. Conciliatory talks between Robles and Georgino are scheduled this week. . . . The Tuesday night show at the Country Club in Reseda remains scheduled, even though promoter Al Goosen died of a heart attack last week. Actor Victor French is expected to assume the promoter’s license. In that show, middleweight Michael Nunn will fight Ivory Johnson. The show will benefit the LAPD Reserve Officer Program. . . . The State Athletic Commission now has its full complement of eight members with the appointment of Raul Silva, former aide to Representative Robert Dornan. . . . Wednesday night, the World Boxing Council will pay tribute to Muhammad Ali with a dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Proceeds will be donated to the newly formed WBC-UCLA Sports Medicine Foundation.