NBA Up Against O.C.’s Fade-Away Fans

The bandwagon is parked out front Anaheim City Hall, waiting to load fans who’ll cheer on Orange County’s very own NBA team.

Whoopee.

The fan base that let the Rams go with barely a peep, has quit feeding the Mighty Ducks and only fitfully supported the Angels is now clamoring for a pro basketball team?

Notice I ended that sentence with a question mark.

Not to be negative, but is there any indication that Orange County sports fans are ready to embrace an NBA team, especially one as lousy as the Vancouver Grizzlies, who are looking to move and have identified Anaheim and the Arrowhead Pond as one of their prime targets?

It ought to be a clear sign of the NBA’s overexposure that the other top choices mentioned for the Grizzlies have included New Orleans and Louisville, Ky.

Instead, Anaheim officials seem agog over transplanting one of sports’ most invisible franchises onto the Pond.

The good news for most of us in the county is that it appears an NBA team would come without much financial pain. Published reports indicate that only Anaheim would pony up, much as it did when it helped pay for the remodeling of the former Anaheim Stadium after Disney bought the team.

So my little diatribe this morning isn’t to sound the hoodwink alarm for the general public. If Anaheim wants to pay, let it pay. I’m merely wondering who’ll show up to watch a crummy NBA team.

Angels, Ducks--Why Go for Three?

Anaheim points out that the Los Angeles Clippers (the historically crummy NBA team) averaged a healthy 15,000 when they played a limited schedule at the Pond in recent years.

Cirque du Soleil draws well too when it comes to Orange County, but nobody wants to watch them 80 times a year. And besides, you can afford their tickets.

Forget the Clippers. The better model to gauge Orange County fan loyalty is the Mighty Ducks, who would share the Pond with an NBA team. Remember those exciting days of yesteryear, way back in 1993, when the fledgling Ducks were the most happening franchise in sports?

Ducks merchandise was hot, the team was fun to watch and, during one stretch extending into 1996, 90 out of 93 games were sold out.

At the end of the team’s first season, an exuberant Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said, “We expected the team to be successful, but this is one of the most amazing success stories in sports.”

At the time, the man spoke the truth.

Contrast that with a story in The Times last month that delivered this Ducks downer: “Fewer people than ever are watching the Ducks at the Arrowhead Pond.” The story went on to say that attendance is down 22% since 1997-98.

Our sportswriters have detailed the reasons, and they strike me as the same pitfalls that would loom for a relocated NBA team. If the team doesn’t give the effort, the fans won’t come.

Consider the Angels. They are Orange County’s original major sports franchise. National pastime, lazy summer nights, no school the next day, the ol’ horsehide, etc., etc., and still fans had to put on a second-half burst last year to reach the 2-million mark.

If they hadn’t, attendance would have been in Pittsburgh Pirates territory. As it was, medium-sized cities like Seattle and Denver each drew a million more fans than the Angels; the luckless and last-place San Diego Padres drew 400,000 more.

Team Could Get a No-Look Pass

Yet, in courting the NBA, Anaheim somehow sees an untapped reservoir of fans for a league that has the highest average ticket price (just over $50) of the four major sports. And it is a league still suffering image problems in the post-Michael Jordan era. And it is a league where attendance has dropped in recent years.

Sounds too good to pass up, doesn’t it? This is an even better deal for Orange Countians than an international airport, a light-rail system and a toll road to South County.

I hope I’m wrong. We need a beloved sports franchise and an arena or stadium where everybody knows your name. It’d be great to have a team supported through thick and thin--and by real fans, not just corporate season-ticket and suite-holders.

The bandwagon is all gassed up.

Now if it just had some place to go.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821; by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626; or by e-mail at dana.parsons@latimes.com.