Teams need true blue fans in order to win championships

Monday, August 3, 1998

Teams need true blue fans in order to win championships

COLUMN: Professional sports

in Los Angeles have everything they need except loyal
devotees

The city of Los Angeles has not won a championship in a major
professional sport in the 1990s.

Eight years, eight (currently six) teams, four sports, no
titles.

How can this happen to a city that, as recently as 1988, was
considered a winner’s playground?

The teams from Los Angeles definitely do not suffer from a lack
of talent. Consider the Dodgers of the early 90s, with a pitching
staff capable of dominating any league. Take the Lakers of
1997-1998, with Shaq, Kobe, Eddie and Nick. Or take the Raiders,
who were considered "contenders" every preseason they played in Los
Angeles.

Los Angeles teams are not a victim of poor coaching either.
Tommy Lasorda was one of the most well-respected managers of
all-time, finishing his 19-year tenure with the Dodgers in 1996.
Bill Fitch was a two-time coach of the year prior to his sentence
with the Clippers, and Barry Melrose turned the hapless Kings into
finalists within two years at the helm.

The Los Angeles dry spell is not due to poor playing facilities.
This cannot be the case, considering that Dodger Stadium is one of
the most pristine, beautiful playing fields in all sports and that
the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim has received nothing but rave reviews
since the Mighty Ducks began playing there in 1993.

The owners are not (with the possible exception of Georgia
Fronteire of the Rams and Donald Sterling of the Clippers) to
blame. Peter O’Malley was the reason the Dodgers organization
maintained its classy image for so long. Jerry Buss of the Lakers
was always willing to spend money to wheel and deal for a
contender. Al Davis of the Raiders would spend money like water.
Even Bruce McNall (pre-jail days) did whatever it took for the
Kings to gain respectability in the NHL.

If not the players, coaches, owners or stadiums, then what can
be the reason that sports fans in Los Angeles can not seem to find
a winner?

The answer lies no further than a mirror. Los Angeles has the
worst sports fans in all of sports, plain and simple.

Go to a Dodger game, where the average fan arrives in the third
inning and leaves in the seventh. Attend a Laker game, where 20
percent of these "fans" are no-shows and the other 80 percent are
too busy on their cell phones to watch the game. Have a seat at an
Angel game and see if you can find any fans rooting for the Angels
instead of the visiting team. Watch a Clipper game, and see if you
can even find any fans, period. The Ducks and Kings have a loyal
fan base, but their fans are among the least knowledgeable in all
of hockey.

Attendance is deplorable, consistently dwindling in the doldrums
of the league in all above cases.

It’s not a wonder that the Raiders and Rams moved away. Why
would an owner want his or her team playing to half capacity in one
city when they could sell out somewhere else? Sports are, after
all, a business, and the owners need to make money.

In a region with more than 10 million people, Los Angeles can
not find a fan base strong enough to stick with a team through
thick and thin, win or lose, in any sport. What Los Angeles needs
is the fans to spark a team, not a team to spark the fans. Take for
example, Detroit and their beloved Red Wings.

They had not won a title since 1955, yet were consistently
selling out games, resulting in player loyalty, respect around the
league, and ultimately, a championship in 1997 and 1998. I’m not
saying that 42 years is a reasonable amount of time to wait around
for a winner. I am just bringing up the point that loyal,
enthusiastic fans will get their just desserts.

Fans in Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago are true
fans. These fans live and die by their teams, and do not give up
when the going is rough. If Los Angeles fans can just take a few
notes from these cities and go to some games, cheer for the home
team and support the players, the championship banners will be back
where they belong – in Los Angeles.

Lovett is a true Los Angeles sports fan. He can be heard bumping
Randy Newman’s "I Love L.A." loudly around Westwood. Any comments
can be e-mailed to him at elovett@media.

ucla.edu.

Evan Lovett