Arum Out, Broudy In as Olympic Promoter

In an unanticipated surrender, boxing promoter Bob Arum on Wednesday accepted an offer to bolt from his contract with the Grand Olympic Auditorium, paving the way for local promoter Peter Broudy to take over the troubled operation.

Acknowledging he miscalculated the marketplace and his company’s ability to take advantage of the 70-year-old building’s vast boxing history, Arum said, “It was not an unpleasant surprise” when Olympic owner Steve Needleman asked Wednesday morning if Top Rank would walk away from the deal.

Top Rank will pay no penalty for ending the two-year contract, Arum said.

Last March, Arum’s company, Top Rank, Inc., reopened the historic fight pavilion after six months of renovations. But after suffering early losses, Top Rank quickly scaled down its plans, and, including last week’s fight card, staged only 14 shows at the Olympic. Paid crowds averaged about 1,000.

Recently, Top Rank had renegotiated its deal, reducing the scheduled number of fight shows from 24 to 10 a year.

“It wasn’t going to work for what we wanted to do,” Arum said from his office in Las Vegas. “When Steve called me this morning and asked me if I wanted to terminate, it was a surprise--but not an unpleasant surprise.”

Said Needleman: “Bottom line, they had a different approach to boxing than we thought should have been done in L.A. They were mainly concerned with TV.”

Although Arum hired local promoter Dan Goossen to run the Olympic, Top Rank never put together a regular schedule of competitive fights, and Arum said that Top Rank didn’t have the time or focus to nurse it back to life.

Arum said that the 130 season-ticket holders, who were given a guarantee of 24 fights a season, will be offered either a pro-rated refund, a deal on future Top Rank fights in Las Vegas or perhaps some trade-off with Broudy’s operation for Olympic tickets.

Though Broudy recently was quoted raising questions about the safety of the Olympic’s neighborhood, Broudy said he has always dreamed of reviving the Olympic Auditorium fight atmosphere.

Broudy says he will continue staging monthly shows at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills but late last week cut off talks with The Pond of Anaheim.

“Top Rank’s focus point was not on the building,” he said. “They were doing it for television. I don’t want a TV audience--I want a crowd. That’s the way it used to be. The Mexican community has been my fan base, and they’re the ones who can make the Olympic great again. I’m still a firm believer in the building. I know it’s good because other events, like concerts, are doing good at the Olympic. Only boxing’s not doing good.”

Broudy said he plans to kick off his Olympic promotions Feb. 9, on a card that features Latino draws such as Jaime Llanes, Raul Perez and Jaime Garza.