Boxing Is on Ropes at Olympic

Has the Grand Olympic Auditorium, 26 months after its splash-and-dazzle fight palace reopening, seen its last days of regular boxing?

Probably and sadly yes, concedes owner Steve Needleman, who says that too many small crowds and too many competing boxing shows on television have understandably driven Peter Broudy--the second promoter to try and fail at the Olympic--to seek other, smaller venues.

Broudy took over at the Olympic more than a year ago after Bob Arum, who reopened the building in March 1994 with an Oscar De La Hoya show, jumped out of his contract after disappointing results. Broudy staged 10 cards, but only three or four made a profit.

“We’ve been telling Peter for six months that getting crowds of 1,500-2,000, he should take that to a ballroom,” said Needleman, whose main business is coming from church groups and movie shoots. “It’s not feasible to do that here. The clientele just isn’t there any more.”

With big-name headliners such as Yory Boy Campas and Hector Camacho, Broudy pulled in larger crowds but lost money because he had to pay higher purses. And, once he cut a deal with Prima Deportiva to broadcast his fights on a delayed basis, the fan base evaporated, content to watch the fights a night later on television.

“It was the same thing Arum went through,” Broudy said. “I just couldn’t get the Westside to come. I got them for a few fights, but on the whole, people on the Westside view the Olympic as dangerous.”

Said Arum, who also lasted about a year at the Olympic: “I felt when Broudy went in that maybe he could make it work, because he would be doing it more or less full time. And we really had so many other things we were doing. But he failed. I still think it can work, but it’s very, very difficult to get something like that up and running and working.”

Broudy is starting what could be a series of shows at the Veterans Memorial Building in Culver City, hoping to reach the Westside audience.

But Needleman, who has been contacted by several promoters from Mexico and thinks there still will be a few boxing shows a year at the Olympic, says the building’s downtown neighborhood wasn’t the reason boxing failed.

“To put it on the building or its location, it’s an excuse,” Needleman said. “But it has nothing to do with the location, it has to do with the state of boxing today. It’s a TV sport. Why pay for something when you can watch it on TV within 72 hours of it happening?”