HAVE FANS LEFT, TOO? : L.A.'S NFL FANS HAVE NOT MIGRATED TO COLLEGE GAMES.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

The campaigns were launched in great earnest, with the brightest of hopes.

USC and UCLA, at the start of the 1995 fall football season, gazed about them and suddenly found the neighborhood much less crowded. The Rams, after a 49-year stay in Los Angeles and environs, had fled for St. Louis. The Raiders, after a visit of 13 years, had retreated to Oakland.

Just like that, a ripe, new marketing frontier had opened up, one peopled entirely by football fans. In terms of season-ticket holders alone, it numbered in excess of 50,000, and both college programs hastened to lure it.

USC threw up billboards that reminded disenfranchised pro fans that, yes, there still is football in L.A. UCLA launched a direct-mail campaign at the Rams' season-ticket list (the Raiders - no surprise here - refused to provide theirs).

The result of these ambitious and optimistic efforts?

A blip.

Although USC and UCLA both reported slight increases in their season-ticket sales in the wake of the NFL exodus, they actually saw their home attendance drop slightly in '95, the first year they had the market to themselves. And this year, through three home games for the Trojans and two for the Bruins, the slippage continues.

Where did all those football fans go? By most accounts, they went to ground, content to scratch any football itch by lounging in front of the TV on Sunday afternoons.

``We had a response rate of 3 percent to our direct-mail campaign, which is generally termed successful,'' Scott Mitchell, director of UCLA's athletic marketing, said of the Bruins' pitch to the Rams' season-ticket customers. ``Five or 10 percent would have been great, but most of them are in Orange County and there's a little bit of a commute there.''

Of the bid to reach the pro fans, Mitchell added, ``I don't really have anything to compare it to, so I'm not sure if I can call it surprising or disappointing. You'd certainly like to see more. I'm not sure we were expecting more.''

At USC, assistant athletic director Mark Ryan noted that the Trojans' season-ticket sales are up slightly from last year - which he believed had as much to do with the Trojans reaching and winning the Rose Bowl as anything. Since USC did not target the pro fans with a direct-mail pitch, as UCLA did, Ryan said it was difficult to quantify the hiccup in sales.

``The research we did last year showed that some people who are at our games - I don't know the percentage - were also former Rams and Raiders season-ticket holders,'' Ryan said. ``If I believe that data and only that data, then I would say there's probably a lot of crossover, that the interest is more in football as a sport. Non-denominational.

``But with the wide variety of public out there, there's got to be some percentage of people that say, `Nah, nah, I hate college football.' ''

Pro fans and college fans . . . and seldom the twain meet? Since neither USC nor UCLA has experienced any great attendance boom in the face of the pro vacuum, it appears the concept has some merit.

There are still pro booster clubs in the Los Angeles area. Ex-Raiders fans gather for telecasts at an El Segundo watering hole that used to be a popular after-practice destination for the team's offensive linemen. Former Rams fans assemble to lead cheers for a replacement pro team to be planted in the area.

The clubs' leaders and members seem to be in accord that they have little use for the offerings of college football - be it sis, boom or bah.

``Going to college football to satisfy a pro-football craving? I don't see that happening,'' said Bill Bechtel, head of a still-active Raiders club in Riverside. ``It's two different things.''

``It's a little different breed of football,'' said Steve Lanet, a real-estate broker who lives in the hills overlooking Encino. A Rams season-ticket holder before they left for Orange County, and a Raiders customer thereafter, Lanet said, ``After (the pro teams) left, I saw one or two college games. I think it's played a little more . . . in the pro game, when they hit you, they really hit you. It's a harder type of football.''

Ian Bardin, who leads a still-active Raiders fan club in the South Bay, hasn't encountered any crossover sentiment among the members. ``It's two different elements,'' he said. ``If a movie theater closed down, it doesn't mean people would go to more plays.''

So where do they go?

Bechtel laughed and said, ``I went out and bought an 18-inch satellite dish.''

It's undeniable that the pro fans haven't migrated in droves to the Coliseum and Rose Bowl on Saturday afternoons.

In '94, while in direct competition with the pro teams, USC averaged 58,538 per home game, UCLA 51,396.

In '95, with the market all to themselves, both dipped slightly - USC to 58,222 UCLA to 49,107.

This year, the downward trend has continued. Through home games against Oregon, California and Arizona, USC is averaging 50,223.

UCLA can't be faulted for drawing only 40,990 for a weakling like Northeast Louisiana, but when Arizona State arrived two weeks ago as the No. 4 team in the nation, the legitimate gate was only 41,107; some 25,000 school kids were let in on a special promotion, which inflated the announced attendance to 66,107.

Fan support in Los Angeles, however, is subject to a wide range of vagaries - as the Raiders and Rams learned to their consternation.

``Our game average might have gone down,'' said USC's Ryan, ``but we had about 60,000 tickets sold to the Arizona game (actual count in the house: 51,088). For whatever reason, 8,500 people decided to stay home or watch it on TV or whatever. But they paid for their tickets.

``It took me three years to come to terms with this kind of thing.''

Ryan continued: ``You've got to wait till the end of the year. The last game of the year (Notre Dame, Nov. 30) will draw 94,000. The Washington game (Saturday) is homecoming.

``It's so difficult to put a finger on one or two reasons that affect the variables. Last year, we had San Jose State and Houston. Next season, we open with Florida State, and we have UCLA at home. So we're going to have an attendance increase next year even if we don't do anything (in terms of marketing).''

Historically, the attendance for both schools has not been subject to wild swings - as was the case with the Raiders and Rams - but rather has followed gentle fluctuations based on performance.

Four times in the postwar era, the teams have finished together in the national top 10 ('52, '65, '84, '88). In the last of those, USC's home average of 76,063 set a school record that stands, while UCLA's home average of 63,264 was the school's highest since the middle '50s. The teams' showdown in '88, featuring Troy Aikman vs. Rodney Peete, drew 100,741 to the Rose Bowl. It was the largest home crowd for a UCLA regular-season game in 42 years and USC's biggest road crowd ever.

The schools continue to maintain that if abandoned pro fans sample their product they'll be won over. If even on a limited, fair-weather basis.

Said UCLA's Mitchell: ``I don't think there's a whole lot of people in Los Angeles who are sports fans that don't know that UCLA and USC are playing, or where we play, and what time the games are.

``I think it's kind of up to them.''

COUNTING THE HOUSE

In 1994, their final season in Los Angeles, the Raiders averaged 51,196 fans per home date, the Rams 42,312. The Rose Bowl, UCLA's home field, holds 102,083. The Coliseum, where USC plays, seats 92,000. The attendance averages for UCLA and USC for that season and the two since:

Year UCLA USC

1994 51,396 58,583

1995 49,107 58,222

1996 53,549x 50,223

x includes 25,000 tickets given out for Arizona State game in promotion with L.A. schools.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Chart

PHOTO (1--color) Just because the Raiders left, and it was left as the only game at the Coliseum doesn't mean the USC football team has been playing to a packed house.

David Crane / Daily News

(2--color) UCLA and USC aren't drawing crowds anywhere near this size. In fact, their attendance has declined since 1994.

Craig Mailloux / Daily News

Chart: COUNTING THE HOUSE (see text)