Ban on Pro Fights Revisited
Council will look at whether to allow boxing events in city to generate revenue at venue.
By Jason Wells
Glendale News Press
Published: Last Updated Thursday, July 3, 2008 10:22 PM PDT
Link to Original Article Online.
 GLENDALE — A long-standing prohibition on professional boxing and other sparring matches in Glendale may be lifted after the City Council, seeking to boost revenue at the Civic Auditorium, agreed this week to revisit the ban.
Mayor John Drayman called for a report on the logistics and possible repercussions involved with lifting the ban after a promoter inquired about using the auditorium to host future matches.
To do so, the council would have to reverse the city’s current municipal code, which bans “any boxing contests or sparring or wrestling match” that does not involve amateurs or students.
Kahren Harutyunyan, the Glendale-based promoter and professional boxer who submitted the request to use the auditorium, said the ban has stifled local development of boxing and forced homegrown boxers out of the city.
 “No one can showcase their talent in the city,” Harutyunyan said. For an area that has produced several successful amateur and professional boxers — such as boxer Vanes Martirosyan, who represented the United States in the 2004 Olympics — that’s a shame, Harutyunyan said. Allowing boxers to fight in their hometown would not only bring the community together, but draw in outside promoters, and with them, more media attention and outside money to a cash-strapped city.
“It just does not make any sense to have this ban,” he said.
The move by Harutyunyan comes at a time when the city is especially receptive to exploring new ways to generate revenue at its underperforming auditorium at 1401 N. Verdugo Road, which last fiscal year claimed a loss of about $400,000.
“I do see an opening with the budget situation, but we don’t need a deficit to come up with such a great idea,” he said.
With 10,000 square feet of open, usable space on the building’s second floor, the auditorium is one of the few, if not only, venues in Glendale that could host a professional fight, said George Chapjian, director of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, which manages the space.
While the logistics and potential impacts of bringing professional boxing matches had yet to be fully examined, the idea seemed promising on its face, Chapjian said.
“I think it would be an opportunity for us,” he said.
City officials studying the logistics of reversing the ban do not know exactly when or why the prohibition was adopted — a finding that some council members said would play a major factor.
“That needs to be looked at,” Councilman Ara Najarian said. “We don’t want to create an atmosphere where we’re known as the boxing city. . . . It’s not just the money.”
Whether perceived or actual, the sport of boxing has, over time, attracted a crowd that doesn’t always jive with community standards and law enforcement, Najarian said.
If the council were to reverse the ban on boxing and other sparring events, which would also presumably apply to mixed-martial-arts fights, conditions could be applied to the permitting process that would allow Glendale police to adequately control the new business element, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.
Background checks and extensive review of permit applications, together with monitoring from an established vice unit, should provide the necessary controls to keep out any illicit activity that may come attached to the fighting rings, he added.
“I think it could be done,” Lorenz said.
City officials are tentatively scheduled to bring their report on the matter to the council in August.
At that time, the council would provide direction on whether to pursue a reversal of the ban, or to maintain the status quo.
By Jason Wells
Glendale News Press
Published: Last Updated Thursday, July 3, 2008 10:22 PM PDT
Link to Original Article Online. |
