Sparks Are Playing in Purple, but They’ll Finish Deep in Red

NEW YORK — Answering a question about how much money the Sparks will lose this first WNBA season, a Forum insider used the phrase “major bath.”

That bad?

Johnny Buss, Spark president, was appointed by his father, Jerry, to run the team, to win a championship . . . and to finish the season in the black.

A Spark championship? A longshot, but they’re still in the hunt.

Finish in the black? Nope.

“We hope [the loss is] not a half-million,” Johnny Buss said, wincing.

“We’ve done better than I thought we would when we started, but this has been a very expensive start-up. First of all, the Forum is a union building. It costs us $12,000 just to open it up for an event.

“And that curtain we bought to close off the seats above the concourse cost us $150,000.”

The team also must pay off Linda Sharp--fired last month--for the 2 1/2 years left on her contract.

Before the season began, Buss said his goal was to average 8,000 paid fans. The league lists the Sparks as averaging 8,101, fourth-best in the WNBA. That number includes 50% of the up to 1,000 complimentary tickets the team distributes each game, however, and 2,200 Forum Senate seat holders, whether they show or not.

Buss says, though, that he sees a future for women’s pro basketball in L.A.

“The market . . . is here, I can see it,” he said.

“Eight thousand was my upside number, but even at that, we still wouldn’t have broken even. We’ve learned a lot about this the first time around and we’re really going to do it next year. I’ll be very unhappy next season if we’re below 10,000 for any game.

“That’s a realistic goal for us, and we’re planning no ticket price increases [now $7.50 to $20] for next year, and maybe not in the year after that.

“Once the NBA committed itself to do this, things got very intense. They came in here and told my dad and me that if we went below 4,000 paid in more than one game, they might revoke our franchise.

“They said, ‘We’re very serious about this and we want you to be too.’ ”

The Sparks could make their boss’ season by reaching the WNBA championship game Aug. 30.

That’s because the title-game teams split 50% of the live gate, he said.

The toughest day so far?

Firing Sharp, Buss said.

“It got to the point where we had to do something, and it was very hard for me to say that to [General Manager] Rhonda Windham, and it was much harder for her to tell Linda,” Buss said.

FAN FRENZY

The WNBA and the ABL may be at war, but their fans aren’t.

Bill McGillis, general manager of the ABL’s Long Beach expansion team, the StingRays, says his team will pick up a lot of Spark fans when the ABL season starts in October.

“We haven’t even started advertising for season tickets, but we’re already getting a lot of calls from people who are Sparks’ season-ticket holders, telling us they want StingRay tickets too,” he said.

McGillis has asked the league to give his team a blockbuster home opener in October at the Pyramid-- against the New England Blizzard.

If it comes off, the attraction would be a classic matchup of centers, the StingRays’ veteran 6-foot-4 Venus Lacy against the Blizzard’s 6-7 rookie, Kara Wolters, called by her Connecticut coach, Geno Auriemma, “The most dominant post player in the history of this sport.”

StingRay dates: Sept. 2, training camp opens; Sept. 20, exhibition season opener at Seattle; Oct. 5, exhibition game against Atlanta at Chattanooga, Tenn.

The ABL schedule will be released in about two weeks. The ABL All-Star game is set for Jan. 18 in Orlando, Fla.

Women’s Basketball Notes

The ABL’s Philadelphia franchise, newly arrived from Richmond, Va., will start out in the city’s oldest arena, the Palestra, then move into Temple University’s new 10,000-seat arena, nearing completion. . . .

A Knoxville (Tenn.) group, trying to raise money for a national women’s basketball hall of fame there, has reached $2.8 million but needs $3.5 million for ground to be broken. . . .

The WNBA playoffs will be completed in less than 48 hours. The two one-game WNBA playoff games on Aug. 28 will pit the Eastern and Western conference champions against the two teams with the next-best records, or “wild-card” teams, no matter the conference affiliation. If patterns continue, New York could have two home games in the playoffs, both a semifinal game and, if successful, the title game. The postseason--again, if patterns continue--would put New York (15-5), Houston (13-7) and Cleveland (11-10) from the East plus the West winner, Phoenix (10-10) or the Sparks (10-12), in the semifinals. The winners advance to the Aug. 30 WNBA championship game.