Home Court Advantage? Not for O.C.’s Crush

Orange County’s only professional basketball team, the Crush, is homeless for the holidays after the first home game of its existence.

While awaiting construction of a permanent home at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, the team had arranged to play its first games at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

But after Ticketmaster erroneously billed a $50 service charge that was 10 times the cost of some tickets, and opening-game attendance was low, its marquee player fled the team, the Crush abandoned UCI and the other players were wondering if they’d next be playing at a local high school.

Dennis Rodman, the team’s most marketable player, had signed to play nine home games for the Crush, an expansion franchise in the renewed American Basketball Assn. But the former NBA star has jumped to the ABA’s Long Beach Jam.

Team officials said Tuesday they were weighing possible legal action against Ticketmaster and UCI over the opening-night ticket snafu. The team expected a near-sellout for the Dec. 9 home opener against Las Vegas, but the game drew less than 400 paying fans at the Bren Center, which can accommodate more than 4,000.

“To our knowledge, no one paid for a ticket through Ticketmaster once they saw the $50 service charge,” Crush General Manager Kevin Copeland said. “All the people who attended the game bought tickets at the arena or were given comp tickets.”

Copeland said he began hearing about fans being overcharged for tickets two days before the opening game when several fans called the Crush front office. On game day, Copeland was forwarded an e-mail from a fan who tried to buy tickets from the Ticketmaster website. The price of the ticket was $5, but the service charge was $50.

Once team officials realized they might have to take legal action against the Bren Center to recover their losses, because of the university’s contract with Ticketmaster, they canceled all further games at UCI until the dispute was resolved -- even though the team had nowhere else to play.

Susan Menning, a UCI spokeswoman, declined to comment because of potential legal action. Ticketmaster officials did not return phone calls.

Meanwhile, Copeland said, the team may play the rest of its home schedule at a community college or high school. The Crush has postponed three home games because of the ticket dispute. The next home game is scheduled for Monday -- and the team asks fans to check its website -- www.orangecountycrushbasketball.net -- for the location.

“The domino effect has been terrible,” Copeland said. “This wasn’t how we envisioned our first season. This has hurt us short and long term with publicity, ticket sales and apparel sales.”

Through the turmoil, the team is 7-1 and in first place. In an attempt to reconnect with its fans, the Crush held a free intrasquad scrimmage Tuesday at its practice facility at Anaheim’s American Sports Center, a commercial gymnasium.

“Our team is great,” said Copeland, one of the team’s five owners. “They’ve been the only constant. The basketball court is their sanctuary. When you’ve been trying to make the NBA and you’ve got the willpower to deal with that, this is not that big of a challenge.”

For Copeland and his partners, the challenge will be to keep the franchise afloat until the team can begin taking in gate receipts to pay players. So far, the Crush owners have been paying 12 players’ salaries, which average about $1,200 a week in the ABA.

Joe Newman, ABA founder and chairman, said the 4-year-old league had never had a homeless franchise. The original ABA, known for its multicolored ball and high-scoring games, merged with the NBA in 1976.

“It’s totally unprecedented and it’s not right,” Newman said. “They’ve got too good of a basketball team not to have a home.”

Newman said he viewed the dispute with Ticketmaster as a “David and Goliath situation.”

“When you have excessive charges, it’s not the team that pays for it or Ticketmaster, it’s the fan,” Newman said. “The average basketball fan is not [actor and Los Angeles Lakers’ fan] Jack Nicholson, and they don’t pay $500 for courtside seats. They love basketball, and our league gives people a chance to see high quality, professional basketball at affordable prices.”

The ABA, one of four minor league basketball leagues, expanded from seven to 37 teams this year. Last year, nearly 20 ABA players made NBA rosters.

League rosters are a mix of NBA veterans hoping to get another shot at the big time, college stars dreaming of the NBA-minimum salary of $385,000, or unknowns trying to make a name for themselves in the United States or Europe, where there are numerous professional leagues.

Most of the teams play in large high school gyms or junior college arenas. But the Arkansas RimRockers, one of the league’s most profitable franchises, play at the University of Arkansas’ 17,000-seat arena and often draw crowds of 10,000.

Steve Shmagin, a Crush assistant who has coached at the minor league level for six years, said he’s disappointed the Bren Center didn’t work out.

“It’s centrally located, it seats over 4,000, and it’s really a nice place for people and scouts to view a game,” Shmagin said. “But with minor league basketball, it’s always something. It’s always a roller-coaster ride, and I guess that’s part of the fun of it.”