Private School Takes a Lesson in Luxury From Professional Sports

Attending a basketball game recently, Bill and Marla Rust entered enclosed box seats with their own key, sat with friends on comfortable chairs and ate hamburgers delivered by waiters.

“It was great,” said Bill Rust, a Sylmar businessman. “You could see everything. Nobody (in the crowd) was bugging you. The seats were comfortable. You couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Rust might have been describing a visit to a luxury spectator box in a major league stadium, but he and his wife watched their game in the new gymnasium at Village Christian High School in Sun Valley.

Special Fund-Raiser

Forty-four seats in two large, enclosed boxes at one end of the gym were offered to Village Christian boosters for $500 a year--a price since reduced to $250--to raise funds for the athletic department.

Terry D. Spahr, the school’s plant manager, said he is “a little disappointed” that only 12 seats were sold, netting a total of $3,000.

The season tickets entitle holders to a box seat for any gymnasium event, including boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball and school plays and concerts.

“Really, the seats are not worth it for basketball,” athletic director Mike Plaisance said, noting that the boxes are at the end of the court and that a wall obscures part of the basketball floor from some seats. But Plaisance said he was tickled to have the added income for sports.

Village Christian is thought to be the first high school in the area to adopt the concept of luxury seats.

That’s taking a step up from the booster club, typical at many high schools.

For example, Terry Terrazone, director of athletics at St. Francis High School in La Canada, said his school’s booster club sells $200 lifetime memberships and $50 annual memberships that provide two seats at every home athletic event. The club has about 200 members.

Leo Gutierrez, athletic director at St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs, said his school sells season tickets for home football and basketball games. The football season ticket guarantees a seat in an area set aside near the 50-yard line, he said.

Many high school officials contacted by The Times throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties said they thought the idea had intriguing possibilities.

“It’s kind of an interesting concept,” said Chuck Schafer, director of athletics for Long Beach Poly High School. “ . . . It sounds like it could be a good fund-raiser for the booster club. The $250 sounds a bit extreme, but I suppose you could get a figure that could be fair.”

“I think it’s not a bad idea,” said Douglas Pozzo, director of athletics at Crenshaw High School. “Our problem is that we don’t have the financial background here to go at that price. Maybe down the road we could try something for less money.”

Although an official of the Southern Section of the California Interscholastic Federation said there were no rules prohibiting luxury boxes, the director of interscholastic athletics for the Los Angeles Unified School District said he thought proposals for a luxury box might face problems there.

“I think there would be a great deal of opposition from . . . administrators in the district and possibly the school board, because I’m not sure you can use athletic contest admission as a vehicle for fund raising,” Hal Harkness said.

” . . . I think that (Village Christian) situation is peculiar to . . . private schools not governed by elected boards of education.

Inspired by the Pros

Spahr said he conceived the idea for the boxes after attending a Los Angeles Lakers’ basketball game at the Forum. The Forum offers 2,000 seats for $6,000 a year that provide admission, waitress service and free parking for every event in the Forum, including concerts. It sells the same services for $5,600 in seats in several glass-enclosed boxes.

Professional football has been the main developer of the luxury box concept, however. National Football League teams sell luxury box seats in 16 stadiums, said Doretta Karns, executive suite manager for the Rams.

The Rams sell seats in 108 enclosed boxes at Anaheim Stadium, including 89 with 12 seats each. For $33,370, patrons obtain 12 Rams season tickets and six for the California Angels, who play in the same stadium, along with three reserved parking spaces. The boxes contain wet bars and, for a fee, fans can order liquor or meals from menus that include chicken, steak and roast beef. Waitresses serve the food.

Less Interested in Perks

Most buyers of the Village Christian seats seemed less interested in the attached perks than in making a donation to the school, where parents volunteer for extensive duties including kitchen work, coaching and supplementary teaching of reading.

“It’s nice to contribute to the school,” said Rust, whose daughter, Amy, 16, will try out for the volleyball team, and who has three other children attending the school. “My wife graduated from there. I went there for a couple of years.”

“It’s the kind of school where you have to do everything you can to help because it takes more than tuition to keep it going,” said Thomas Dobbs of Burbank as he watched Village Christian lose to archrival Los Angeles Baptist in a recent boys basketball game.

“It’s nicer sitting up here,” the Burbank contractor said watching with his wife, Evelyn, as their son David, 14, played in the school band below. “It’s more comfortable. I think you have a better view from up here. And it is not so crowded. I don’t like crowds.”