He Plans to Turn Sport Into League of Nations : Volleyball: Eight countries competing in Mike O’Hara’s effort to put spotlight on athletes in non-Olympic years.

Mike O’Hara, the sports promoter who helped develop the American Basketball Assn., the World Hockey Assn. and professional track, has a vision:

The United States is meeting the Soviet Union in the championship match of the World (Volleyball) League and the Forum is sold out. A billion people, watching on a worldwide TV network, see Scott Fortune hit the winning point for the U.S. team.

Hmm? Sounds as if O’Hara, a former UCLA volleyball star, got spiked in the head one too many times. But they laughed when O’Hara devised the three-point shot for the American Basketball Assn., the World Hockey Assn. began signing underaged players such as Wayne Gretzky and Pro-Track started paying runners.

The ABA, WHA and Pro-Track were each making money when O’Hara left, and he predicts that the World League, which begins play Sunday at the Forum, will succeed.

“Of all the things I’ve been involved in, I’ve never seen a league that has started with the credibility, experience and capital that this league has,” O’Hara said. “Usually you sweat out the first year.”

But O’Hara isn’t sweating.

The World League has a $4-million budget, of which $3 million will be underwritten by corporate sponsors and $1 million by TV contracts.

“The NBA didn’t start out this well,” O’Hara said. “The NFL didn’t start out this well. All those leagues started out real shaky, but people forget about their humble beginnings.”

Is the world ready for the World League?

It makes sense from a business and marketing standpoint. SportsChannel, which will televise the U.S. matches, is a cable network hungry for quality programming. And volleyball, which all but disappears in non-Olympic years, needs the exposure.

Fortune, who hit the winning shot in the gold-medal match in the 1988 Olympics, predicts success for the World League.

“I think it will be really big, especially in America,” Fortune said. “The world championships are big in a lot of countries, but Americans don’t really follow volleyball until the Olympics.”

O’Hara has experience promoting volleyball, having run the Team Cup volleyball league at the Forum since 1984. Team Cup matches average 2,000 fans with the finals drawing 5,000. O’Hara hopes to expand on the base of Southland volleyball fans.

Although the league has already met its budget, it could be be a hard sell in Southern California because the six-week season, which runs from April to June, conflicts with the NBA playoffs. Although the World League will move to the summer next year, the initial season was set for this spring so it wouldn’t conflict with the World Cup soccer tournament.

“Even if we struggle this year, I think we’ll be successful next year because we won’t be competing against the Lakers,” said John Root, a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. “All we have to do is go up against baseball.”

O’Hara said: “The break-even point from a league standpoint has already been assured. Each of the teams will look to gate receipts and local sponsorships. The jury is still out on how we’re going to do this year. I’d be delighted if we broke even.”

The brainchild of O’Hara and Laker owner Jerry Buss, the World League is composed of the national volleyball teams from eight countries: the United States, the Soviet Union, Brazil, China, France, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands.

Sanctioned by the International Volleyball Federation, the league hopes to add four teams next year: Cuba, Canada, Argentina and Poland.

The eight teams are divided into two divisions, with the United States grouped with France, Italy and Brazil. Each team will play 12 matches, six home and six away, during the season. The top two teams from each division will meet in a four-match championship final in Osaka, Japan, July 14-15.

The teams will receive a total of $1 million in prize money. Teams receive $1,500 for each match they win, $1,000 for each loss. The division champions will receive $80,000, with second place worth $60,000, third place $40,000, and fourth place $30,000. The playoff champion will win $140,000, with the second-place team getting $110,000, the third-place team $80,000 and the fourth-place team $60,000.

There are also individual prizes. The league’s most valuable player will get $15,000, with $10,000 prizes to be awarded the best spiker, best blocker, best setter and best defensive player. The outstanding referee will receive $5,000.

Members of the U.S. volleyball team, who earn an average stipend of $1,500 per month, like the league’s monetary rewards.

The U.S. national team, which requires a full-time commitment, has been losing its best players to Italian club teams, which offer six-figure salaries.

“The Italians have upped volleyball to a different level with the money they’re paying now,” said Fortune. “It’s real difficult for (the United States) to deal with because we don’t have the money or the sponsors to pay the players to stay around instead of going to Italy.”

The U.S. team is rebuilding after the retirement of Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons, who led the team to gold medals in the last two Olympics. Three other players have left the national team to play in Italy: Jeff Stork, the starting setter on the U.S. team since 1985; Bob Ctvrtlik, who was voted best defensive player at the 1988 Olympics, and Adam Johnson, a former USC standout who was voted 1986 NCAA player of the year.

Fortune, the youngest player on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team, and Root, a reserve on that team, rejected offers from Italian teams to remain with the U.S. team.

How could that be?

“Some of us still have something to prove,” Root said. “But in light of the fact that they’re (the United States Volleyball Federation) giving us the option of going to Italy and coming back over (to join the 1992 Olympic team), a lot of the guys are going to take advantage of that option.”

Although Kiraly and Timmons were listed on the U.S. roster for the World League, they will not compete this season.

“They were the heart and soul of the team,” Fortune said. “I talked to Steve and he said that before the U.S. became a good team they went through a real difficult period, which is what we’re going through now. We have a bunch of young kids who are trying to come together as a team.”

Said Root: “We have to find new players we can focus on and build a campaign around. Scott and I have been around the longest and hopefully we can provide the leadership that the coaches are looking for to bring the young guys around.”

Not all of the players are young.

With the departure of Stork, the U.S. team’s biggest problem was finding an experienced setter. The problem was solved by coaxing Rod Wilde out of retirement. Wilde, 34, had coached at Pepperdine since suffering a leg injury that knocked him out of the 1984 Games.

Wilde, who coached against many of the players on the team, is adjusting to being a player again. He is 12 years older than the average age of the players.

The loss of Johnson also created a void at outside hitter, which will be filled by Root, who has been used primarily as a middle blocker. The other starting outside hitter is Troy Tanner, who led Pepperdine to NCAA titles in 1985 and 1986.

Fortune and Mark Arnold are expected to start at middle blocker, and Chris Braun will start at opposite hitter.

The toughest competition in the United States’ division is expected to come from Italy, which won the 1989 European Championship and finished second behind Cuba at the 1989 World Cup. The Soviet Union is favored in the other division.