Globetrotters’ Moorpark Visit Up in the Air

The Harlem Globetrotters, renowned the world over for their basketball wizardry, may be about to stage a new stunt at the Moorpark College Gymnasium--a disappearing training camp.

The Globetrotters, who trained last September at Cal State Northridge, have been expected for months at Moorpark College, where two weeks of training and an exhibition game are scheduled to begin Aug. 27. Revenues from the exhibition game are earmarked for the college’s sports program.

But Globetrotters General Manager Joe Anzivino said Thursday that the training camp is “basically on hold at this moment” because the team may take a better offer elsewhere.

Anzivino acknowledged that the team made an agreement with Moorpark College about six months ago. But within the last two weeks, he said, the team received word that the Globetrotters may be invited to appear on an upcoming ABC “Wide World of Sports” program to be filmed at Disney World in Florida.

The team, which Anzivino said has a contract and a 17-year history of dealings with the network, set a scheduling deadline of 2 p.m. Thursday. But that deadline passed, Anzivino said, without a clear decision from the network.

Gerry Olsen, public information officer for Moorpark College, said that as of Thursday, “we have not received tickets and we are not selling tickets for the Sept. 9 game.”

As for the prospect of the Globetrotters’ training camp and game being held, Olsen said, “any announcement regarding this should come from them.”

Olsen said he could not say what the college’s response to a cancellation would be, other than disappointment. Anzivino said school officials have been very cooperative.

The camp, which involves about two dozen players and about 60 Globetrotter personnel, was scheduled to begin Aug. 27 and close Sept. 9 with a game between the Globetrotters and their traditional opponents, the Washington Generals. Tickets were to cost $10 each, with revenues to benefit the Moorpark College athletic program and its 16 teams.

“The people of Moorpark are great,” said Anzivino, a 29-year Globetrotter employee who lives in Agoura. “If we did not do the camp at Moorpark this year, it’s simply a postponement. We will fulfill the commitment next year. In the meantime, if this thing does switch to Florida, we plan to make a contribution to the basketball program.”

The contribution, he said, would be a four-figure cash gift--an amount comparable to the revenue the exhibition game could have generated.

The team’s revenues from the television event in Florida, Anzivino said, are likely to be “in six figures.”