Profits Up for Spring Basketball : Business: Despite complaints of high fees, privately operated leagues continue to attract prep players.

A year ago, Jim Perry told the Southern Section’s general council that it was time to eliminate profitable, privately run spring basketball leagues.

Perry, athletic director at La Quinta High School, was speaking on behalf of the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Assn. (SCIBCA), of which he is a former president. He told principals and league representatives that players were paying $90 to $125 to participate in eight-week leagues that are independent of the section’s high schools.

Perry’s major concerns were Rich Goldberg’s American Roundball Corp.’s Future Stars League and Issy Washington’s Basketball Congress International Slam-n-Jam League, which operate from late March to mid-May.

“We’re finding that some players are developing bad habits and inflated egos by playing in these leagues,” Perry told the council. “They (the players) have divided loyalties between their schools and league all-stars (teams) that surface during the summer, when it’s time for national tournaments.

“The kids want to play, and we’d like the opportunity to provide them an alternative that won’t cost a kid’s parents $125.”

A year later, the spring basketball business has never been better--or more profitable.

Goldberg’s Future Stars League is in its 10th season, with 1,800 players on 179 teams at 11 sites throughout Southern California. Boys from the seventh to 12th grades pay $110 cash or $125 by check to compete once a week for eight weeks.

Washington’s Slam-n-Jam League, in its 14th season, has about 600 players participating on 58 teams at four locations. Washington offers 10 weeks of competition to high school boys--for $130--on three levels: junior varsity, varsity and franchise teams, which are composed of 1992’s elite graduating seniors.

Washington said he turned away about 200 players. Goldberg said he has a waiting list at 10 sites, including the league’s county headquarters at Westminster High. Yucaipa was the only site that failed to fill.

Spring league promoters, players and their parents contend basketball keeps kids off the streets and away from gangs and drugs. But at what price for what is essentially recreational basketball?

Simple mathematics makes a good case for Perry’s position: Based on the entry fees and number of players, Slam-n-Jam would gross about $78,000, although Washington insists that fees for many lower income, inner-city families were waived. Future Stars would gross about $200,000, but again, Goldberg said he waives entry fees for low-income families.

The promoters point to rising rents for gyms, insurance, officials’ fees and supervision costs when asked about profits, plus the cost of equipment: each player in both leagues gets shoes, shorts and tank tops. Promoters also contend that their leagues are worth the cost because they are well-organized and the players receive exposure to college recruiters.

But neither would disclose the profits he expected to make this year.

“The biggest criticism of these leagues is that the money that parents are shelling out so that kids can play isn’t spread out to everyone who is involved,” said Dean Crowley, section associate commissioner. “There’s only a handful of people putting big money in their pockets.”

Goldberg, who owns a Burbank sporting goods store, runs his leagues out of an office converted from a garage at his Van Nuys home. He spends three nights a week plus weekends at locations from Santa Barbara to Westminster, Yucaipa to Palmdale. He also has leagues in 45 cities around the country, from Bloomington, Ind., to Seattle.

Goldberg’s most successful operation is in the San Fernando Valley, where 48 teams compete at North Hollywood and Montclair Prep high schools. Goldberg’s Valley league has showcased some of Southern California’s finest players--Terry Mills, Trevor Wilson, Don MacLean and Sean Higgins.

But despite his success, he admits he also has his share of critics.

“The biggest criticism of our league is the price,” Goldberg said. “People will say, ‘You’re sponsored by LA Gear, how can you charge a kid $125 to play?’ But I pay a good percentage of a kid’s entry fee for the shoes. Contrary to what most people think, we don’t get free shoes.”

Washington played basketball at the University of Puget Sound and was later stationed in the Los Angeles area for most of his 20-year Air Force career. In 1979, Washington and Walt Hazzard, then coach at Compton College, founded Slam-n-Jam.

Washington says more than 400 Slam-n-Jam players have received scholarships to Division I colleges. He points with great pride to the Scholastic Aptitude Test preparation course that his league offers at Compton College on Saturdays.

Most coaches agree that Washington runs the best league.

“Issy does it for the kids and not the almighty dollar,” Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight said. “Issy’s league is the original, and as far as I’m concerned, still the No. 1 spring league.”

Still, Washington has his critics, such as Perry’s concerns about players developing “bad habits.” Others contend some of the eight franchise coaches take the league too seriously, hoping it will lead to professional advancement.

“I have to wonder about a coach who practices twice a week for a spring game,” McKnight said. “These leagues should only be recreation for the kids, and they don’t need to be run by coaches who use a league to try and catapult to a college job.”

Washington isn’t as defensive as Goldberg about his league, preferring to laugh at the criticism.

“Whether I have a league or not, a ballplayer is going to play somewhere,” he said. “Many of those who criticize me have never come down to Compton or Carson and watched what we do.

“I think it’s funny when I hear a coach say we’re promoting bad habits on the court. A high school coach has a kid from September to March. I have him for eight weeks. If they have a bad habit, they got it long before they came to my league.”

With coaches’ concerns mounting, administrators of the SCIBCA scheduled a meeting with spring and summer league promoters two months ago at Glendora High.

Ray Plutko, principal at Charter Oak High and former commissioner of the Southern Section, said the association went on record saying that paying $125 to play once a week for eight weeks was too much.

“Our concern is that not all kids have the opportunity to play at an affordable rate,” Plutko said.

SCIBCA is preparing to sponsor an alternative league next spring and hopes to have a proposal ready for the Southern Section’s general council meeting in January.

“We’re hopeful of putting together a spring league in which a kid will pay $25,” Plutko said. “There will always be a spring league for the blue-chip players, and that’s fine. We’d like to accommodate the junior varsity and fringe varsity players.

“Our focus is not to be in competition with Issy Washington or Rich Goldberg. We want to provide an alternative that will allow more to participate at a lower cost.”