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THE MAGNIFICENT 7, MINUS 1 POWER STRUGGLE

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The first shot in the gymnastics war of 1996 was the sound of ligaments popping in the left ankle of Kerri Strug, leaving one good little soldier wounded and hobbled on the battleground of Atlanta.

This was soon followed by the rat-tat-tat attack of newspaper cameras, waves of symphonic strings set to heart-tugging television slow motion and John Tesh flinging the bomb-bay doors wide open.

Before young Kerri’s head could stop spinning, she had been proclaimed a bona fide American hero, carried into the spotlight in the arms of Bela Karolyi--a made-for-a-postage-stamp scene lacking only fife and drum.

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One small leap for an American Olympic gymnast, one giant wedge driven into the postproduction party.

The ranks of the United States’ gold medal-winning women’s gymnastics team began the great divide that night on the Georgia Dome victory podium. Seven gymnasts had just combined to achieve the unprecedented--the United States’ first team gold medal in Olympic women’s gymnastics--but only one received the personal escort treatment from Karolyi, who has always had a keen nose for the news and a public-relations phenomenon in the making.

The dissolution of the “Magnificent Seven” began then and there, soon to be exacerbated in the post-Atlanta scramble to clean up while the iron was hot. When it came time to assemble the triumphant all-for-one-and-one-for-all tour of the country, Strug went one way and the remaining Magnificent Six went the other, leading us to tonight’s double gymnastics billing:

At the Pond of Anaheim, Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes, Amy Chow, Jaycie Phelps and Amanda Borden will perform as part of the John Hancock Tour of World Gymnastics Champions.

At the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa., Strug will be headlining, along with Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci, the latest stopover in the World Gold Gymnastics Tour.

Or, in the common behind-the-scenes shorthand:

The Kerri tour is in State College, the non-Kerri tour is in Anaheim.

Or, if that isn’t clarification enough:

The Magnificent Seven Minus One tour is here, the Cash-and-Kerri tour is over there.

Two national gymnastics tours, bidding for the same marquee names, competing for the same headlines, trying to turn a profit at the same time, with acrimony and vitriol volleyed between the rival camps.

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Is the country ready for this?

Is the sport of gymnastics ready for this?

“It’s gotten kinda wild, hasn’t it?” says Conner, an individual gold medalist in 1984 who also works as television gymnastics analyst. “It’s gotten pretty intense.

“What’s funny about it is that people in gymnastics always wanted gymnastics to be seen as a major, big-time sport. Well, now we’ve got agents back-stabbing each other, athletes holding out for more money. It sounds like we’ve made it.”

Producers for the tours rant on about who staked out which territory first, who’s piggy-backing whom, who’s stealing ideas, who’s manipulating and exploiting the names of suddenly famous gymnasts in the pursuit of box office.

According to Kathy Scanlan, president of USA Gymnastics, the federation struck a deal “in late 1994” with Bill Graham Presents and Jefferson-Pilot Sports to produce the John Hancock tour after the 1996 Olympics. Before the Atlanta Games, three gymnasts--Miller, Dawes and Moceanu--had already signed contracts with the Hancock tour.

Those contracts were to pay each gymnast $1,500-$3,500 a show for a 34-city tour. But that was long before the gold medal, long before Strug went from utility player to overnight sensation with one captivating, excruciating final vault.

Suddenly, Strug and her teammates were marketable commodities. Three other potential tours began rattling around, making noise about paying the gymnasts “what they’re worth.” The only one to survive the rumor stage, though, was the World Gold tour, assembled by Magic Promotions and Theatricals and International Management Group.

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Magic-IMG was said to be offering $10,000-$20,000 a show. Strug was offered more than $1 million for the entire 50-city tour, an offer she eventually chose not to refuse.

Dawes, although already under contract to the Hancock tour, took a second look at those extra zeros and decided to look into the rival tour. She stayed put, she says, because, “I just decided to do the tour with the rest of my teammates because I thought it would be more fun. There was no reason to go out on my own.”

Besides, Stan Feig, co-producer of the Hancock tour, refused to let Dawes out of her contract.

“I made a deal for this tour with the [USA Gymnastics] federation a couple years ago,” Feig says. “I committed to them then. . . . I put myself at risk. If the team falls flat in Atlanta, I could have lost a couple million dollars.”

Then, afterward, there’s an American gold medal and rival tour angling for Feig’s star attractions, accusing Feig’s tour of exploitation.

“We struck a great deal for the federation, a win-win for everybody,” Feig says. “We paid for the team’s pre-Olympic training camp in Greensboro [N.C.]. We donated a $90,000 podium to the federation. We did everything we could up front, but unfortunately some people come on the scene at the last minute saying, ‘We’ll offer you a few thousand more and screw the other people.’

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“They’re just a bunch of sharks in a feeding frenzy, people who didn’t understand the economics at the time. It’s easier to have hindsight than to have foresight.”

Paul Ziert, show producer and director of choreography for the World Gold tour, has another take on that.

“We got depicted by the other folks as jumping on the bandwagon, but I’ve been producing gymnastics shows from 1990 on,” he says. “We’ve done hundreds of shows since then.”

Ziert says the gymnasts on his tour “are happier” because “we’re paying them what they’re worth.” He points out after the World Gold tour began offering five-figure paychecks per show, USA Gymnastics had to use some of its own money to increase the Hancock tour’s per-show payment to $6,000.

“I know the guys producing the other tour and they would have gone out and paid these little girls $1,500,” Ziert says. “The contract they signed has a cap of $3,500--anything above that comes out of the federation.

“I think the federation’s a little embarrassed by that. They had to step in and take some money out of their coffers.”

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Scanlan admits that the federation is contributing to the payment of the Hancock tour gymnasts, using royalty money from ticket sales.

“When we found out we had extra money because ticket sales were going so well, we decided to give additional money to the Olympians,” Scanlan says.

“That’s only fair. That’s why we’re in the business--to support coaches and athletes.”

*

Tour war has only just begun--the World Gold tour started two weeks ago, two months after the Hancock tour opened--but already Hancock’s Feig is claiming victory.

“We are going to sell out 29 of 34 dates,” Feig says. “We’ll do just about 500,000 in the 34 cities combined.”

The other tour?

Well, two dates at Radio City Music Hall in New York had to be canceled after fewer than 1,000 tickets had been sold, and shows in Hartford, Conn.; Albany, N.Y., and Buffalo have already been rescheduled. After four shows, the World Gold tour is averaging about 5,000 at the gate--roughly 9,000 fewer than the Hancock tour.

“The other tour is bleeding to death,” Feig crows. “I don’t think there’s room for two [gymnastics] tours because the Olympic team is already represented. One ‘name’ athlete isn’t going to carry an entire tour.

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“But it’s America, it’s a free country, and anybody can do a tour. And anyone can lose money. And they are losing money--a lot of money.”

Feig points to the itineraries of both tours. His tour has stopped in Dallas, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago and Atlanta.

The World Gold tour, which intentionally avoided venues already visited by the rival tour, has so far played Syracuse, N.Y.; Durham, N.H.; and East Lansing and Grand Rapids, Mich.

“Last Sunday night, Kerri Strug was in Grand Rapids,” Feig says. “I view it as a major mistake. What has been done with Kerri’s career has been very bad. . . .

“I don’t blame her one bit. She’s not the one making all the decisions. She has people doing that for her, and she’s getting some of the worst sports-marketing advice in history.”

Strug’s agent, Leigh Steinberg, describes the low turnout for Strug and Co. as “endemic to the business. It’s like starting up a Broadway show. It takes a while to build up the word of mouth.”

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And Strug?

“I’m happy with my decision,” she says. “I like the tour and what it’s trying to do for gymnastics. The people have been really great to me, working around my school schedule and dealing with my ankle.”

Unlike Miller, Dawes and Chow, college students who took a semester off to participate in the Hancock tour, Strug is enrolled and taking classes at UCLA.

“This tour was a lot more willing to deal with my schedule because all the shows are on weekends,” Strug says.

Also, Strug says, starting this tour in November, rather than September, gave her ankle more time to heal.

“It’s still not 100%” she says. “I tore some ligaments. It’s going to take a long time before it heals completely. They’ve designed the show so I do less landings.”

She acknowledges, “Yeah, originally ticket sales weren’t that great, but now that the tour has started, tickets are starting to pick up. The show is really good. Too bad for those people who missed out.”

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So, the Magnificent Seven no longer ride together. Dawes says “it’s too bad” Strug isn’t with the others in Anaheim. Miller calls it “a little bit disappointing,” but notes, “We’re getting along with who we have. We’re filling arenas and many places are asking us to stay another night. We’ve already agreed to extra dates in January and February.”

Feig sizes up the situation a bit less delicately.

“My box office would not have been 10 cents greater if we’d had seven of seven,” he says. “It would’ve been nice, but my six girls are doing just fine.

“Maybe one of these days, my phone will ring,” he muses, “and we’ll have seven.”

Strug doesn’t rule out the possibility.

“Sure, I’d like to do things with my teammates again,” she says. “We accomplished something that was special. I’ll always have a special bond with them. . . .

“I know their tour is doing well and that’s great. That’s great for gymnastics. But, you know, there’s tons of figure skating tours. There’s room for more than one gymnastics tour.

“The United States is a big place. If you like gymnastics, I’m sure you’d like to go more than once.”

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