Salsa Is Adding Spice to Southland Soccer : Start-up franchise: The team appears to have a realistic outlook on its role in the sports scene.

Rick Davis is well aware of professional soccer’s history in the Los Angeles area.

“Let’s see, the Aztecs, the Surf, the Sunshine,” he says. “Depends on how far back you want to go. The Heat, the Emperors. . . .

“Of course, you had the Lazers, an indoor team. Six or seven teams have come and gone.”

Into the breach steps the Los Angeles Salsa, a new American Professional Soccer League team that is already off to a 4-2 start.

As the Salsa’s general manager, Davis isn’t promising a league championship. He isn’t boasting about bringing in big-name stars on big-league contracts.

And he is offering no gimmicks in an attempt to draw fans.

“I think we’re pretty in tune with who we are and where we’re headed,” said Davis, who was captain of the U.S. national team for 10 years. “We’re not trying to compete with the Rams and the Dodgers and the Angels. We’re a sport trying to grasp our share of the market.

“We’re putting a product out there that we feel is entertaining. If nothing else, we hope we’re entertaining to the soccer community.

“If you’re an aspiring young player, you can come and watch the L.A. Salsa and learn things.”

But don’t ask Coach Rildo Menezes about his key players.

“I don’t want to name names,” Menezes said. “It might hurt the feelings of the other players.”

The APSL is a seven-team league that began in 1990. Its roots were in the old North American Soccer League--former home of the New York Cosmos and Pele--with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Ft. Lauderdale Strikers and Toronto Blizzard. But those who were involved in both the NASL and APSL are a bit older and wiser now.

“In our case, I think (the APSL) is a better plan,” said Davis, who played for the Cosmos. “It doesn’t have an identity crisis. Teams in the NASL wanted to be much bigger than what the market would bear. Owners figured that by spending money, people would come.

“That’s not true. It’s not football. One pitfall of the NASL is that it wasn’t Americanized enough.”

To that end, the APSL mandates that 11 players on each 18-man roster must be citizens of the team’s country.

“Basically, it’s a case of the league wanting to establish itself as the premier league in our country,” Davis said. “There are a lot of clouded waters (in soccer), like indoor, semi-pro. . . . A lot of people confused the (United States Inter-Regional Soccer League with the APSL), but it (the USISL) is really a lot lower caliber.”

Salsa followers, though, probably will become familiar with that league by summer’s end, because the team already has established somewhat of a farm system. The East Los Angeles Cobras have joined the USISL as the Salsa’s reserve club.

That move fits in with Davis’ broader goal, which is to create a franchise with a solid foundation and some stability in Los Angeles.

“The idea is we’re trying to create a club structure where we will start to identify and develop our own talent and work them up through the ranks,” Davis said.

He also said team owner William De La Pena, a Los Angeles ophthalmologist, is resigned to losing money. Even the best scenario this season has the Salsa losing in the “six figures,” Davis said.

The player salaries range from $30,000 to $60,000. The team, which plays its home games at Cal State Fullerton, has sold about 1,000 season tickets and has averaged about 3,750 fans for its first four home dates.

“I’d like to think that with a little time, it’s not unrealistic to think we couldn’t sell out 10,000 seats for the bigger rivalries,” Davis said.

The biggest question is what kind of soccer fans will see. Davis--and particularly Menezes--are comfortable with the team they have put together.

“This team can do very good,” Menezes said. “I look for the team to be in the playoffs and in the finals.”

Early indications are that the Salsa forwards, Paul Wright and Dale Ervine, will be strong. Both played in the Major Indoor Soccer League--Wright with San Diego and Ervine with Wichita, where he broke the league record for goals in a season by an American when he scored 62 in the 1991-92 season.

Davis also said he thinks the Salsa’s midfielders, Paulinho Criciuma and Mike Fox, will be solid. Paulinho--who prefers to go by one name, in the fashion of most Brazilian players--led Botafogo F.C. to the Brazilian national championship in 1988.

Fox, from La Verne, played soccer at Cal State Fullerton before joining the Cosmos and then moving indoors with Wichita, the L.A. Heat and the California Emperors.

Defender Arturo Velazco was an integral part of San Diego’s 1989 indoor championship, and Thor Lee, another defender, was with the APSL’s Salt Lake City Sting last season.

And don’t be surprised if you see a few basketball scouts at Salsa games. Goalkeeper Ian Feuer is 6 feet 7.

“We’d like to think we’ll win some games,” Davis said. “With the quality of team we’ve put together, I think we’ll be competitive and think the playoffs are a possibility.

“Secondly, we’d like to think we can establish a solid core of 2,000 to 3,000 fans. . . . I’ve always been a big believer that you want to make sure people are getting good value for what they’re spending, and you want to make sure that when people walk out of our stadium, they feel pleased.

“If we can accomplish that, I think it will be a terrific year.”