Crush’s future plans remain in question

Bryce Alderton

The future of the Costa Mesa-based Orange County Crush professional

basketball team remains cloudy, but franchise officials hope to have

more answers ready come 3 p.m. Friday.

That’s when attorneys, players, coaches and owners of the county’s

first pro basketball franchise will meet at the Atrium hotel across

from John Wayne Airport to discuss what lies ahead for the American

Basketball Association organization that has suffered its share of

setbacks the past month.

The latest twist involves players’ salaries.

Crush Coach Earl Cureton said players hadn’t received checks for

the prior two pay periods as of Tuesday afternoon while also awaiting

compensation for he and his assistants.

Tuesday was the first day the Crush, which has roared to an 8-1

start -- second to Utah in the league -- in its inaugural season,

hadn’t practiced, Cureton said.

“We are wondering what is going on and what is going to happen

[with salaries and the team’s future],” Cureton said.

General Manager Kevin Copeland, one of the team’s four owners,

said the holidays pushed financial handlings such as payroll back a

week, but added that he and colleagues hoped to resolve the delay by

the end of this week.

“The [alleged ticket-pricing discrepancy involving the Crush, the

Bren Events Center at UC Irvine and Ticketmaster] was catastrophic

and we are still recovering from that,” said Copeland, who denied the

team’s future was in jeopardy Tuesday.

The Crush played just one game at the Bren Center, a Dec. 9

victory over the Las Vegas Rattlers, before postponing all remaining

home contests late last month, which reached four with Monday’s game

against Bellevue.

Attorneys with the Crush, Bren Center and Ticketmaster are

attempting to resolve the alleged ticket discrepancy that affected

fans trying to purchase tickets on Ticketmaster’s website for the

Dec. 9 game. An e-mail from a fan sent to Copeland the morning of

Dec. 9 showed a $50 convenience charge for fans wishing to purchase

$10 reserved-level tickets.

Copeland said the mysterious fee resulted in a drop in attendance

for the game, which featured former NBA rebound champion Dennis

Rodman’s only appearance in a Crush uniform.

The Crush granted Rodman’s request for a release Dec. 14 and the

former Newport Beach resident signed with his former team, the Long

Beach Jam, a day later.

Team owners are looking into possible venue sites, which include

the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, to stage potential home

games, which they contend will all be completed before the playoffs.

Cureton, who guided Long Beach to the ABA championship last

season, would like the team to remain in Orange County.

“This is a great community to have a basketball team with a chance

to create a fan base,” Cureton said. “Just about everyone is

supportive of what we are doing. We have former NBA guys like Eric

Chenowith and Juaquin Hawkins. All these guys want to play and win.

If this works out, we are in a quality situation to possibly win a

championship for [county residents] this year.”