THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Beauty is often worse
than wine; intoxicating
both the holder and behol-
der.
—Zimmerman
Imported' Athletes Are an Expensive
Proposition for Israel's Sports Teams
By HASKELL COHEN
(Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.)
TEL AVIV — With so
many American basketball
players, both Jewish and
non-Jewish, choosing to
play in Israel, the sport
authorities here are dis-
turbed over the growing
"professionalism" in bas-
ketball, similar to what is
happening in soccer.
In fact, the sports com-
ittee of Hapoel, which is
e sports organization of
the Histadrut, Israel's labor
federation recently recom-
mended through former
Education Minister Aharon
Yadlin that members of its
soccer and basketball teams
go professional. Actually,
by American standards,
almost all the top Leagues
in Israel would be already
classified as professional.
Yadlin made his report in
conjunction with a 16-man
committee after a year of
studying Hapoel's policy in
the fields of basketball and
soccer.
It was agreed by the
committee that Israeli
athletes already receive
payments and benefits of all
kinds, albeit they are not
designated as salaries. This
is an evasive sort of situa-
tion in order to give the
players certain tax shelters.
It's Yadlin's contention that
the term "professionalism"
should not be considered a
nasty word in Israeli sport
ranks.
As to where the money
will come from, the com-
mittee thought that it
might be feasible for var-
ious institutions,
Hapoel-affiliated man-
ufacturing firms, or dis-
tributors of national
products, to back the
Hapoel teams financially.
As a matter of fact, as of
the moment, several of
the Israeli teams already
are backed to a certain
extent by leading Israel
manufacturers.
For example, the Maccabi
Tel Aviv (basketball team)
has for the past several
years, had the financial
support of the Elite choco-
late people. In more recent
years several other com-
panies have joined the fold
and have added their initia-
tion fees to that of the Elite
people and now are having
their logos emblazened on
soccer and basketball jer-
seys which are used by the
spective teams involved.
So far as money at the
gate is concerned, there is
very little of it coming in.
The games in both soccer
and basketball are, I would
say, only fairly attended. In
most cases they are poorly
attended.
During my stay here I
have had the opportunity of
watching a basketball game
between two Maccabi teams
with maybe three dozen
people in the stands. It's
true that one of the games
was played in the outskirts
of the city of Tel Aviv which
made travel burdensome
and in addition there we-
ren't .enough stands erected
1111
to accommodate too many
spectators.
Furthermore, I had the
opportunity to see a hot
match between Hapoel
Tel Aviv and Hapoel
Ramat Gan at which a
crowd of approximately
2,000 attended. In my
third game, which also
was basketball, I saw the
Maccabi Tel Aviv Five
rout the Hapoil Haifa
aggregation before 800
beligerant fans.
It proves to me that the
sports-minded people of Is-
rael, despite their affilia-
tion. with the respective
clubs, be it Maccabi,
Hapoel, Betar, or Elizur; do
not come out in droves to
watch their idols perform.
The only sell outs in bas-
ketball occur when the
Maccabi Tel Aviv team, a
perennial winner, meets
teams from foreign coun-
tries in the competition for
the European FIBA Cham-
pionship. Basically these
FIBA games are sold out be-
fore the season gets under
way. The Maccabi people
know how to promote these
contests and have a season
ticket arrangement, selling
some ten games in a group,
to their fans.
Since the SportHall in Tel
Aviv accommodates 10,000
pe'_-,ple it is estimated that
02roximately 100,000 tic-
kets are sold to the ten
games Maccabi plays with
foreign opponents. This
means that a bundle of
money is cached away.
Since this money comes in,
in droves and is available
well before the season gets
underway the Maccabi
organization is in a position
to invest it and they do so
very wisely.
While no figures are re-
leased as to how much
the players are now
payed, since they are not
professional, to cover
their expenses, it is fairly
well established that Au-
lcie Perry of the Maccabi
quintet is reimbursed to
the tune of $50,000, au-
stensibly to take care of
his "expenses."
The Maccabi team has a
very juicy payroll which I
would say, without any fear
of contradiction, is far
heavier than say any club in
the Continental Basketball
League, operating across
the continental United
States and in Hawaii and
Alaska. It's conceivable
that Earl Williams, late of
the Boston Celtics, is not far
behind Perry in "expense
money."
Another who is high on
the "expense" list of the
Maccabi Five would be Mic-
key Berkowitz, a Sabra,
who attempted to crack an
NBA roster, last year, with-
out success. There happens
to be two other Americans
who play for the same club,
who have lucrative expense
accounts — namely Jim
Boatwright and Lou Silver,
the former Harvard Uni-
versity ace, who married an
Israeli girl and is now
finishing up his law studies
,at_Tel Aviv University.
At least three other
American players, all
Jewish, now disporting with
a Hapeol quintet are in
$20,000-$40,000 bracket.
What used to be a nice
little compact National
League has mushroomed
into a real professional
loop and only time will
tell how many of the
clubs involved, today,
will be able to survive the
high cost of importing
Friday, November 28, 1980 21
foreign players, particu-
larly from the States.
Israel's National Basket-
ball League is in for a lot of
trouble if it continues to pay
such high salaries to its
foreign imports.
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