Harlem Globetrotters look to hone their game plan: new ownership has venture looking toward the future.

Mannie Jackson, the new president and future principal owner of the Hollywood-based Harlem Globetrotters, has a dilemma: How to keep the internationally known basketball team solvent in today's competitive business world while retaining the team's core audience -- kids.

Jackson, a former Globetrotter player who took over the organization last May, said times have changed since the team played its first game 68 years ago and that means the organization must start doing things differently.

"The team has a couple of problems," said 52-year-old Jackson, who is now running the team after buying it from International Broadcasting Co. The company had been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy since 1991.

"The team has been poorly marketed," said Jackson, acknowledging the increasing competition -- particularly from television -- for consumers' entertainment spending and time.

Until recently, all the marketing was done out of the team's headquarters office on Santa Monica Boulevard. Now, said Connie Schwartz, the team's general manager, on-site, pre-game marketing is done in each of the cities the team visits.

Last year the two Harlem Globetrotters teams played games in 250 cities in the United States and about 75 overseas. The team will be at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena on March 20.

The Globetrotters travel around the world playing games that are considered more like a circus act than competitive basketball. They always play the same team -- the Washington Generals -- and they have never lost a game.

The Globetrotter teams are led by what is called a "clown prince," whose antics and fancy moves make him the center of attention at the games.

"We have to know how to position the team better; to understand our audience better and know exactly who they are and why they come to the games," said Jackson.

He said the second major "problem" is finding the next clown prince to appeal to a new generation of fans.

He said the new star of the team will have to be much more sophisticated than previous stars like George Tatum, Marcus Haynes, Meadowlark Lemon, Curly Neal and the current clown prince, "Sweet Lou" Dunbar.

The new star must be equally comfortable in the corporate board room, on television, in the community and on the basketball court, said Jackson.

The next star will have to bring the team into the 21st century and will have to be able to communicate the philosophy of the organization to corporate sponsors and fans alike, he said.

Right now, the team is talking to two prospective new stars whom jackson would not identify.

Jackson, who is a senior vice president and strategic planner at Minneapolis-based Honeywell Inc., said he -- as a personal venture -- and business partner Dennis Mathisen, who operates Marshall Financial investment company in Minnesota, bought the team for about $6 million.

Under the purchase agreement, Jackson will own 60 percent of the team in three years and Mathisen will also then own the balance.

Under the reorganization of International Broadcasting, the main creditor, National Westminster Bank USA, took over control of the company and sold 80 percent of the Globetrotters to Jackson and Mathisen. The plan is for Jackson and Mathisen to purchase the remaining 20 percent in three years.

Jackson is the first African-American president/owner of the team and Schwartz is the first female general manager.

Jackson said essentially what he wants to do with the team is take the lessons he has learned at Honeywell, a company with $6 billion a year in revenues, and use them to turn the Globetrotters into a modern entertainment enterprise.

He has said that his long-term goal is to create an entertainment-industry holding company that would include pay-per-view television, theaters, sports organizations and publications.

The cornerstone of the proposed empire is the Globetrotters.

"One of our biggest problems, and one that confronts our players, is that we are always being challenged by other teams to play serious basketball. But this team has been built as wholesome, family entertainment. Our audience has always been kids and that should continue to be our focus," he said.

The target audience for the team, said Schwartz, still is 7 to 12 year olds, and their parents.

With annual revenues of about $50 million, the team has always made money and was not the cause of International Broadcasting's Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Jackson said.

The two touring teams continue to draw between 1.5 million and 2 million fans a year, which is about equal to attendance figures over the past 20 years, he said.

Jackson, who is 52, scoffs at the idea the Globetrotters have become a bit old fashioned and that fans can go to a National Basketball Association game and see some of the wizardry that made the Globetrotters famous.

"One very important part of our success is our name recognition," he said. "People know exactly what they're going to get when they come see us. They're going to get wholesome family entertainment. There is a market for that and it will always be there.

"And you know it's interesting but we draw best in NBA cities. We sell out the big NBA arenas. When the NBA was down, I think the Globetrotters helped them and now the NBA is doing very well and I think to a degree that has helped us." Jackson, who between his job at Honeywell and running the Globetrotters is traveling almost constantly, indicated that the team's headquarters could be moved out of Hollywood.

When asked if he would move the headquarters to Minneapolis, where he lives, Jackson responded, "I don't know."

There are about 20 people who work in the Globetrotters headquarters office.