LOOKING OUT FOR THE WINNING IMAGE.

Byline: Barbara Kingsley Orange County Register

Politics, it is said, is perception.

The same goes for sports nowadays, as teams become more anxious to sell fans a glittering new facade.

Ever since Red Grange galloped across the country promoting the fledgling NFL, pro sports has marketed itself to draw fans and fortune.

But only recently have teams and leagues taken a Madison Avenue approach to bolstering their image and get fans into the seats.

Consider:

The Kings are spending $1 million on a marketing plan to woo fans who walked after a string of losing hockey seasons, or who were dismayed by bad business practices after the legal problems of former team owner Bruce McNall.

The Walt Disney Co. is trying to change the image of Gene Autry's dependable but losing California Angels into the hip and aggressive (they hope) Anaheim Angels. Along with cranking up the volume for on-field entertainment, Disney imagineers are busy on a new logo and uniform design ``totally different'' from the old one.

Major League Baseball owners recently hired Greg Murphy, a marketing expert with no sports experience, to head up the newly created Major League Baseball Enterprises. Murphy, who had the job of marketing Kool-Aid after the drink mix was used in 1978 mass suicides in Jonestown, Guyana, was hired to sell pro baseball to ``angry'' and ``disgusted'' fans.

Sports has long been a vehicle for selling Gatorade or Miller Lite. More and more, however, teams are hiring marketing firms and spending money to change their packaging. Like politicians or Post Toasties.

But sports teams are more dynamic than cereal. Winning teams with big stars sell jerseys and beget big crowds, said Al Gobar, who runs an economic consulting firm in Placentia and has studied sports and stadiums in San Diego and other cities.

But not everyone can win. And star players don't always stick around.

``So how do you make up for it?'' Gobar asked. ``You hire a firm to build interest and build the feeling Brooklyn felt for the Dodgers.''

Struggling teams or new ones are trying to build instant loyalty by revamping their image.

And if there's a team that needs an image overhaul, it's the Kings. Attendance has fallen by 2,000 a game, to 13,500, since the team went to the NHL Stanley Cup Finals in 1993. Financial problems - stemming in part from McNall's indictment and guilty plea on fraud charges - meant fans got playoff ticket refunds several months late. And last year, superstar Wayne Gretzky was traded to St. Louis.

The Kings, who finished 24-40-18 last season, lack two of the prerequisites for big crowds - victories and a star player. So the club hired a marketing firm to develop a new image and hype a new L.A.-area arena they hope will be completed in 1999.

``From a marketing perspective you have to look at the Kings as a brand,'' said Ken Willner, vice president and group account supervisor for Rubin Postaer and Associates, a Santa Monica marketing firm handling the Kings account. ``They stand for something we need to change. Whether you're selling autos or a hockey team or a bank, you need to rebrand.''

For the Kings, ``rebranding'' means building a cool, edgy image through TV and radio ads, said John Cimperman, the Kings new vice president of marketing. Where the Mighty Ducks go for families, the Kings will target Gen-Xers, (mostly) men on in-line skates and four-wheelers with a little attitude and a lot of discretionary income. That's the hope, anyway.

The Angels are metamorphasizing, too, by changing the team's logo and uniforms. Disney won't say what the design will be, but Disney Sports Enterprises president Tony Tavares took pains to say they will be completely different from the old. Meanwhile, Disney image engineers in Burbank are busily working on a marketing approach to cleanse fan memory banks of the old Angels image.

Creators are orchestrating the unveiling to that of the renovated Anaheim Stadium, expected to open in 1998.

``It shows fans and players that there is a new sheriff in town,'' Disney Sports spokesman Bill Robertson said. ``That we are looking to make things better, to make things different. Let the past be the past.''

Other pro teams introduced new uniforms to go with a new aura to help fans forget the past. Seven years ago, the Cleveland Indians were a lousy team playing in a stadium that looked like a correctional facility. Now they're a winning young club with a beautiful ballpark. The 42,865-seat Jacobs Field is sold out for every game this season.

Marketing made that metamorphasis sell, Indians spokesman Bob DiBiasio said. Winning was instrumental to sellouts, but they couldn't sell out without a solid marketing strategy.

``People think all you have to do is mind your p's and q's,'' DiBiasio said. ``You need an intelligent approach. You need (marketing) All-Stars. You just can't let it think it's going to sell on it's own.'' With the whole winning package ``people were much more willing to embrace everything we said.''

Fans aren't so willing to embrace the Cincinnati Reds anymore. Even though the club won the World Series in 1990, fans are dwindling due in a large part a poor public image - including suspended owner Marge Schott - and the fact the team is sparely marketed to fans. Resources are plowed back into the team. Purists might like that idea, but a lot of fans don't. Attendance is down 25 percent from 1994.

New wrapping on an old gift doesn't always help in the long run. The Chicago White Sox got dramatic new uniforms in 1991 along with an image repackaging. The clothes generated millions in sales. But attendance is down 34 percent from pre-strike 1994, despite a winning record.

In Oakland, the Raiders hired a big advertising firm, Goldberg, Moser and O'Neill, to create a campaign to sell personal seat licenses. The company launched a flashy and aggressive radio and TV blitz. But ticket sales are still about 6,000 short.

Franchise and free-agent moves mean sports teams are no longer the same revered institutions they were. So they have to sell, sell, sell.

``The fans aren't being developed like they used to be,'' said Phil Schaff, author of ``Sports Marketing: It's Not Just a Game Anymore'' and director of a San Francisco sports consulting firm. ``In the old days, you'd grow up listening to it. You'd grow up and be like Joe DiMaggio.

``Now it's trendy. The tomahawk chop. Kids are Rollerblading. . . . They watch highlights. The game is too boring. They (ballclubs) make money in the swing people. The ones who say, what the heck, `Let's go to the ballpark.' ''

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Photo

Photo: Wayne Gretzky took the Kings' only star appeal withhim when he was traded to St. Louis last season.

David Sprague / Daily News