Breaking sharply from family-oriented ticket-marketing programs of recent seasons, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA will tonight begin also marketing their team to the Southern California lesbian community.

The team, after a training camp practice at L.A. Southwest College, will board a bus bound for West Hollywood to hold a 10 p.m. preseason pep rally with Girl Bar Los Angeles, a dance club.

Girl Bar Los Angeles, co-founder Sandy Sachs said, is the nation's largest lesbian club with about 12,000 members. The rally will be held at the Factory, a West Hollywood nightclub. A crowd of 1,200-1,500 is expected, Sachs said.

Tonight's rally with an openly gay group is believed to be a WNBA first.

"It came about through conversations with Penny Toler [the Sparks' general manager] and Michael Harris [the team's advertising director]," Sachs said.

"There are a lot of women who don't know who the Sparks are, and the Sparks felt this was a way to reach out to this particular market. We're going to have a band, WNBA basketballs, T-shirts--we're going to get a lot of women excited about this team.

"Since we decided to do this, we've sold 75 Spark tickets in just the last two days. The Sparks are giving us a four-game premium ticket package. They're also donating 20 pairs of tickets."

Johnny Buss, the Sparks' president, did not return a call Thursday but the Lakers' vice president of finance, Joe McCormack, who has lately played an increasingly active role in management of the Sparks, called tonight's rally a broadening of the team's existing marketing programs.

"We want to market this basketball team to fans whoever they might be, be they an inner-city youth basketball team or someone of an alternate lifestyle," he said.

Sachs called the rally a "precedent-setting" marketing move by the Sparks.

"They're actively pursuing the lesbian community," she said.

Tonight's rally will carry a $10 cover charge for Girl Bar members, $15 for nonmembers.

The move indicates clearly that the Sparks want to attract more fans in their first season at Staples Center. Their home opener is June 5 against the Cleveland Rockers.

In their final Forum season last summer, the club averaged 7,625 a game, 10th best in a 16-team league. Spark home attendance has declined every season since the inaugural 1997 team averaged 8,931.

The move to openly market the team to the lesbian community is a departure from previous sales programs. In a 1998 Sports Illustrated article, Buss said this of lesbian fans of his team:

"I know the lesbian community is showing up, so I leave them alone. I'd rather focus on pulling in more males. Would it hurt if most of our spectators were lesbian? That's hard to say."

Until now, Buss was adamant that Spark ticket-marketing programs would focus on families.

WNBA officials in New York had no comment on the rally, one calling it a "local promotion; a team matter."

Said Sachs: "This is a smart move for the Sparks. They recognize and are reaching out to the very core of their fan base."