Strikeout for Stadium Refreshment Stand TV

There you are in a long line, waiting your turn to buy nachos and beer at a San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium concession stand when the fans erupt in a roar of agony or ecstasy that makes you know that you’ve just missed another big play.

Diane Annala, administrative aide to Councilman Mike Gotch, has been in that unenviable position too many times to count. (“You know men,” she says. “They always send the women out for the beer because they don’t want to miss anything.”)

On one of those occasions, she came up with the idea of installing closed-circuit television sets in the concession booths so that the fans waiting for food and drink wouldn’t miss the action on the playing field.

She mentioned her idea to some higher-up over a year ago, pointing out that it would probably increase concession stand sales, shorten the waiting lines (“because people won’t all wait until an intermission to go for beer”) and “improve people’s attitudes toward each other” with less pushing and shoving and fewer overheated tempers.

But Annala’s idea, born of adversity, appeared close to death Thursday.

Officials from Servomation Duchess Inc. informed San Diego Stadium Authority members Thursday that they have no money to spend on television monitors for their concession stands. A major modernization and expansion of the concession facilities had gone over budget, they said.

John Worcester, Servomation staff assistant, explained that during early stages of the firm’s stadium improvement project, “we anticipated that we would have surplus funds that could be used for the television installations.”

But, as the renovation program came down to its final phase, the surplus had disappeared and a deficit was building, he said. Servomation’s concession plan will more than double the number of food service points at the stadium--from 101 to 207--which should cut down on the length of lines and speed service, Worcester said.

Worcester said that Servomation “is willing to work with anyone and everyone” to complete the television project, “but we just don’t have the money” to install 80 sets at an estimated $1,000 per set.

Authority member Gil Johnson wasn’t satisfied with that explanation. “If we’d known earlier, perhaps something could have been done,” Johnson said.

“Some of us felt that this was an important part of the (concession stand improvements) contract. We want the fans to be able to see what’s happening on the field . . . I don’t know whether it was part of the contract or not, but, to me, it was part of a moral contract you had with us.”

Stadium Authority members instructed the staff to check with other stadiums’ management to determine if the television monitors had sufficiently increased concession revenues to warrant the cost of installation. They also scheduled a meeting of stadium users, city officials and Servomation representatives to discuss funding sources for the television system.