POP MUSIC / THOMAS K. ARNOLD : Quinn Entered the Arena, and Success Soon Followed

It was exactly 20 years ago this month that Phil Quinn joined the staff of the San Diego Sports Arena as ticket office manager. Two years later, he was promoted to his present position of executive vice president and general manager, and, under his leadership, the arena soon became a regular pit stop for touring pop superstars.

Last February, the Sports Arena’s continued success with concerts was officially acknowledged when Performance magazine presented what many local music industry insiders refer to as “the House That Quinn Built” with its prestigious Arena of the Year award, based on a nationwide poll of tour managers, agents, promoters and performers.

In the meantime, however, lots of things have changed, Quinn said. In 1969, the average price of a concert ticket was $3.75, and the annual number of arena shows was fewer than a dozen. Today, tickets rarely cost less than $20, and “this year, I think we’re going to end up with about 27 concerts,” Quinn said.

Concert seating arrangements have also changed.

“We used to have open seating, so, if you wanted to sit up close, you had to get there early,” Quinn recalled. “But about 10 years ago, right after that Who concert in Cincinnati where 11 people got crushed to death as the crowd stormed through the gates, I made the decision to go with strictly reserved seating.

“I could see the same thing happening here--for some concerts, people started lining up at 9 in the morning, and the show wasn’t until 8 p.m. It was just chaotic, an accident waiting to happen.”

After two decades at the helm of what has long been San Diego’s busiest indoor concert venue, Quinn has plenty of memories, both good and bad.

Among the good: Meeting Elvis Presley the last time the King played the arena, nine months before his death.

“We did maybe three or four shows with Elvis,” Quinn said, “and each time, Colonel Parker would ask me to come backstage after the show and meet him.

“And each time I refused, because my basic philosophy is that the performers have their job to do, and I have mine--and they don’t need me running around down there and bothering them anymore than I need them running around up here and bothering me.

“So we had this routine going, and I think it upset him (Parker)--because on what turned out to be Elvis’ last appearance at the arena, I was sitting in my office when the Colonel called me and said, ‘I have a problem, Phil, and I need you here backstage. It’s an emergency.’

“But, when I got there, the Colonel pulled me into a little room and said, ‘I’ve been trying to get you to meet Elvis for all these years, and tonight you’re going to do it.’ And the next thing I know, Elvis walks in, the Colonel introduces us, and then he runs out the door, leaving us alone for a good 10 minutes.”

Among the bad: watching a mob of irate Rolling Stones fans torch a nearby restaurant because there were no more tickets left to the group’s arena show.

“It was back in the early 1970s,” Quinn said. “The concert had been sold out for days, but a bunch of people without tickets showed up anyway, clamoring to get in. They started causing problems in the parking lot, and then they spilled out across the street, eventually firebombing the Gull’s Nest restaurant.

“Fortunately, that’s been the only big unrest we’ve had at the arena in the 24 years the building has been there.”

Quinn, 52, was born and raised in Santa Monica and moved to San Diego in the mid-1950s to attend what was then San Diego State College.

“Once I got here, I said to myself, ‘I’m not going back,’ ” he laughed.

After graduating in 1957 with a bachelor’s degree in business management, Quinn took a job with National General Theaters (now Mann Theaters) and spent the next 12 years “managing every local theater known to man,” he said--eventually winding up at Cinema 21 in Mission Valley.

But, by 1969, Quinn had had enough of the movie business, and, when he heard that the fledgling San Diego Sports Arena was looking for a new ticket office manager, he immediately applied for the job.

“I’ve only had two jobs in my life, and if I had it to do all over again, I would do the same thing,” he said.

“Anybody in any job has got to enjoy that job to make it worthwhile. And I certainly enjoy my job. Otherwise, I wouldn’t still be here.”

LINER NOTES: The Bacchanal has expanded into the recently vacated storefront next door, boosting the Kearny Mesa nightclub’s capacity by as much as 50%--from 500 to 750 (pending approval from the fire marshal). The expansion, said co-owner Jeff Gaulton, “will let us become much more aggressive in going after some of the bigger acts, especially in the winter, when the outdoor venues where they normally play aren’t open.” . . . In the rider for their concert Sunday at the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park, the Doobie Brothers requested “5 dozen carnations with wire removed.” It seems the resurrected Doobies have also resurrected their old habit of tossing carnations into the audience at the end of their shows. . . . The date of David Byrne’s Starlight Bowl show has been moved from Oct. 15 to Oct. 17. . . . The Tom Tom Club has replaced Neneh Cherry as the opening act for the Fine Young Cannibals, who will be at the Starlight on Oct. 4.

Best concert bets for the coming week: the Bonedaddys, tonight at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach; John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Thursday at the Belly Up; Little Milton, Friday at the Bacchanal; and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Oct. 2 at the Bacchanal.