Fullerton May Get Help to Build Stadium : Finances: City Council will consider retaining prominent fund-raiser for Titan Sports Complex.

The City of Fullerton is in the process of hiring a professional fund-raiser to generate money for the Titan Sports Complex, Cal State Fullerton’s on-campus stadium that is scheduled for ground breaking this summer.

The Fullerton City Council will consider on April 17 a proposal to retain Robert Sharp, a prominent Orange County fund-raiser. City Councilman Dick Ackerman said Cal State Fullerton President Jewel Plummer Cobb already has approved the proposal.

“The university has agreed to it, so it should happen,” said Ackerman, who also serves on the Sports Complex Building Committee. “We thought we could raise all the money ourselves, but with the urgency being a little greater than before, we thought we should get professional help.”

The price tag on the project, which includes a 10,000-seat multipurpose stadium, a 1,500-seat baseball stadium, running track and 12 tennis courts, has risen from $6.7 million in July, 1988, to $10.2 million in October, 1989, and to $12.6 million two weeks ago.

The building committee is in the process of scaling back the project to save costs. Construction of the track and soccer field, baseball press box and relocation of tennis courts are among the parts of the project that might be postponed.

Sharp, president of the Santa Ana-based Robert B. Sharp Co., has submitted a feasibility study that is being reviewed by the university and the city. It includes an analysis of the campaign and a recommended course of action.

One of Sharp’s top priorities will be to secure one multimillion-dollar donor for whom the facility could be named after. Ackerman said kickoff for the fund-raising campaign will coincide with ground breaking.

Sharp has been and is involved in several major county projects. Three years ago, he directed the campaign that he said raised $73 million for construction of the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

He conducted a $25 million campaign for the construction of Santa Margarita High School and currently is directing the $17.6 million effort for the Irvine Theater.

Sharp, who has counseled Cobb on many of Fullerton’s fund-raising efforts, also is developing plans for a $20 million renovation of Mater Dei High School and the $35 million Discovery Museum, a state-of-the-art technology center planned in Santa Ana.