Parking Fee for Padres’ Games May Reach $4 : Sports: City Council still must approve the Stadium Authority Board’s vote to raise the parking fee from $3.

The San Diego Padres asked for and received Thursday from the Stadium Authority Board a 33% price increase in parking fees, from $3 to $4 per car.

Although the board voted 5 to 3 for the increase, with one member absent, it must be approved by the City Council before it is imposed at the start of the Padres’ next season, in April. Council approval is expected Nov. 26.

Padres’ president Dick Freeman, who appeared at the meeting to argue the club’s case, said its current parking fees are among the lowest in major-league baseball. Twenty-two of 26 teams charge $4 a car, Freeman said.

Former city councilman and now state Assembly candidate Mike Gotch voted against the increase, both in committee and in the full session. Gotch said he opposed the measure primarily for the economic burden it places on fans at a time of impending recession.

“Secondly, if there is to be an increase, I feel the revenues should flow back to the stadium,” Gotch said. “It would give the fan a laundry list of capital improvements that he or she could see they had helped pay for, such as new seating and lighting” designed to enhance fan safety.

Freeman said the increases are necessary to allow the Padres to remain competitive with other major-league franchises--paying high-priced salaries and signing free-agent talent, for example. The money also would be used to build up its minor league and scouting programs, an effort that new owner Tom Werner and new general manager Joe McIlvaine have undertaken.

As it stands, the council will be asked to approve the increase, and, in a separate request, to return any surplus money to the stadium fund at the end of the fiscal year.

Under the existing arrangement with the Padres, the city receives the first $1.5 million of the parking money, minus operating costs paid to its licensed contractor, Ace Parking. Beyond that, the Padres and the stadium split the money “50-50,” stadium manager Bill Wilson said.

Gotch said that, largely because of last year’s concert by the British rock group The Who, the stadium made a profit of about $200,000. The City Council then returned half of that money to the stadium for capital improvements.

After a 1990 season that fell below the expectations of many--the team was picked to win the National League West but finished in a tie for fourth place with a won-lost record of 75-87--the Padres recently raised ticket prices by $1.50. The team’s price range is now $11 and $9.50 for reserved seats and $5 for general admission.

So a family of four wishing to attend a game in 1991 could pay as much as $48--not counting refreshments and souvenirs--for four reserved seats and parking. Gotch said such an increase is “unjustifiable” unless stadium improvements are made as a kind of reward.

Padres’ president Freeman argued that, even with the increases, the Padres will remain among the lowest in the major leagues in overall costs of attending a baseball game. He said a survey conducted last year revealed the team to be the third-lowest in the major leagues “for what it costs the fan to attend a game.”

“I would hope the average fan would understand that we did not raise ticket prices after our best years in 1984 (when the team went to the World Series) and 1989 (when it finished second to San Francisco),” Freeman said. “We’ve only raised ticket prices twice in the last five years, and we haven’t raised parking in the last three to four years.”

Stadium manager Wilson said the proposed increase has no bearing on parking for other stadium events.