Pacific Amphitheatre May Install Boxes : Entertainment: Concert venue is taking its cue from similar facilities around the country. Operators say they could use the extra cash.

Saying they want to keep their outdoor concert venue up to date, the operators of the Pacific Amphitheatre are considering installing high-priced luxury boxes catering to corporate clients.

The Nederlander Organization, which runs the 18,760-capacity amphitheater, won’t decide whether to go ahead with the boxes until it gets cost estimates, said Susan Rosenbluth, the Pacific’s general manager. Meanwhile, amphitheater officials will seek the approval of the Pacific’s landlord, the Orange County Fair, at a meeting this morning of the fair’s board of directors.

Rosenbluth said the Pacific’s preliminary plans call for six boxes at the back of the amphitheater’s loge section, the tier of seats closest to the stage. There would be eight seats in each box. A projected per-season price of $20,000 for each box was “thrown out” in discussions with fair officials, Rosenbluth said, but that is subject to change as the amphitheater gets more detailed information on construction costs.

A regular season ticket at the Pacific costs $1,700, or $13,600 for a block of eight seats without any luxury amenities.

The open-air boxes would not be roofed, but they would be walled in to set them apart from neighboring boxes and regular seating, Rosenbluth said.

“They’d be very nice. They’d have refrigerators and telephones and waitress service,” she said.

The Pacific, which opened in 1983, is taking its cue from similar facilities around the country that have installed luxury boxes. Experience at Poplar Creek, a Nederlander-operated amphitheater outside Chicago, shows that boxes typically are bought by corporations that use them to entertain business clients, Rosenbluth said.

Luxury boxes have become a lucrative source of revenue for sports stadiums and arenas, and could bring some extra cash to the Pacific, where operators say they have taken financial losses because of stiff competition from Orange County’s other large outdoor concert bowl, Irvine Meadows.

“You always look at revenues in analyzing any project,” Rosenbluth said. “But the idea is to keep the facility as updated and current as possible. We see other facilities provide this service, and we should be in the forefront.”

Paul Hegness, a member of the partnership that owns Irvine Meadows, said Wednesday that the venue has no plans for installing luxury boxes.