Padres’ Fans Suffer 1st Loss as Parking Rises $1

The San Diego Padres’ regular season will not begin for two weeks, but baseball fans suffered their first loss of the year Monday when the San Diego City Council approved a $1 parking-fee increase at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Combined with earlier price increases in game tickets and beer, Monday’s 5-3 council vote to raise parking fees from $3 to $4 means that fans already have watched three high, hard strikes whiz by them before Opening Day even arrives.

The parking increase, which will raise an estimated $340,000 each for both the city and the Padres, is intended to help offset a projected $300,000 deficit in the city’s $7-million operating and maintenance budget for the stadium this year, City Manager Jack McGrory told the council.

Monday’s vote reversed the council’s 7-1 rejection last November of the Padres’ initial request for the parking increase, which club officials said was needed to keep the team competitive with other major-league franchises by providing more revenue to pay high salaries, sign free agents and enhance scouting programs.

However, at the time, the council agreed to reconsider the request this year. Since then, city officials’ revised budget estimates--based in part on expected declines in attendance and increased maintenance costs for the 25-year-old stadium--projected the $300,000 shortfall, a factor that proved persuasive to the financially strapped council.

If the stadium’s revenues failed to cover its operating costs, McGrory warned the council, the deficit might delay other critical capital improvement programs citywide.

“The question is, are people who use the stadium going to pay for (needed improvements), instead of taking it out of the general fund?” said Councilman Roberts, who supported the increase.

City administrators emphasized that the $1 increase would bring the Padres’ parking fee in line with other teams’ charges. Only three of the 26 major-league baseball teams charge less than $4 for parking, and all other professional baseball teams in California now charge $4 a car, McGrory noted.

Nevertheless, Councilman Bruce Henderson, who led the effort to block the increase, argued vehemently that, by approving it, the council would strike out with fans.

“We want to keep the cost of going to a game as low as possible,” Henderson said. “This is one more step in the wrong direction. What’s important is the psychology of the thing. The price of tickets goes up, beer goes up and now parking goes up. The next thing you know, a guy takes his family to a game, goes home and adds it all up and says, ‘Hey, I can’t afford to do that again.’ ”

After a disappointing 1990 season that saw the Padres, picked by many experts in the pre-season to win the National League West division, finish in a fourth-place tie with a 75-87 record, the team late last year raised reserved-ticket prices by $1.50. This season, the price of reserved seats will range from $9.50 to $11, and general admission will cost $5.

Earlier this month, the Stadium Authority also raised the cost of a 16-ounce cup of beer from $2.25 to $3, while simultaneously trimming the cost of a hot dog by a quarter to $1.75.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt joined Henderson in opposing the parking increase, while council members Abbe Wolfsheimer, John Hartley, Wes Pratt, Bob Filner and Roberts voted for it. Councilwoman Judy McCarty, who opposed the $1 increase in last November’s vote, was absent Monday.

Henderson had encouraged the council to explore other “creative alternatives” to the parking increase, one such idea being a 900-number telephone sports trivia contest.

Proposed by public-relations executive Joe Charest, head of the Gable Agency, the 900-line plan envisioned sports fans paying a per-call charge to participate in a San Diego sports trivia contest in which they could win prizes ranging from T-shirts and baseball tickets to trips to the World Series or Super Bowl.

Charest said he hoped his plan would raise at least $150,000 for the Stadium Authority. The council unanimously directed McGrory’s staff to study the feasibility of the 900-line proposal.