Promoters Build for ‘94, Hope They Come : Soccer: International tournament this summer at Rose Bowl, Coliseum could lay ground work for World Cup games.

Attempts to sell international soccer in Southern California have been greeted of late by an indifferent public, but the sport’s promoters deserve some sort of acknowledgement for their persistence. They announced Wednesday that the Central and North American and Caribbean region (CONCACAF) will organize its first championship tournament this summer at the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl.

Eight teams will compete for $250,000 in prize money in the 16-game CONCACAF Gold Cup, scheduled for June 28-July 7. The United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada have accepted invitations. Four other teams will emerge early next month from qualifying tournaments in Central America and the Caribbean.

The establishment of a biennial tournament is an effort to get in step with the rest of the world by CONCACAF’s leadership, which campaigned on a progressive ticket when it ousted the old leadership in April 1990 elections.

“Europe has its UEFA Cup, Africa has its African Nations Cup, Asia has its Asian Nations Cup, South America has its Copa America,” CONCACAF President Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago said at a Biltmore Hotel news conference. “CONCACAF had nothing. In April of last year, this was a dream. Today, this press conference on this tournament is the reality.”

But now the real work begins, putting people in the seats at two of the country’s largest stadiums.

Not even Mexico, the team of choice among the many Latino soccer fans in Southern California, has been able to draw at the Coliseum in recent months.

For its games against the United States and Canada in the North American Nations’ Cup in June, the attendance was 6,261 and 3,566. Promoters said the crowds would have been significantly better had Mexico brought its first team, but Mexico did bring its first team for a game Tuesday night against Uruguay and attracted only about 10,000 fans.

The U.S. team’s appeal in Southern California is barely measureable. Against Canada in March at El Camino College in Torrance, it drew 2,705.

The sport’s faithful have a long list of excuses, including high ticket prices, poor promotion and the undesirable location of the Coliseum for night games. Alan Rothenberg, a Los Angeles lawyer who is president of the U.S. Soccer Federation and chairman of the 1994 World Cup organizing committee, said fans eventually will turn out, as they did for games at the Rose Bowl during the 1984 Olympics.

But Chuck Cale, another L.A. lawyer who is the World Cup organizing committee’s chief executive officer, took advantage of Wednesday’s news conference to challenge the L.A.-Pasadena committee that is bidding for a full complement of World Cup games, including the final. He pointed out that another candidate, Denver, put on a promotional full-court press for last Sunday’s U.S.-Uruguay game and drew 35,772.

“The fact this tournament will be in Los Angeles gives the bid committee a chance to work with (CONCACAF) in showing the kind of support that we feel there is in this community for the sport of soccer and, eventually, for the World Cup,” he said.

Chuck Blazer, CONCACAF’s general secretary, said the federation will promote the tournament heavily, employing separate strategies for the Latino and Anglo communities.

Blazer said the prize money--$100,000 to the champion--ensures that the teams will take the tournament seriously.

On July 3 alone, four games will be played at the Coliseum, followed by an 11 p.m. fireworks display.