Southland Seeks Big Chunk of World Cup : Soccer: The Coliseum or Rose Bowl, perhaps both, expected to get some games in 1994 tournament.

Although stressing his objectivity, Chuck Cale, a Los Angeles lawyer who serves as chief executive officer of the World Cup organizing committee, said Wednesday that he assumes the Rose Bowl or Coliseum will be among stadiums selected to stage games when the soccer tournament comes to the United States for the first time in 1994.

However, he expressed doubt that the local bid committee, which represents Los Angeles and Pasadena, will succeed in its efforts to bring a full complement of either seven or eight games to each stadium.

Also mentioning New York and Chicago as obvious choices for participation in the monthlong, 24-team, 52-game tournament, Cale said: “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that FIFA (the international soccer federation) is going to want to have the major cities covered.”

Cale made his comments after a 40-minute formal presentation at the Century Plaza Tower Hotel by the L.A./Pasadena committee, led by Mayor Tom Bradley and L.A. lawyer Robert Talcott.

By the end of today, a 12-member panel assembled by the organizing committee, World Cup USA 1994, and gathered in Century City since Monday, will have heard presentations from 24 of 26 groups that are campaigning to have games played in their communities.

Bid committees representing New York and New Jersey did not attend, but Jim Trecker, World Cup USA 1994 spokesman, said both will have opportunities to present their cases before the organizing committee submits a list of 12 to 18 potential sites to FIFA in August. Eight to 12 will be selected in December to stage games.

Despite instructions to the candidates from the organizing committee to make simple, no-frills presentations, the L.A./Pasadena committee, using its hometown advantage, went into the conference room with nine band members and two song girls from USC and left with Mickey Mouse and a group of cheerful children bearing soccer balls.

“We thought the panelists needed a little levity,” said Richard Sargent, the group’s de facto executive director.

As for the substance of the presentation, the group stressed the Southland’s experience in playing host to major sporting events such as the Olympic Games and Super Bowls, the success in attracting crowds to soccer games at the Rose Bowl during the 1984 Olympics, the large capacity of the stadiums, youth soccer involvement in the area and Southern California’s tourist industry.

The group is bidding for three or four first-round games, a second-round game, a quarterfinal and a semifinal at each stadium, as well as the third-place game at the Coliseum and the final at the Rose Bowl. It also is seeking to play host to the final draw in December 1993 and to establish main press and broadcast centers for the tournament.

George Kirkland, president of the L.A. Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the group believes it needs a significant number of games in both stadiums to attract enough financial support from corporate and private sources to cover between $5.5 million and $7 million in costs. He said no public money will be used.

“They’re asking for the whole ball of wax,” Cale said. “I guess they’re taking the approach that there is no harm in asking. But it’s unrealistic to think that they’ll get everything they’re asking for. I think their chances for that are remote.”

One reason, Cale said, is the question about the availability of the Coliseum, although Peter Luukko, regional manager of Spectacor Management, told the panelists that a major renovation project is on schedule to begin early next year and should be completed in time for the World Cup. The Rose Bowl also is being refurbished, but the stadium’s general manager, Greg Asbury, said that is expected to be completed by September 1992.

“The other side of it is that there are so many good bids from so many places that, for the betterment of the sport in the long run, we and FIFA feel that the games have to be spaced out,” Cale said. “This should be a country-wide tournament, from sea to shining sea, from the north border to the gulf.”

One issue that might have caused a problem for the L.A./Pasadena group appears to have been resolved this week with the L.A. City Council’s second thoughts about imposing a 10% admissions tax on tickets for entertainment, including sporting events.

FIFA does not allow a tax of more than 5% on tickets for World Cup games.

“It would have been an issue we would have had to negotiate,” Sargent said. “I don’t know how we would have done it, but fortunately, we don’t have to deal with it now.”