Coliseum Suites Set at $90,000

The luxury suites that will be available in 1994 at the renovated Coliseum have gone on sale for $90,000 a year, except in the end zones where they are $70,000, the Coliseum’s private managers said Wednesday.

This would make the Coliseum suites among the most expensive in the NFL, but still not as high as some in Philadelphia, the New Jersey Meadowlands or suburban Boston.

The Meadowlands, with top prices of $95,000 per 16-seat suite, offers both New York Giant and Jet games, a total of 20 games a year, compared to a usual 16 Raider and USC games that the Coliseum will offer. The Meadowlands, however, charges suite-holders an additional amount for tickets. Tickets, including Raider playoff games, would be included at the Coliseum.

Using a 16-game formula, seats in the Coliseum would be about $350 a seat per game in the most expensive boxes and $275 a game in the end zone.

However, the Coliseum prices dwarf those of Anaheim Stadium, which sells suites from 10 to 26 seats for $24,000 to $52,000 a year for Ram and other football games only. Using a formula that includes 10 Ram games and two college football games, the cost is about $200 per seat per game.

However, officials of Spectacor Limited Partnership, the managers of the Coliseum, say that Anaheim Stadium does not offer some of the amenities, such as a private service concourse, with its elite seating, that the Coliseum will.

Some stadiums, including Anaheim Stadium, also offer suite-holders major league baseball games, for an additional price. The Coliseum does not have that option, but will offer a range of other events, such as soccer and concerts. But the suite-holders will have to buy tickets to these events.

Corporations and individuals buying the 12- to 16-seat individual boxes at the Coliseum will be expected to commit themselves to a five-year lease, put up a $25,000 deposit and come up with the rest of the first year’s amount within one year, said Joe Cohen and Peter Luukko, officials of Spectacor.

The money will be put in an escrow account bearing interest for the suite-holder. The Consumer Price Index in Los Angeles will be used in subsequent years to determine if suite fees will increase.

A suite model on display at the peristyle end of the Coliseum shows 12 covered outside seats, a sitting area for four others inside, a wet bar, two closed-circuit television monitors and a bathroom. Exact specifications are not guaranteed, but average suite size will be about 275 square feet.

Cohen and Luukko said plans are to build 200 suites, in a double tier recessed slightly between club seating areas and a planned upper deck at about the level of the present upper tunnels in the Coliseum. They said as many as 82 more suites could be added.

Cohen said the present state of the economy “is a concern,” in the marketing of the suites, but he expressed confidence that sales will be good.

The Coliseum managers will continue, as in the previously announced sale of $3,600-a-year club seats, to emphasize the amenities they are offering with the suites--including a private air-conditioned concourse with upscale food service, suite catering, sports bars and lounges with cable television and cellular telephones.

These “Coliseum Club” features for club seat and suite patrons only, will be located from goal line to goal line on both sides of the field. Cohen and Luukko have compared it all to providing a country-club atmosphere at a football game that will justify to many the additional investment in elite as compared to regular seating.

Three parking passes to a VIP parking area leading to the private Coliseum Club entrance will be given to each suite-holder. However, for a 16-seat suite, this may not cover all suite-bound fans who drive to the game.

Most of the suites are expected to be furnished and decorated by the Coliseum managers, although Cohen and Luukko said buyers would be given an option to furnish and decorate themselves, if they wished.

Checks with several other stadiums around the country Wednesday indicated that only about 10% of suite-holders insist on doing their own furnishing and decorating.

The Spectacor officials said that charter suite-holders will have their names prominently displayed on Club Concourse wall plaques and will be eligible to purchase VIP parking spaces on a first-come basis for games to be played this year and next, before the Coliseum renovation begins in 1993.

Luukko has said that Spectacor remains committed to provide good seats at lesser prices at other levels between the goal posts to season-ticket holders and others who choose not to purchase club seats or luxury suites.