Coliseum Renovation Scaled Back : Architecture: New plan reduces the number of high-priced club seats and service facilities. The changes will dramatically cut the project’s cost, developer says.

Renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, announced last fall as a $175-million to $200-million project, is being scaled back “to about half that magnitude,” according to the new real estate developer retained by the Coliseum’s private managers.

Developer Wayne Ratkovich said he hopes to launch work on the renovation by January, 1993--as was originally promised--but acknowledged it would take “a minor miracle” to do so.

Ratkovich was placed in charge of the project last month by the Coliseum’s managers, the Spectacor business partnership.

He replaced Richard Schulze of Chicago, an employee of the Pritzker family investment group, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain. The Pritzker group balked at investing in reconstructing the Coliseum as heavily as Spectacor officials wanted.

When the Coliseum renovation was placed on indefinite hold at the end of last year, Schulze and Spectacor blamed recessionary pressures--specifically an inability to sell enough premium “club” seats to finance the project.

The new plan calls for the number of high-priced club seats to be reduced from 10,000 to as few as 4,000. Service facilities for the club seats will be scaled back and relocated. In addition, only 75 luxury suites will be constructed initially, instead of 200. Ratkovich said the changes will dramatically cut the cost of the renovation.

In addition, he said, the project may now be done in two phases, with the south side of the stadium coming first, followed one year later by the north side. The two-part schedule is seen as the way to ease financing difficulties.

Ratkovich and Joe Cohen, a Spectacor official, said complete financing has not yet been obtained for the project. Cohen said it has not yet been decided whether the original annual prices for the luxury suites and club seats, $90,000 and $3,600 respectively, would be retained. Income from the sale of the premium seats originally was supposed to provide assurance that lenders to the renovation project would be repaid.

The new plan will incorporate other elements of last fall’s proposal, including lowering the football field, putting thousands of seats closer to the playing action and constructing an upper deck.

Ratkovich, who has a background of renovating historic structures in Los Angeles, said he, like earlier planners, is devoted to safeguarding the historic elements of the Coliseum.

The Los Angeles Raiders and the USC Trojans, the stadium’s major tenants, are willing to go along with the new plan, Spectacor officials said.

At the Raiders headquarters in El Segundo, a team lawyer, Amy Trask, said:

“Spectacor has assembled a new group, and in the spirit of cooperation, we are working with that group, the Coliseum Commission and USC in an effort to expeditiously accomplish renovation of the Coliseum.”

William Robertson, president of the Coliseum Commission, the facility’s governing body, said he met with Ed Snider, head of Spectacor, last week and had emerged “convinced he’s very sincere that this project will go forward.

“True, there has to be some downgrading of the original concept because of the economy and the rather unsuccessful attempt to sell boxes and club seats,” Robertson said. “There has been a real need to cut back on that.”

Work on a draft environmental impact report was nearly complete when the original plan was put on hold last December, and Ratkovich said it should be possible to finish the draft and hold required public hearings in a fairly short time.

He said his goal is to complete all plans, except for financing details, by June 30. He said he hopes the final environmental impact report will be ready by the end of the year.

Ratkovich and Cohen said they believe that interest in rebuilding South Los Angeles in the wake of the recent riots could provide a hospitable investment environment for the Coliseum project. They said a renovated Coliseum could provide a potent symbol of the revival of the area.

But, both conceded, it is possible that a start on the project could slip to 1994.

One advantage of doing the project in phases, Ratkovich said, is that it might be possible to work between football seasons, avoiding a one-season relocation for the Raiders and the Trojans.

Ratkovich said he also hopes that some work could be done off-site, with preparation of precast concrete forms rather than poured-in-place concrete for some structures.

Substantial cost savings will be realized by not digging into the earth berm supporting the Coliseum superstructure to build elaborate service facilities for the club seats, the developer said. He said the service facilities--touted as a major selling point in the initial efforts to sell premium seats--will be placed farther up on the Coliseum rim.