Rose Bowl Suites Attracting Few Takers : Stadium: Only 14 of 38 new executive and club facilities have been leased. Revenue from them won’t cover first-year payments on Pasadena bonds issued to finance the renovation.

It should be a great moment for the Rose Bowl--the inauguration tonight at the UCLA-Cal State Fullerton game of an $11.5-million press box and luxury-suite renovation.

But the poor economy is casting a pall over the opening.

The 70-year-old facility has been modernized since last season for the 1993 Super Bowl and the 1994 World Cup finals, and the original plan was to pay off tax-exempt bonds issued by the city of Pasadena to finance the project with revenue from the 38 executive and club suites built as part of the work.

But only 14 of the 38 new executive and club suites have been leased, and Harriman Cronk, chairman of the Tournament of Roses Assn.’s football committee, confirmed this week that the revenue from the leases is insufficient to defray first-year payments on the bonds, as had been planned.

Still, the Rose Bowl is ahead of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum because it has completed at least a small renovation. The Coliseum has had to delay its renovation project indefinitely.

Cronk said that for now regular Rose Bowl revenues and income from Pasadena’s Brookside municipal golf course will be used to make the first-year payments.

“There’s no question that the economy has affected our sales of the suites,” Cronk said. “Many corporations tell us they can’t justify leasing a suite at the same time they’re laying off employees.”

The 12- to 16-seat executive suites at the Pasadena stadium cost $25,000 to $44,000 a year, and the club suites go for $20,000 to $29,000 a year.

The suites are perched on the west rim of the stadium inside the three-story press box facilities. Leaseholders may use the suites for all UCLA home games, the Rose Bowl game and any other regular events. Plus, each lease guarantees seats in the Rose Parade reviewing stand in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.

The box leaseholders, who are asked to sign a commitment for two or three years but pay a year at a time, are not given the right to use the boxes at the Super Bowl or the World Cup.

But, Cronk said, “We have a verbal commitment from the World Cup organizers that our leaseholders will be able to buy an equal number of seats in the regular stands for these events.”

The suites offer amenities that the average football fan at the 103,000-seat stadium does not get, including preferred parking, catering, concierge service, private elevators, exclusive restrooms, telephone service, television and complimentary newspapers and programs. The executive suites also include a refrigerator, wet bar and serving counters.

The renovation, completed between last New Year’s Rose Bowl game and the beginning of the UCLA season today, includes expansion of the press box to accommodate 900 to 1,000 people. Its old capacity was 360. To obtain the 1993 Super Bowl, Pasadena had to guarantee the expansion to the National Football League.

And like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, the Rose Bowl is counting on the revenue from the box and club seats to finance the improvements. But unlike the Coliseum Commission, which wants to use such money to finance its delayed larger renovation, the Rose Bowl is counting on box- and club-seat funds to pay off the bonds sold for the work already performed.

Scott Kelley, a consultant retained to peddle the unsold Rose Bowl boxes, said that part of the emphasis this season will be to sell as many as 180 individual seats in unsold club suites for various games.

He said he hopes to market the seats to Stanford alumni for the Stanford game with UCLA on Oct. 10. The price has not been set.

UCLA is being allowed to use some of the unsold executive suites for hospitality purposes, Rose Bowl officials said.

With completion of the renovation and commitments that the World Cup finals and several other World Cup games will be played at the stadium, the officials said the Rose Bowl may host other soccer games in the year preceding the World Cup.

At present, a Pasadena ordinance prohibits use of the stadium for more than 12 events in any calendar year, but officials suggested that limit could be lifted by the City Council between 1993 and 1994 if prospective World Cup teams would like to try out the Rose Bowl.

John Crowley, a former mayor of Pasadena and resident of an area close to the Rose Bowl that has been resistant to frequent events at the stadium, said during a tour of the facility Wednesday that much of the resistance is to rock concerts, not to soccer.

Officials noted that a professional soccer team, the Aztecs, used to play in the Rose Bowl, and it was also the site of 1984 Olympic soccer games.