Rock Concerts Are a Hot Ticket, City Discovers : Money: Heavy-metal concert at the stadium nets $250,000 for cash-starved city of San Diego. Stadium manager intends to book future shows.

Elated city and police officials said Thursday that the smooth handling of Wednesday night’s heavy-metal concert at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium paves the way for future shows and gives the city an opportunity to make a lot of money on a “one-shot” basis.

Stadium manager Bill Wilson said the show, featuring rapper Ice-T and his band, Body Count, and heavy-metal bands Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, netted $250,000 for the city, $100,000 of which will head to the city’s general fund. Wilson called that “excellent news” at a time when the city is coping with $18 million in budget cuts.

“An investigation of the facility (Thursday morning) revealed no vandalism whatsoever,” Wilson said. “The only damage was from enthusiasm--people were enjoying the music so much that jumping up and down on chairs resulted in only minor damage.”

Wilson said the playing field, which was covered by an expensive, high-tech “geotextile” material used for such shows, withstood the evening “terrifically well.” He said only minor discoloration near the stage blemished an otherwise clear surface that food coloring can correct.

The field will be in use again Sunday, when the Chargers play host to the Seattle Seahawks.

Police were optimistic about future shows as well, with spokesman Dave Cohen reporting only 14 arrests. Thirteen people were jailed on misdemeanor citations, with one person being arrested on a felony.

Cohen said 10 arrests occurred in the parking lot. Seven of those were narcotics violations. Two people were arrested for public drunkenness and two for battery.

He said 25 misdemeanor citations were issued, 13 in the parking lot. Nine of those were to minors in possession of alcohol. Of the 12 citations issued inside the stadium, 11 were for possession of marijuana, Cohen said.

Fifty-six people were “detained” rather than arrested, with 11 being ejected from the stadium and 10 being taken to an on-site “detox” center. Thirty-five other people were questioned briefly by police, Cohen said.

Fifty-five people were issued traffic citations.

“We’ll go forward with future shows,” Wilson said. “Last night (Wednesday), we proved to artists across the nation that we’re a great venue for rock concerts. This was a difficult concert--it has been across the nation--but there was no damage to the facility or the field.”

Wilson said the only injury came when a fan’s ankle was broken during an attempt to jump backstage from a ramp above the playing field.

Wilson declined to comment on the antics of Ice-T, who, despite a promoter’s promise, sang his controversial song, “Cop Killer.” Despite a few angry stares from police officers, the song failed to provoke a response and was carried off without incident.

“I had a good time,” said Wilson, a former Pasadena police officer. “Even the police had a good time. We don’t want to give that guy any more publicity than he’s already gotten.”

Wilson said that, because of conflicts with sports schedules, he can’t stage 10 concerts a year, but is currently negotiating for a stadium show featuring the Irish rock band U2 and a spring concert by former Beatle Paul McCartney.

“That would be three this fiscal year,” Wilson said, “and, with any luck, that would mean at least a $500,000 profit. Now you see why we want to have concerts.”