County Fair to Return to 1991 Prices : Revenue: Officials made the move after learning that 1992 earnings were just a fifth of the previous year’s. Lower attendance was blamed on the recession, riots and an admission fee increase last year.

The county fair will lower admission and carnival-ride prices this year after a financial statement showed that earnings last year took a miserable drop to about one-fifth of the previous year’s earnings.

From an all-time high of $4.2 million in 1991, the fair association’s earnings after expenses fell to just $850,000 last year, according to the report released this week. Fair attendance also plummeted, from 1.6 million in ’91 to 1.2 million last year. The Los Angeles County Fair Assn. released its financial statement for 1992 this week.

Officials blamed much of last year’s ugly bottom line on the drop in fair attendance.

“In terms of the quality of the fair, we think it was the best ever. There just weren’t enough people there,” said Michael Seder, Fairplex’s vice president of finance.

Fair officials say that, in retrospect, their decision to crank up the cost of admission by 20% for the 1992 fair, to $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 and younger, turned out to be badly timed given the sour state of California’s economy.

Also, they said, many fair-goers, especially those from out of town, avoided the fair because of bad publicity the Los Angeles area received in the wake of last year’s civil unrest.

This year, fair-goers will pay less to get in the gates as fair officials cut prices to 1991 levels--$8 for adults and $4 for children 12 and younger--to try to recapture longtime patrons who were priced out of last year’s event. And some carnival rides will be cheaper at this year’s fair, officials said, because prices on all rides will be capped at $1.50.

The fair, which runs Sept. 10 to Oct. 3, also is selling wristbands for $10 this year that allow unlimited carnival rides Mondays through Thursdays.

Fair officials said they conducted focus groups late last year of people who have gone to the fair in the past but skipped last year. They also conducted an exit poll of those who were willing to pay the higher cost of admission and carnival rides in ’92. The survey’s overwhelming conclusion: The cost of a day at the world’s largest county fair had gotten too high: $100 for the average-sized group of 2.6 people.

Though low attendance was the leading culprit, fair officials say, other factors ensured that earnings would dip in 1992.

The fair association, which manages the nearly 500-acre Fairplex and the Los Angeles County Fair itself, paid about $1 million in interest payments on $17 million in bonds issued to finance construction of its new hotel. The Sheraton Suites Fairplex Hotel, which is operated under a franchise agreement with Sheraton Corp., opened last June.

With an average occupancy rate last year of about 40.6%, compared with about 65% for other hotels in the area, the Sheraton Suites Fairplex Hotel paid about $7,000 more in operating costs than it gained on revenues of $2.3 million, according to Sid Robinson, Fairplex’s communications manager.

The average price of a suite at the Fairplex hotel is $77, compared with $65 in the surrounding area, he said.

“We’re a little higher on our room rates and lower on our occupancy rates than the others, but everyone pretty much expected this to happen in the first year,” Robinson said.

Another drain on the nonprofit fair association’s bottom line was the loss of several major corporate sponsors, officials said. Among them were 7-Up and Arrowhead, which had sponsored the fair for several years.

“In this economic climate it’s a lot tougher to get the big corporate sponsors,” Robinson said. “Losing 7-Up hurts.”

What felt good last year, he said, was gaining more non-fair events, mostly trade and consumer shows.

Those events were the bright spot in Fairplex’s finances last year, garnering about $5,492,151 in revenue, an increase of more than $240,000 over 1991.

H. S. (Biff) Byrum, chief executive officer of the Pomona Economic Development Corp. and the city’s Chamber of Commerce, said the new Fairplex hotel has attracted shows that were not interested in Fairplex in the past because of the lack of hotel accommodations.

“The Fairplex continues to be a major asset in Pomona. It’s not just a fair anymore, they’re busy year-round,” Byrum said, adding that the millions invested over the past several years on Fairplex renovations and expansion are paying off. “Now we’re assisting (the fair association) with events--national events--that are two or three years in advance.”