Council Backs Plan to Use World Cup Funds to Help City : Rose Bowl: Money raised by selling soccer tickets linked to a proposed memorial outside stadium would help launch economic development plan.
A plan to use tickets to the World Cup soccer tournament to finance economic development in Pasadena by creating a monument near the entrance to the Rose Bowl has been given tentative approval by the City Council.
The Circle of Nations Plaza Monument would be built with money from donors who will be memorialized on individual bricks on the structure, with those contributing $1,000 or more also receiving World Cup tickets. The money, in turn, would create an economic development fund and marketing group to lure business and more sports events to the city, said Pasadena Chamber of Commerce officials, who advanced the plan approved Tuesday.
A portion of the city’s share of tickets to eight World Cup games, scheduled to be played at the Rose Bowl in June and July, was turned over to the chamber as offerings to big investors in the plan.
World Cup USA, the organization staging the event, has given the city 9,000 tickets to tournament games, including 2,000 for the July 17 World Cup final in the Rose Bowl.
But the council, still stung by the loss of an anticipated $800,000 from sales of tickets to last season’s Super Bowl game, continued to fret about how best to “leverage the intrinsic value” of the city’s tickets, as one council member put it.
Councilman Isaac Richard, citing the decision this week by World Cup USA to stage a monthlong soccer festival in the city of Los Angeles, rather than in Pasadena, raised the specter of massive financial losses from the tournament, a major event for most nations in the world.
“For six weeks, the city is going to be owned by the World Cup,” Richard said. “(The tickets) are our last opportunity to make some money from it.”
Super Bowl XXVII, held at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 31, was a rare money-loser for the host city, which had expected profits of $1 million to help pay for the Rose Bowl’s new $11.5-million press box.
The city expects to receive $2 million in rent for eight World Cup games in the stadium, but it is unclear what the city’s expenses will be. When the city bid unsuccessfully last month for the 1998 Super Bowl, city officials estimated that game-day expenses could run as high as $325,000.
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Rose Bowl Interim General Director David Jacobs said that arrangements with World Cup organizers for security and maintenance of the stadium during the games had not yet been finalized.
“But our intent is to recover any and all of the city’s costs,” he said.
The problem with using Pasadena’s 9,000 World Cup tickets to squeeze extra money for the city out of the games is that most of the tickets--more than 7,000--have already been committed to buyers.
Last March, World Cup USA notified the city that it had two months to pay for half the $1,068,500 face value of its allotted 9,000 tickets, which range from $25 to $400. This set off a scramble by city staff to find buyers.
As of this week, tickets had not been distributed. But staff from the Recreation and Parks Department and the city-owned Rose Bowl have collected payments from would-be buyers, most of them either members of local soccer leagues or business people with longstanding relationships with the city.
Richard and Councilman Bill Crowfoot proposed that those sales be rescinded so that more of the tickets could be used as a tool for economic development.
“A huge chunk of tickets just went flying out the window,” Crowfoot said.
Among those listed as ticket recipients are Los Angeles developer Maguire Thomas Partners, Los Angeles attorney Kenneth Gibbs, entertainment promoter Avalon Productions and the National Football League, all of whom have longstanding business relationships with the city.
City staff were allotted 284 seats, and each council member will get 75 tickets, which will be sold at face value to constituents. Most of the rest of the tickets were designated for soccer groups and for holders of suites in the Rose Bowl press box.
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City Atty. Victor Kaleta said that, in accepting money from ticket buyers, the city may have in effect entered a contractual relationship that cannot be rescinded without legal liability. The council voted to get another opinion from outside legal counsel.
With the first World Cup game in Pasadena less than seven months away, the chamber proposed rapid action on its idea for a monument. Chamber officials asked for at least 1,000 of the remaining tickets to help build the monument.
“Sporting events have a phenomenal effect on our city,” Chamber President-elect Michael Hawkins said.
He cited this month’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, whose economic effects spilled over to Pasadena, where many hotels were booked solid and some restaurants were turning people away.
According to one report, this year’s Super Bowl brought $183 million in new business to the region.
Creating the Circle of Nations monument--envisioned by planners as a representation of the World Cup trophy surrounded by a paved brick plaza--in time for the tournament will require quick action by the city commissions that review building proposals. Hawkins said that the chamber expects construction to begin by Feb. 1.
He proposed that a “master committee,” composed of members of the city’s Planning Commission, Design Review Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission and other agencies, be formed to give the proposal priority.
“Let’s not say after the games, ‘We could have had this but we didn’t do anything because of all the arguments about all the picayune stuff,’ ” Hawkins said.
The council voted to approve the idea in concept, giving the chamber a 90-day option on the site for the monument and 1,000 tickets to be used for marketing purposes.
The plan will come up for council review again early next year.
