WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Players, Fans Have Found Way to Beat the Heat : Comfort: Misting stations on and off the field help anyone who wants to cool off when the weather is stifling.

So, do you have to be cool to enter the Cool Zone?

No. Just hot.

In this hot and humid World Cup tournament, Zona Fresca was becoming a mixed zone of painted faces, Valderrama fright wigs and frizzy orange-haired Alexi Lalas wanna-bes, a temporary oasis for tired and sweaty soccer fans at the Rose Bowl.

At any given time during the first three games at the Rose Bowl, one could find 80 to 90 weary spectators huddled under what appeared to be a huge inflatable shower stall, 25 feet wide by 25 feet long, basking in the fine chilled mist wafting over their heads.

On the field, where temperatures have approached triple digits, similar misting devices have been rigged above both benches, cooling the players with a soft and steady spray.

The misters, as they are informally called, can be found behind the benches at eight of the nine World Cup sites--everywhere but Pontiac, Mich.--and outside the stadiums in Pasadena, the New Jersey Meadowlands, Dallas and Orlando for the refreshment of fans. They were provided by Cool Zone Products, a Los Angeles company that conceived the idea, for a per-game rental fee of $3,000 to $4,400, depending on the cost of transport.

“They’ve been extremely popular,” said Christopher Miehl, Cool Zone’s chief financial officer, as he watched the huddled masses jockey for position under the spray nozzles. “We’ve toyed with the idea of installing timers. ‘OK, it’s been 10 minutes, time to let someone else in.’ ”

The technology, known as “evaporative cooling,” has been around for 70 years, according to Miehl, although Cool Zone didn’t begin mass-producing the misters until 1991.

“Evaporative cooling was first used on pig and sheep farms, to keep the animals cool and get rid of the smell,” Miehl said. “We started out in 1991 by making back-yard misting systems for homes in hot-weather areas. Arizona, Florida, Texas--they were perfect markets for it.

“We also installed them in outdoor restaurants in places like Palm Springs. Finally, we decided, why not take the same concept to the sporting field?”

In 1991, Cool Zone contacted USC and lent the Trojan football team a sideline mister on trial.

“Naturally,” Miehl said, “the players loved it.”

The Buffalo Bills heard about the misters and rented a few for the 1992 AFC championship game at Miami.

“They loved it so much, they took it with them to Pasadena for the Super Bowl,” Miehl said. “It would have been great for us if they had won that game.”

Miehl says the misters lower temperatures 20 to 25 degrees and “could save some players’ lives. Our system was used at a football game between Syracuse and Texas Tech, and the field temperature was 110 degrees. Syracuse used the mister, Texas Tech didn’t. Fifteen players form Texas Tech collapsed from heat exhaustion. None from Syracuse collapsed.”

Cool Zone also makes “portable misters,” which are basically plastic bottles with a pump on the bottom and a misting nozzle on top.

“We gave them to all the Rams last year,” Miehl said. “Everybody liked it but Jim Everett. I don’t know why. But I see he’s not with the Rams anymore. That may be why.”

The World Cup was the testing ground for the outside misters, and Miehl and his staff weren’t sure how the spectators would take to the strange-looking contraption.

“We turned it on at 1 o’clock and people came out of nowhere,” said Anna Harper. “It’s an attention-getter.”

So far at the Rose Bowl, it’s been the one fan attraction that can’t be mist.