Short of the Goal : Vendors Ask City to Help Save Troubled Soccer Festival

One week into its monthlong run, Pasadena’s soccer festival has drawn dismally small crowds and low sales, angering vendors who paid thousands of dollars to set up booths for what was supposed to be a profitable celebration of World Cup.

“Business has been so bad even some of the vendors have decided not to bother coming today,” vendor Gary Kum, of Tokyo Grill, said Tuesday.

Called Soccer Carnaval, the festival was supposed to combine soccer activities, crafts, entertainment, an international food court and carnival rides.

The festival was launched after World Cup ’94 organizers decided to place its official recreational event, Soccerfest, in Los Angeles instead of Pasadena. Soccer Carnaval was conceived as an alternative event that would run every day through the World Cup and pull in $3.2 million, including $650,000 for the city, from admission fees, booth rentals and corporate sponsorships.

But by the time it opened June 23 in Brookside Park, Carnaval had failed to draw a major corporate sponsor, had dropped plans for an admission fee and had been forbidden by World Cup to hold the event on game days, when the crowds come into the city.

City staff acknowledges that daily attendance has been below three figures.

And three days into the event, the carnival-ride operator dropped out because of the poor crowds, city staff said. On Saturday, the carnival rides sat quiet in the park because no one was riding.

One of the 35 vendors is threatening to sue and others are demanding a partial refund of their booth fees. Tokyo Grill paid $7,000 for its booth, but food vendors said most of their sales have come from other mechants in need of lunch. Some of the vendors are begging the City Council for help in turning the festival around.

“We need to generate (people). Right now we have more squirrels,” said Jim Cuell, owner of Hudson Grill, who paid $4,000 for a booth.

Carlos Dillon, a souvenir seller from Montebello, said he decided against opening his booth after he picked up his permit and found the event would be closed on game days. He is threatening to sue, saying he paid $5,000 for a booth and that his contract said the carnival would operate every day through the month. There was no mention of exceptions in the contract, he said.

Another vendor, John Cummings, who sells official World Cup merchandise, said event organizer Pasadena Productions should give partial refunds to offset vendor losses.

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Duke Collister, a partner in Pasadena Productions, describes the problem in two words: “the heat.” Collister said every day since Carnaval started, a heat wave has deterred customers, and that he expects the crowds to pick up over the holiday weekend.

Angry vendors calling themselves the Soccer Carnaval Vendors Assn. met with Pasadena Productions partners several times last week and took their fight for more promotion of the event to the City Council Monday night.

“We need advertising, promotion, celebrities--a real conscious effort from the council,” said Joyce Smith, a dollmaker and one of six vendors who attended the meeting.

“We all want to make money on this and make it a success,” added Smith, who has not made a single sale and has $22,000 worth of dolls in stock, many of them specially made for the event.

City officials say they decided on June 13 to open during game days--against World Cup’s wishes--at a part of the park outside of the organization’s control, but backed down after the soccer organization threatened to initiate legal action and to prevent access, as it controls area security.

“They told us they’d slap a temporary restraining order on us . . . so we immediately afterwards decided to close game days,” said Ed Sotelo, assistant city manager.

World Cup Assistant Vice President Brad Rothenberg has said that for security reasons, his organization did not want people flooding the area on game days.

The city also alleged that World Cup told major corporate sponsors to steer clear of the event. Rothenberg denied that accusation.

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City staff promised the council Monday they would do whatever they could to make Carnaval successful.

David Jacobs, acting director of the Rose Bowl, said the city has already put up banners and signs directing potential customers to the venue. He said the city is recruiting a new ride operator with bigger rides.

But Councilman Chris Holden placed the blame for the problems on the private production company, not on the city. “The final responsibility rests with the person hired for the job,” he said. Holden said the staff seems to be doing the job of the production company.

A concerned Councilman Bill Crowfoot asked city staff, “Are we clear who is doing what?”

Pasadena Productions won the contract to organize the event in February. The contract stipulates that the organizers will split the profits with the city, but will absorb the costs if Soccer Carnaval loses money.

Collister said the company is taking steps to improve Carnaval with more advertising, moving the music closer to the front of the venue and bring in a new big carnival. He said, “I think it will work out.”