World Cup USA 1994 : Refund Offer Only Angers Merchants : Business: Pasadena officials agree to make partial payments to vendors claiming losses at the sparsely attended Soccer Carnaval. Failure of the festival is the latest in a series of civic disappointments involving the World Cup.

Acknowledging that a city-sponsored soccer festival has drawn dismally small crowds, Pasadena officials Friday offered partial refunds to about 20 vendors who paid thousands of dollars to rent booths.

The offer left the merchants enraged.

“Basically they have decided we should sue them,” said Brian Mercer, a toy and hobbies vendor. “We were told this would be a world-class event when we bought into it. But the truth is, business has been so bad the only people buying most days were other vendors.”

As he spoke, Mercer stood in Brookside Park, the site near the Rose Bowl where the festival called Soccer Carnaval was to be a monthlong celebration of the World Cup games, complete with big-name entertainment, soccer events, ethnic foods and children’s carnival rides.

Most of the booths were empty, covered by plastic. An occasional visitor would wander through and stop at Mercer’s booth for an explanation of why the place seemed closed on the day before the big weekend of the finals.

The city joined with local promoter Pasadena Productions to launch the festival after the World Cup placed its official soccer celebration, Soccerfest, in Los Angeles. With corporate sponsorships, admission fees and booth rentals, organizers predicted that the festival would bring in more than $600,000 for the city.

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But by the time the festival opened June 23, it had no corporate sponsors, the idea of an admission fee had been dropped, and the World Cup had used the clout in its contract to forbid the city to open the event on game days, when the crowds come to town. After the first, virtually empty Sunday, the carnival ride operator packed up and left the city scrambling for a replacement--who also left a week later.

Vendors said that when they signed contracts with the city, they were told that the carnival would be open on game days. The merchants paid from $2,000 to $7,000 to rent booths, but said they are owed far more because of the money they invested in stock and labor.

Most vendors are demanding $20,000 to $80,000 apiece. “I am out $14,000 to $15,000. I expected to make $60,000,” said Mercer, whose family has owned Natick Stamps and Hobbies in Monrovia since 1887.

City officials told vendors Friday that the refund would be based on how many days they opened their booths at the festival. The officials also said the city may help the vendors gain access to other events in the city, such as UCLA football games, said Melvin Kum, co-owner of Tokyo Grill, who met with city officials.

“We signed our contract believing this would be open on game days,” said his brother and co-owner, Gary Kum. They had paid $7,000 in rent, he said.

But city officials said they probably will not pay more than $5,000 to any merchant.

“We don’t feel we are liable for anything, but we feel we should help these people out,” said Bob Hays, city liability coordinator, who met with vendors after the City Council directed its staff Monday to reach a settlement with the unhappy merchants.

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City Manager Philip Hawkey and Pasadena Productions President Richard Lukens say the contract never said the event would be open on game days. Lukens said his group of promoters is out more than $50,000.

“Business is a risky venture and in this case it did not work out,” Hawkey said. “World Cup has not flooded Pasadena with visitors as expected.”

The lack of visitors has been the latest in a string of the city’s disappointments with World Cup ’94. The soccer event’s organizers earlier had forbidden the city to raise money for economic development by having the Chamber of Commerce sell game tickets at a profit. The city felt slighted when World Cup put Soccerfest in Los Angeles, and then felt downright insulted when a huge sign went up in front of the Rose Bowl that said Los Angeles instead of Pasadena.

Most vendors paid for their spaces after the city announced June 13 that Soccer Carnaval would be open on game days.

But the city backed down two days later after the soccer organization threatened to sue and to use its control of area security to block access. A 1992 agreement signed by the city cedes control of the area to World Cup on game days.

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.

City officials and Pasadena Productions also have alleged that World Cup told their major corporate sponsors to steer clear of the event--an accusation that Rothenberg denied.

“The city manager signed away the city without thinking about the community and small businessman,” said Joseph Gonzales, among vendors calling themselves the Soccer Carnaval Vendor’s Assn., who took their fight for compensation to the council Monday.

There, they found support from Councilman Isaac Richard: “It should be soccer Con-a-val. I am embarrassed and I am ashamed to go down there. You (the vendors) were hustled, and there is a word for that and it is called fraud.”