Soccer Exceeds <i> Gooooal</i> : World Cup: Event had $50-million profit. Rothenberg is awarded a $3-million bonus.

The 1994 World Cup finished with a profit of about $50 million and head U.S. organizer Alan Rothenberg will get a $3-million bonus, organizers announced Tuesday.

At the start of 1994, Rothenberg estimated a profit of $20 million. It increased because security costs were lower than forecast.

“We had a lot of contingencies, and thank God we did not have to spend them,” Rothenberg said.

Peter Ueberroth, head of the U.S. organizing committee’s compensation committee and the 1984 Olympic head, called the results “stunning.”

“Particularly considering the fact that the organizing committee was not able to share in any of the estimated $500 million of international and official sponsor money,” he said.

Rothenberg was picked by FIFA, soccer’s governing body, to run the tournament in August 1990. With FIFA’s backing he was elected president of the U.S. Soccer Federation. He was re-elected two months ago.

Rothenberg did not get a salary for his soccer work, only expenses. He said part of the reason for the bonus was to compensate him for money he lost by time away from his Los Angeles law practice. The board of the directors of World Cup USA 1994 decided on the bonuses last Wednesday.

“One of the things they took into account was that I certainly sacrificed a great deal on the other side,” Rothenberg said.

Scott LeTellier, the chief operating officer of the U.S. World Cup organizers, received a bonus of $500,000, a source familiar with the tournament’s finances said.

Marla Messing, an executive vice president, got $350,000, and Eli Primrose-Smith, the chief administrative officer, received $250,000, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The World Cup, which charged up to $475 for tickets, sold about 96% of its 3.65 million available tickets and grossed approximately $375 million, Rothenberg said.

That figure doesn’t include money from the 11 official sponsors, who paid between $20 million and $32 million each to be associated with the 1994 World Cup and the 1992 European Championship.

That money was split by FIFA and the Union of European Football Assns., the sport’s governing body in Europe.

World Cup USA 1994 currently has about $60 million in cash and estimates it will have an additional $20 million in expenses, including $7.7 million in deferred and continuing salary to its staff, which peaked at approximately 418 full-time employees. It will pay about $1 million in bonuses to its other employees.

It estimates it has given about $11 million to the USSF in cash and property. The remaining $40 million in cash will be given to the U.S. Soccer Federation Foundation, which was established to benefit the sport in the United States.

The announcement didn’t address the approximately $5 million the U.S. World Cup organizers lent Major League Soccer, the 10-team league Rothenberg is heading. MLS, which plans to start play in April, has seven cities lined up and is scheduled to announce the rest next Tuesday.