COSTA MESA : Management Plan for Amphitheatre Delayed

Spectacor Management Group, the operator of the Long Beach Convention Center and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, will have to wait to see if it is next to operate the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa.

The Orange County Fair Board on Thursday postponed a decision so it could further review a protest that was filed by Irvine Meadows Partners, one of five companies that submitted bids to run the 8,500-seat facility.

The fair board has been looking for a management group that has experience in operating amphitheaters and is willing to accommodate the neighbors on noise issues--a factor that led the fairgrounds to buy back the amphitheater in April, 1993, from Nederlander Organization for $12.5 million.

A four-member panel two weeks ago recommended that SMG manage the amphitheater. Jill Lloyd, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Fairgrounds, said the Department of General Services, a state agency in Sacramento, will first have to conduct a review.

“We don’t know how long it’s going to take,” Lloyd said. General Services “could choose to come down and hold hearings here. And that could take awhile, but, then again, it might not take that long at all. We just don’t know.”

According to an Oct. 19 complaint filed by Paul Hegness, an attorney representing Irvine Meadows Partners, the company was the lowest bidder and should have been recommended by the four-member panel, Lloyd said.

SMG asked, in its proposal for $125,000 a year, to operate the facility under a three-year contract. It also was asking for 25% in net profits. Irvine Meadows Partners, however, was not going to charge an annual fee to manage the facility. It was only asking for 25% of the profits.

But bidding is only part of the application process, Lloyd said.

She said the panel considered experience and operational plans.