Taken off the hook with a financing plan endorsed today by Mayor Michael B. Coleman: hotel guests, diners and bar patrons, movie buffs and people in the cheap seats at the new Columbus Clippers baseball stadium.

Coleman plans to send a proposal to the city council before the end of the year in which the city would add a 4 percent surcharge on tickets to most concerts and sporting events within six blocks of the streetcar route.

Another 4 percent surcharge would affect people parking in lots and garages along the line from Downtown to Ohio State University, and parking-meter rates in area would rise an average of 75 cents per hour.

“I'm so convinced this is the right thing,” Coleman told an audience of streetcar supporters last night at City Hall, referring both to the idea he first raised in 2006 and the new plan to pay for it.

Electric-powered streetcars, which Coleman sees as the first step toward a wider commuter-rail system for central Ohio, would help people cope with rising gasoline prices, he said.

The 2.8-mile route would run from Mound Street on the southern end of Downtown to the Ohio Union, about halfway up the Ohio State University campus. Coleman predicted it would spur economic development on a stretch of High Street pockmarked by 152,000 square feet of vacant retail space and in a zone that includes 36 acres of underused land.

And the financing plan raises 80 percent of the start-up money from the area near the line, which Coleman said would reap the biggest economic benefit from a successful streetcar service. The so-called “benefit zone” includes Downtown, the Arena District, the Short North, Victorian and Italian villages, and the University District.

People who pay much of the costs would get a perk: They wouldn't have to pay to ride the streetcars. For everyone else, fares are expected to average $1.

Although the plan he offered is the most specific financing proposal to date, Coleman said it's all subject to change.

Ohio Stadium and the Schottenstein Center aren't in the area covered by the 4 percent ticket surcharge, but they eventually could be. President E. Gordon Gee said Ohio State University will contribute $12.5 million toward construction — $500,000 a year for 25 years beginning in 2010. OSU students likely would ride for free or at a discount.

The current plan would not add the surcharge to convention registrations at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, but officials are still considering that possibility.

Coleman's proposal exempts tickets that cost $10 or less, which would exclude bars with cover charges, the Arena District's movie theater and most Columbus Clippers tickets.

Performing-arts groups are candidates for an exemption, too, said John Rosenberger, former head of the Capitol South Urban Redevelopment Corp. and one of the architects of the financing plan.

To build the streetcar system, officials would need to lay track, buy streetcars, run electric lines, add stops and create a maintenance center. Officials hope the construction would start in 2010 and the first passengers could be aboard two years later.

Coleman's plan assumes $6.9 million would need to be raised each year for 25 years to cover the $103 million price tag, plus interest. The system is expected to cost $4.5 million a year to operate, which brings the total needed to $11.4 million a year.

The proposal unveiled today would bring in $1.3 million a year more than required, Rosenberger said, because officials expect some funding sources to be changed or eliminated before the plan is finalized.

Columbus Chamber President Ty Marsh said business generally supports the streetcar concept, “but now you're getting into some real detail in how you're going to pay for it.”

City Councilman Kevin L. Boyce said council members also are eager to weigh in.

“What's been proposed today is one proposal,” he said. “There are at least a couple different scenarios that deserve exploration.”

People who attended tonight's meeting at City Hall supported the streetcar plan but already were hoping for an expansion.

Cora Wallace, who lives in Old Town East, grew up in Cleveland and said she'd like to see Columbus eventually build a bigger system, like the Rapid Transit Authority she relied on there.

Brewery District resident Eric Wittine said he was disappointed that his neighborhood and German Village were cut off the route, but Coleman said putting tracks across I-70/71 doesn't make sense not because they would have to be torn up when the state begins a reconstruction of that highway.

Dispatch reporter Tim Doulin contributed to this story.

rvitale@dispatch.com