Season-ticket prices announced
I just got out of a long meeting with Dean Lombardi, Luc Robitaille, chief marketing officer Chris McGowan and vice president of communications Michael Altieri, who laid out next year's season-ticket prices. The Kings will have a ``blended'' increase of 5.66 percent, meaning that some prices will go up and others will come down (mostly up).
I'll attach a quick story I just wrote for our website, and I'll get into much more detail later, including some very, very extensive quotes. Problem is, I don't even know if or when this post will see the light of day, because our server problems are crippling this blog. I apologize for our inexcusable service and I thank you greatly for your continued support.
There will be a more extensive story in tomorrow's paper, which I will (hopefully be able to) link to on the blog. Here's the quick story for now...
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The Kings, who tied for the fewest points in the NHL this season, will ask their most loyal fans to pay more.
Season-ticket prices will increase by 5.66 percent next season, although not across the board. Some seats will see increases of up to 16 percent, while some of the cheapest seats will decrease in price by up to 21 percent.
Prices for individual game tickets for the 2008-09 season have not yet been announced.
The Kings, who froze season-ticket prices after the 2006-07 season, during which they finished with the third-worst record in the NHL, said this summer's increase is necessary to boost the team's financial and on-ice development.
While no official numbers have been released, team president of business operations Luc Robitaille said the Kings are losing millions of dollars a year, even more than before the NHL lockout that was supposed to solve team's financial woes.
Front-office members say the ticket increases will bring the team more in line with other NHL teams, and they claim that the Kings are in the bottom half of the NHL in terms of average season-ticket prices.
The Kings say that increasing ticket prices now will improve their bottom line, increase the chances of signing young stars such as Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson to long-term contracts and prevent future steep increases.
``We don't want to have one good year and say, `OK, prices are going up 25 percent,''' chief marketing officer Chris McGowan said.
The Kings said they expect to have an average ticket price of roughly $48 next season, up $3 from last season but still below the 2007-08 NHL average of $57 per ticket.
Plans for an ``all you can eat'' section also were announced. A $32 ticket in the upper level at Staples Center will come with vouchers for food and drink.
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About the bloggers
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
do they need to raise ticket prices in order to retain talent? Or should they refrain from signing guys like clouts, handzus and preissing to multi year deals? haven't we paid for their mismanagement enough?
At least after a good year they can justify raising ticket prices 6% a year to pay for talent.
They're under the cap, they're DEAD LAST in the league until the very last two games.
They sell out or close to it, most games even with this crappy record.
Fire a couple of coaching staff and recoup some cash. We have WAY too many generals on staff. They announced the coaches for San Jose when I was there and it was Ron Wilson and one other guy while we had a full screen of names.
Craziness.
Pay more, get less!
Thanks Rich. You are probably more annoyed with the server issues than we are. Once the curtain drops on the season, I really don't expect to continue to get daily coverage of the team. Thanks for trying to provide that!
Unbelievable...