Season-ticket ``roundtable''
Just got back a bit ago from the event. A very interesting night. Quite a few verbal grenades lobbed at assistant general manager Ron Hextall, chief marketing officer Chris McGowan and team president Luc Robitaille -- most of them directed toward the first two -- but they hung fairly tough and did a decent job of appeasing the crowd. Hextall, for not having a ton of management experience, seems very comfortable in these situations and isn't afraid to give frank answers, to the extent that he can without tampering and/or giving away closely guarded secrets. For those who might have been wondering, Dean Lombardi is out of town for some draft-related scouting.
So what did I learn tonight?
1) Lots of people are angry about parking-price increases. Lots of people. It's a huge issue, even more than the ticket-price increases. Most of the anger seems to be regarding Lot 8, which has increased from $20 to $30 per game. There was particular concern among the female fans, who expressed concern about walking to their parking lots, which are getting farther and farther away even as they're also getting more and more expensive. Not a lot of answers from the Kings folks on this one. They say they don't totally control the parking prices and that much of the problem comes from new construction taking the place of parking lots. That one got a lot of justified chuckles, because who's building the majority of those buildings? A fella by the name of Anschutz.
2) Fans don't care that the Kings are losing money. Fans didn't say that; Chris McGowan did, several times. They're done talking about the fact that they're losing money because, they say, the fans don't care. So either I've been way off base on the importance of this issue, or what I saw tonight was a real strong attempt at a Jedi Mind Trick.
3) There are some angry fans out there. And I'm not necessarily saying it's unjustified, but even people who were complementary of the Kings in some areas had some real stinging criticisms, in just about every area you can imagine. Parking prices, ticket prices, beer prices, price and selection of food, season-ticket representatives, time-share salesmen, free-agent signings, draft picks (including Thomas Hickey, a year later) and coaching. That's just off the top of my head. Again, I'm not saying all the questions -- or even most of them -- were unjustified, and there were a lot of strong questions as well, but I have to say that I underestimated how upset fans are.
There are so many other things. I took very detailed notes and starting tomorrow morning I'll go through and give you the highlights of the questions and answers. As I indicated before, Hextall gave the best answers, on topics ranging from acquiring a goalie (don't hold your breath), acquiring a defenseman (they will aggressively look to trade for a 30-or-under defenseman), Jonathan Bernier playing in L.A. next year (possible but far from certain), the re-signing of Patrick O'Sullivan (they're working on it), the buyout of Dan Cloutier (they're talking about it but haven't made a decision) and a bunch of other stuff. I'll get into more detail tomorrow morning...
12 Comments
Leave a comment
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.
The fact that a lot of fans are angry scares me because I'm afraid the the organization will panic and look for a quick fix (again) instead of letting Lombardi continue with his plan. Also, I can't believe some people are still angry about Hickey. It's way too soon to judge that pick yet.
Very disturbing to think they are still pondering bringing back the beach ball bum.
I don't think fans are angry at the plan the team is taking as much as they are angry about how they are getting treated as fans. i.e. increase ticket, parking, concession prices. Along with the King's stupidity of not playing Cloutier more down the stretch to ensure the last place in the standings.
Angry?!
We're angry at the absolute AUDACITY of AEG raising prices on all kinds of sh*t after tieing for LAST PLACE!
ANGRY?!?!
My tickets were 3,600 last year.
This year? FOUR GRAND. With absolutely NO GUARANTEE that they will spend the extra money ON THE ICE!
Angry?
Tell them i said to F*K OFF!
I belive you meant to say Puck off. Appropriate hockey slang please.
lol time-share salesmen... ? there were obviously something discussed at the roundtable that I missed out on.
and yeah the Kings should have definitely used Cloutier to tank down the stretch but we all know they didn't really want a forward (Stamkos) anyway and we got to see how Ersberg could handle the load in the NHL (not AHL) basically for "free". we'll still get another Jack Johnson or better, so who's complaining?
Was this round-table only for the select few season-ticket holders? I'm still waiting for my package to renew my seats. I'm starting to think that the Kings are giving up on this city.
Rich I think you are living in a fantasy world, frankly. It's been 40 some years and the Kings just finished in last place. I am amazed the fans aren't rioting, or just leaving. The fact that you and others in the media just accept that the team is "rebuilding" when we drafted 3 first rounders in 03, have been KEEPING our picks for a decade, building training facilities, developing an AHL team and "waiting for the CBA" yet we are still in last place and the new guys are now here starting their 3rd year? And their answer to 2 full seasons of suckdom is "well, we are building an infrastructure, this is different now we are all full time King employees and not doing stuff for AEG". THAT DOESNT ANSWER THE POOR PRODUCT ON THE ICE, the POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE and the REPEATED INCREASE IN PRICE.
Honestly, it's as if you just came to town and are going "what, why is everybody angry".
They are angry because jackholes like Lombardi and Hextall have been giving the same speech every year for 40 years and "journalists" like you are BUYING IT!!
Stop the madness. Call these guys out. You owe it to your USC journalism degree. Man up.
To Matt George,
Actually, I think it's pretty much a guarantee that they WON'T use the extra money for on-ice improvements. All of Robitaille's comments of late have been to the effect of "it's not about the way the team is playing, it's about our business model." That's what this is about - catching up with the times as a business first, then spending money on players down the road. Obviously they don't share my view that this is putting the cart before the horse. But since they don't care at all if I actually show up this year, I guess we're cool.
``Fans Fan''...I hate to break it to you, but I'm not George Washington crossing the Delaware. I'm not leading any revolutions to run people out of town. And if you think I said, ``Why is everyone angry?'' I urge you to read the post again. I said I underestimated the level of the anger and I made a point of saying that it wasn't necessarily unjustified. But thanks for your comment.
Rich,
You're doing an outstanding job.
You keep us fans informed on everything.
Your service to the king's organization and to us fans has been invaluable.
Keep up the great work.
"Was this round-table only for the select few season-ticket holders? I'm still waiting for my package to renew my seats. I'm starting to think that the Kings are giving up on this city."
you really should have gotten it by now... if not, there's a problem. I had a half-season plan last year and got a call from my new ticket rep last week and a season ticket packet in the mail a couple of days later (I tossed it, except for the price list, but that's another matter). something's wrong in your case. call 888-KINGS-LA and ask to talk to your Rep.