The LA Kings are… Losing Money?

The LA Kings are… Losing Money? – FanHouse – AOL Sports Blog:


That can’t be right. Or can it? The Kings have always seemed to have some financial trouble, dating back to before the lockout. That’s common knowledge. After that we went through an entire year without hockey for the sole purpose of restoring the financial viability of all the clubs. There were, and are, no guarantees that the clubs are all in the green, but from everything we have been told over the last three years they are doing much better than prior to the lockout. But wait … The Los Angeles Daily News reported today that the Kings are losing more money now than they were prior to the lockout. Those emboldened words are key here.

The whole “the lockout was supposed to make all of the teams profitable” thing is a strawman. That’s not what anyone ever claimed, what it did (and continues to do) is keep salary levels in line with league revenues, so teams have a CHANCE to be competitive, and competitive teams with good management and marketing have a chance to make money.

So what’s going on in LA?

well, look at the record and the market. In 2006 the team was 12th in the league in attendance, in 2008, 21st, down 1,200 tickets a game. that’s about a 50,000 seat drop in season attendance, which is a couple of million in lost revenue.

At the same time, Anaheim went from 24th to 15th, up 2,000 tickets a game. Since the lockout, LA’s struggled, and in the last couple of years, have really fallen into the lower echelons — while the Ducks merely won a Stanley Cup.

No suprise here: when you have two teams in a market, there’s a swing audience that’s going to follow (and buy tickets and trinkets) of whichever team does better. And on top of that, where success goes, sponsorships and other non-ticket revenues follow.

No CBA is going to save a team from attendance and revenue falloffs for being a lottery team, especially a lottery team that’s competing with a Cup winner, double-especially one that looks to have a ways to go to be a playoff team again.

So why are they losing more money now than before the lockout? Because the Ducks are a better team, and they’re a worse team.

It’s really that simple.

when the Kings get better, so will their bottom line.

The CBA was designed to protect teams from financial issues outside of their control. No CBA can (or should) set things up to protect a team from it’s own mistakes…

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