Kings to raise some ticket prices

Rites of an NHL spring: Playoff hockey, draft speculation and season-ticket pricing announcements.

Make that two out of three for the Kings, as their long-suffering fans surely know, having been on the outside looking in at the playoffs.

The Kings, despite finishing next-to-last in the NHL, will raise season-ticket prices for next season in some sections, the team said Wednesday.

The “blended increase” will be 5.66% over last season, according to Chris McGowan, chief marketing officer, and Luc Robitaille, president of business operations.

Next season’s pricing changes range from a 21% decrease in several sections, the upper center top five rows, to a 16% increase in the seats where the goal judges used to reside.

Season-ticket holders will be mailed renewal packages on May 10.

Robitaille defended the price increases, saying that the league’s salary cap would be going up to around $56.9 million and noted that a gradual increase was preferable over a larger surge.

“We’ve got to be ready for when we’re good,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair to the fans that then we’ll charge you a stupid price. That’s not a fair thing either.”

McGowan said he wanted to “protect” the upper level of seats.

“I’m all about options,” he said. ” … Price increases are never fun. It’s the nature of our business, more than anything.”

The Kings’ average home attendance last season was 16,583, according to club officials. McGowan said the season-ticket base has ranged from the “high 10s [10,000] to the mid-12s,” and that last season was in the “low to mid 11s.”

The Ducks announced in early April that season tickets will rise an average of 6.6%. Individual game tickets will go up 7.2%. The Kings have not yet announced their plans for individual game tickets.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com