Kings to Offer Gretzky Rich Lifetime Contract

The Kings will attempt to sign Wayne Gretzky to a lifetime contract when the two sides renegotiate the player’s contract before the start of training camp next month, owner Bruce McNall of the Kings said Thursday.

“I’d like to have as long a deal as I can possibly get,” McNall said. “I think Wayne can be good for me and for hockey long after his playing career is over.

“That’s what I’d like, and I think he’s amenable to that kind of an idea, too. It’s just a matter of getting it done. In the next week or so, we’ll sit down with his people and try to work out a deal.”

McNall said that before making the trade that brought the National Hockey League’s eight-time most valuable player to Los Angeles, he and Gretzky agreed that the former Oiler’s contract would be renegotiated.

Last summer, Gretzky, 27, signed a five-year contract with Edmonton that reportedly paid him about $900,000 last season, when he led the NHL in assists for the ninth straight season and led the Oilers to the Stanley Cup championship for the fourth time in five years.

When that contract expires at the end of the 1991-92 season, Gretzky would be a free agent without compensation.

Gretzky’s agent, Ian Barrigan, said that under the terms of his client’s contract--which makes Gretzky the highest-paid player in the NHL--Gretzky’s salary still is not in line with his actual worth to the league.

“Each team in the league takes in a good sum of money because every rink he visits sells out, basically,” Barrigan said.

Barrigan, speaking by phone from his office in Edmonton, declined to discuss specifics when asked what Gretzky will seek from the Kings.

“Wayne is the greatest hockey player in the world, so we would look for him to be paid accordingly,” Barrigan said. “The dollar effect--and the bottom line for the L.A. Kings as a result of Wayne being in Los Angeles--is going to be tremendous. It’s very clear he has a presence there.”

No matter the price, McNall seems willing to pay it.

“Without question, he’s the most valuable player in the National Hockey League, and I intend to pay him at that level,” McNall said.

Is Gretzky worth as much as Magic Johnson of the Lakers, who will be paid $3.1 million next season, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who will be paid $3 million?

“He’s certainly in that ballpark,” McNall said. “There’s no question in my mind that he’s worth every bit of what Magic makes. But then you have to bring it down to what total revenues are available.”

While the National Basketball Assn. has a contract with CBS that is worth about $2 million a year to each of the league’s 25 teams, the NHL has no network television contract, McNall said.

“We’re going to pay Wayne what the top players could possibly get paid, considering the total revenues available,” McNall said. “He’s going to be right at the top, if we can reach an agreement.”

Is Gretzky worth twice as much as any other player in the league?

“That’s one way of looking at it,” McNall said. “You really have to sit down and work the numbers out.”

Laughing, he added: “It’s already going to be bad enough negotiating with his people. Don’t get me killed.”

The New York Rangers were asked last June if they were interested in Gretzky, General Manager Phil Esposito said Thursday.

Esposito said he was approached by Glen Sather, the Oilers’ president and general manager.

“He came up to me on draft day and said, ‘I think Gretzky is going to be moved,’ and asked if I was interested,” Esposito said. “When I said I was, he said, ‘I know there will be money involved, but that comes later. Let’s talk about the players.’ ”

Esposito said the price was too high.

“I told him, ‘It’s great to have Gretzky, but who’s he going to play with? I think it’s too much.’ ”

Gretzky’s worth to Jerry Buss, owner of the Forum, to Prime Ticket, a cable television network that holds exclusive rights to the Kings’ home games, and to Ogden Allied, which provides concessions and parking at the Forum, was integral in bringing about the blockbuster trade, McNall said.

McNall, however, said Prime Ticket did not pay any part of the cash that was sent to the Edmonton Oilers in the deal.

In addition to Gretzky, the Kings acquired forward Mike Krushelnyski, forward-defenseman Marty McSorley and the rights to defenseman John Miner from the Oilers for Jimmy Carson; Martin Gelinas, the Kings’ No. 1 draft pick last June; first-round draft choices in 1989, 1991 and 1993; the rights to defenseman Craig Redmond, and $15 million.

Tony Acone, president of Prime Ticket, was quoted in Thursday’s New York Daily News as saying: “We absolutely had a hand in contributing financially.”

McNall, however, said that Prime Ticket’s involvement in the deal did not include a direct cash payment to the Oilers.

The Kings, McNall said, will recoup some of the money sent to Edmonton by increasing the rights fees paid by Prime Ticket, an arrangement that he said was agreed to verbally by Prime Ticket before the deal was made.

“They did not contribute any dollars whatsoever to the initial deal, but they’re a very important part of it,” McNall said of Prime Ticket. “Their contribution is more in the form of helping down the road than in the initial amount of money paid right at this moment.

“As we speak, they have not contributed a dollar.”

Said Acone: “I don’t want to imply, or paint the picture, that we were asked to take out our checkbook and write a check because that clearly is not the case. . . .

“The News article bothered me because it drew a picture of a bunch of us sitting in a room and some guy saying, ‘Hey, if I’m going to do this deal, you’re going to have to pony up something.’ That’s (not true).”

McNall said he met with Buss and representatives of Prime Ticket and Ogden Allied before making the deal.

They agreed, he said, to share in revenue generated by Gretzky’s presence.

“I said, ‘Look guys, if I get this deal pulled off, you’re going to have a windfall of profits,’ ” McNall said. “I said, ‘I would like an acknowledgment that you will share your windfall with us.’

“I don’t necessarily need 100% of the windfall, but I’d like a percentage of it. And they all agreed to that.

“We haven’t in each of these instances settled on what that would be, but these are people I’ve dealt with for a long time and I fully trust, so I didn’t feel I had to have something in writing, or the cash this minute to go through with the deal.”

Last season, when the Kings’ average attendance was 11,667 in the 16,005-seat Forum, the team was not paid a rights fee by Prime Ticket and did not share in revenue generated by parking or concessions, McNall said.

When the Kings were owned by Buss, McNall said, they were considered, in essence, to be part owners of Prime Ticket, which is co-owned by Buss. Instead of being paid a rights fee, they shared in Prime Ticket’s profits.

“But Prime Ticket was not in a profitable position last year, so the Kings didn’t receive very much,” said McNall, who completed his purchase of the team last season.

Based on what McNall and Buss agreed the rights fees to be worth, the Kings received credit from Prime Ticket as part of the sale of the team, McNall said.

Acone said that Prime Ticket, which broadcast 37 games last season, will broadcast at least 60 next season and will increase its on-air promotion of the Kings, including the possible production of a separate program centering on Gretzky.

A show chronicling Gretzky’s arrival in Los Angeles, including footage of Tuesday night’s press conference at the Sheraton La Reina Hotel, will air tonight, he said.