The Great One Has Been Just That for Kings

Wayne Gretzky’s impact on Los Angeles, has been, in a word, great.

Great in the Smythe Division standings, great at the gate and great at spreading the word in Southern California that a power play isn’t necessarily synonymous with a power lunch.

A facelift was already under way in the Kings’ organization after Bruce McNall became the club’s sole owner last March.

But when McNall nabbed Gretzky in a stunning trade with the Edmonton Oilers Aug. 9, it brought the Kings to the forefront in a city that provided the 1988 NBA and World Series champions.

McNall, a longtime Kings fan, said his goals were to bring them out from under the shadow of the NBA’s Lakers, “give them their own identity, make the team feel better about themselves” and continue to improve.

But McNall, a 38-year-old entrepreneur who’s used to taking risks, got a lesson in appreciation.

“Gretzky just accelerated the process by several years,” McNall said.

At the midpoint of the NHL season, the Kings are on a pace to destroy their record for average attendance. Through their 24th home game, the Kings had attracted 342,558 fans, an average of 14,273, to the 16,005-seat Forum.

Through the same number of games last year, the Kings averaged 11,066.

The club record average was 12,620 in the 1974-75 season, when current general manager Rogie Vachon was the star goalie.

The Kings have also already broken the record of eight sellouts set in 1984-85, the last time the Kings averaged more than 12,000. The only sellout last year was for one of two home playoff games.

“In many ways, frankly, I think he did something that couldn’t have been done no matter what, and that was put people in the stands,” McNall said. “Unless you win a Stanley Cup or something in Los Angeles, I don’t think anything else--anything else--would have done it the way Wayne Gretzky has.”

Of course, it helps that the Kings are in second place in the Smythe Division, six points behind the Calgary Flames, with a cast that also includes Bernie Nicholls, Luc Robitaille and defenseman Steve Duchesne, who, like Gretzky, are among the NHL’s top scorers, and Glenn Healy, the league’s winningest goalie.

“I think that first of all, Los Angeles is no different than any other city in that they like to be treated with winners,” Gretzky said. “If you win, you’re going to fill the building. ... It’s just the fact that we’re winning. People enjoy the atmosphere in here, we’re a pretty exciting club, we’re winning, that’s all the fans want. I think the fans have enjoyed it so far this year.”

The Kings also got Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski from the Oilers. The cost was steep, though: center Jimmy Carson, first-round draft pick Martin Gelinas and three first-round draft picks in the next five years, plus $15 million.

But, says McNall, “I’ve always felt that if you’re able to get the best in the world of anything, whether it be a coin or an antiquity or a hockey player or anything else, that goes a long way toward making it successful. I thought it was a good, calculated risk.”

Kings seasons tickets have more than doubled to between 9,500 and 10,000, said Dennis Metz, sales manager in charge of season seats and group sales.

Ticket prices were increased from $18.50 to $25 in the loge, or lower level, which is sold out as season tickets, and from $14 to $16 in the upper level.

Metz said the Kings ticket staff answered 5,000 calls in each of the two weeks following the Gretzky trade.

“The phones really haven’t stopped ringing,” he said.

McNall said Gretzky has just about doubled the Kings’ average gate. Add to that television, advertising and merchandising, and Gretzky’s financial impact is about $200,000 a game, McNall said.

“From an economic standpoint, it’s doubled our projections just across the board, in terms of what we thought it would do,” McNall said of the trade. “It’s just been an incredible explosion in terms of advertising, merchandising, tickets obviously being sold, the whole bit. It’s just increased enormously.

“I was hoping that within the first three years we would have that done; luckily enough it’s happened within the first year.”

One of McNall’s pre-Gretzky moves that is paying off was to bring in Roy Mlakar as executive vice president. He had been general manager of the New Haven Nighthawks, the Kings’ successful American Hockey League affiliate.

One of Mlakar’s ideas was to open a shop to sell Kings merchandise. The Slap Shop, near Los Angeles International Airport, is in its first season of operation.

“The new management of the Kings was willing to go out and do their own merchandising, so we would have a place where people could walk in on a Wednesday afternoon and get a jersey,” said Harvey Boles, the Kings’ director of merchandising.

Business is “very strong,” he said. The Kings expected an increase in business anyway because they changed their colors from the Lakers’ purple and gold to black, silver and white. Still, with several Gretzky posters and T-shirts to choose from, “His influence has been tremendous,” Boles said.

Not surprisingly, No. 99 jerseys are “definitely No. 1” among the fans, Boles said.

The cable Prime Ticket Network will telecast 60 Kings games this year, 10 more than last season, a schedule that was set before Gretzky’s arrival.

“Just from what we’ve seen, he has definitely brought more of a positive aspect to hockey in general,” said Lori Gutknecht, director of communication for Prime Ticket, which shows the Kings to about 3 million subscribers in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.

Prime Ticket doesn’t keep ratings.

Just as playing with Gretzky has made other Kings more enthusiastic, apparently so did McNall’s purchase of the team from Jerry Buss, who owns the Lakers, other sports enterprises and the Forum.

“The history of the hockey club was not very good, to say the least,” Gretzky said. “They had a lot of losing seasons, and more than that I think that it’s really the first time that someone who owns the hockey team doesn’t own the basketball team.

“The basketball team was always so successful and did so well. The hockey team kind of got put on the back burner. Now, management has paid a tremendous amount of attention to the hockey club and we feel good about our organization. ... Everything is heading in the right direction, more than just what’s happening on the ice.”

The Kings had been losing about $4 million a year, said McNall, who became a co-owner with Buss during the 1986-87 season.

“It’s very easy in a sport, when you have the most successful basketball team in the league, to think everything is going great guns, because one is carrying the other one,” McNall said. “Now, when we break them apart, I don’t think Jerry ever knew how bad off the Kings were financially, because it didn’t matter that much to him.”

Just as Los Angeles has taken to Gretzky, he has taken to L.A.

“If anything, it’s been easier for me off the ice because . . . this city has more than just hockey. Whereas in Edmonton, it was pretty tough, because they pretty much talk about hockey all the time. I think that it’s made it a little bit easier for me down here that there’s so many more things going on,” said Gretzky, the greatest setup man in NHL history who is only five points shy of becoming second on the all-time scoring list.

“Canada’s a great country and I miss it a lot, no question. I miss the winter, I miss the snow. But I also love it here a whole lot. There’s a little less pressure off the ice. I can go where I want to go and I go a little bit less noticed, which is nice,” Gretzky said.

“The weather is great. Whoever said you can’t play hockey in this weather, that was a bad statement. It’s great driving to the rink in this weather.”

Gretzky’s wife, actress Janet Jones, gave birth to the couple’s first child last month, Paulina.