Kings Backtrack on Cheap Seats

After being criticized for increasing the price of their cheapest individual-game tickets from $11 tickets to $22.50 for next season, the Kings reduced those same tickets to $15 Tuesday.

To fans like Brent Supple and Sam Cross Jr., who helped lead a revolt against the Kings’ initial price changes in late May, the team made a wise decision, considering that other franchises, such as the Mighty Ducks, still charge only $15.

“I’ve gone on King booster club trips to other cities and I’ve been in enough arenas to know what the prices of cheap seats are,” Supple said. “The Ducks don’t have an attendance problem and they still offer $15 seats.”

King President Tim Leiweke said he recently called Cross, which helped lead to the price cut.

“Cross told me that he and a lot of people who he hangs around with could not afford and had lost their desire [to go to Kings games],” Leiweke said.

“It’s important to the Kings not to turn any fans away. We feel at this point in time that we [need to] return sports back to the fans. Obviously, our first change did not completely do that. We’re just glad that we’ve been able to reach a happy compromise.”

The Kings will drop the price of more than 200 tickets to $15 to go along with the individual ticket prices of $80, $64, $50, $44.50, $32.50 and $22.50.

“When we initially made the changes in our ticket prices, we tried to develop a pricing structure that was fair to everyone,” Leiweke said. “We had no intention of pricing anyone out of the experience of Kings hockey. These past few weeks, we’ve received a lot of feedback, and this administration has always stressed the importance of being accountable to our fans. We hope this adjustment will bring us closer to our goals, without sacrificing our commitment to King season-ticket holders.”

Supple, 26, of Costa Mesa, who said for the last several years he has attended up to 30 King games a season with a group of friends from Orange County, was pleased with the compromise.

“We’re very excited about the new ticket price,” Supple said. “We think that the Kings did the right thing and we can’t wait for the season to start.”