Team Will Cut Ticket Prices for Next Season

Team President Tim Leiweke, a vocal leader in NHL ownership’s push for economic reform, will tell season-seat subscribers during his annual “state of the Kings” address today that the team is cutting ticket prices.

The club’s first across-the-board cuts since Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz assumed ownership of the Kings in October 1995 will lower the average price of tickets for next season by about 3%, Leiweke said Friday.

In some locations, the savings will be nearly 6%, as the Kings roll back prices to about where they stood last season.

The announcement might seem curious to fans and even King players. They have listened to Leiweke complain long and loud that the club has lost more than $103 million since Anschutz assumed control and will continue hemorrhaging money unless the NHL and the players’ union dramatically revamp their collective bargaining agreement, which expires in September 2004.

He has said the Kings will lose about $10 million this season.

But even though the Kings’ average ticket price of about $50 this season ranks below 18 other teams, Leiweke said it is necessary to make it less cost-prohibitive to attend games at Staples Center.

“This is an attempt on our part to acknowledge that our ticket prices have to become more affordable if we’re going to open up our team and our stadium to more people,” he said. “

“We may have to wait a year to deal with where we’re headed on salaries and the collective bargaining agreement, but we can address ticket prices today.”

Acknowledging that the Kings have their work cut out in trying to woo back fans after missing the playoffs for the first time in four years, Leiweke said the club’s motivation to reduce prices is more far-reaching.

“I think we shouldn’t be in a position where anyone has to make decisions about whether or not they can be a fan based on whether or not they can afford to be a fan,” he said.

Next season, he added, the Kings will establish a so-called “Dave Taylor Diehard” section -- the last two rows of several sections in the upper deck. Named in honor of the team’s general manager and former captain, a block of about 500 seats will be sold on a season basis for $10 a game, the cheapest seats in the house.

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TONIGHT

vs. Boston, 7:30, Fox Sports Net

Site--Staples Center.

Radio--KSPN (710).

Records--Kings 30-34-6-4, Bruins 33-29-8-4.

Record vs. Bruins (2001-02)--0-1.

Update--A 5-0 loss at Boston last season ended the Kings’ six-game unbeaten streak against the Bruins, the Kings’ longest in the all-time series.

Tickets--(888) 546-4752.