L.A. fans don’t give up their seats

“How can you be happy about it?”

The guy was angry, bitter, sarcastic, couldn’t stop talking about the most galling Lakers announcement of the summer.

Kobe Bryant’s demand for a trade?

No, the Lakers’ demand for higher ticket prices.

“The team is dull, uninteresting.... We’re going to be seeing a lot of bad basketball.”

The guy was upset at a team moving down in the standings while moving up in ticket cost.

The guy was wondering why he has to pay an extra $4,100 more per year, per ticket, to watch a team that is seemingly so hopeless, even a lifelong fan like Bryant couldn’t take it anymore.

“It looks like a dynasty all right -- a dynasty of failure.”

His name is Joe Smith, he has owned Lakers season tickets since they moved to town 48 years ago, and, man, he’s mad.

So mad, he’s going to renew his four season seats.

So mad, he can’t wait for October.

“What can I say? I love being there,” he said with a sheepish laugh. “And I’m not the only one.”

P.T. Barnum should have owned a team in this town. Its general manager could have been Fagan. Its nickname could have been the Grifters.

Only in Los Angeles can major professional sports teams have awful seasons and hopeless futures and still raise ticket prices.

Only in Los Angeles will the fans whine and gripe ... then secretly hope the guy sitting in front of them will give up his seats so they can sit closer.

“Many years ago, Jerry Buss asked me what I thought about raising prices from $200 to $250,” recalled Smith, a former record mogul. “I told him, in this entertainment town, nobody will blink. So he’s just kept doing it, and doing it, and still nobody has blinked.”

Even in the wake of the recent Clippers and Lakers season-ticket price farce, few have budged.

First, the Clippers, even though they were arguably the most underachieving team in the NBA last season, announced a stunning 10% increase in their average ticket price.

Fans threatened. Blogs roared. A story surfaced about an angry fan whose second-row seats increased $32,000 a year, to $70,000 overall.

And what has happened since then? Not much, really.

Renewal rates are not expected to markedly drop, and there is still a waiting list for courtside seats.

Typical is Darlene Draper, a seven-year customer who was upset to see the price of her tickets raised from $60 to $68.

“It was a hefty increase, it was too much,” she said. “Lots of people were wondering what the heck was going on.”

But as quick as a Corey Maggette jumper, she sent in her deposit and reserved her seats. And when a family sitting in front of her didn’t renew their tickets, she scooped them up.

Only in Los Angeles can a team win seven fewer games, fail to make the playoffs and fans want to sit closer.

“Hey, I was with them back when they were sorry, so I don’t care,” Draper said. “I just like watching the games.”

Then, this week, the Lakers chimed in with their own 5% ticket increase even though they won three fewer regular-season games and two fewer playoff games.

And guess what? The waiting list for any sort of season tickets is still at about 1,600 fans.

“It’s very unfortunate that they keep raising the prices,” said Jimmy Goldstein, the noted leather-wearing fan who sits behind the basket for the Lakers and Clippers. “But what’s even more unfortunate is that I’m going to keep paying those prices, because I’m hooked.”

Face it, folks, that hook runs through the mouths of fans of every major Los Angeles sports team.

Early in Dodgers owner Frank McCourt’s tenure, he actually built new expensive seats whose views were blocked -- and the Dodgers still set attendance records.

The Angels have continually enraged fans by failing to make a midseason trade that would return them to the World Series -- yet their ballpark is still bursting at the seams.

If ever you needed proof about that old Los Angeles sports axiom, this is your ticket.

Sports here isn’t about winning or losing, it’s about entertaining. The venues here are nice. The sports are fun. The locals keep it close. It is more than enough.

The last time fans voted with their rear ends, the Lakers played in the aging Forum, whose empty seats convinced Jerry Buss to sign Shaquille O’Neal.

But now that both teams are in gleaming Staples Center, will there ever be any incentive for either to make that sort of bold move again?

“If they traded Kobe Bryant, there would be no more reason to go to the games,” said Smith. “But people still would not give up their seats. They would give them to their assistants while they waited for the next great player to show up. A Laker game is still the biggest game in town.”

Officials from both teams said that rising player salaries don’t give them much choice in raising ticket prices.

Said Andy Roeser, Clippers executive vice president: “We have to keep pace.”

Said Tim Harris, Lakers senior vice president: “Player salaries are a huge reason.”

Officials also said that, contrary to common fan belief, season results do not affect ensuing ticket pricing.

“If that’s the case, then when we win the championship, we could raise ticket prices 50%, right?” said Harris. “There’s a lot of other things involved.”

Then there are the hockey Kings, smarting from an awful season and paling in comparison to the Stanley Cup champion Ducks.

Worried about further upsetting their fans, realizing they are in no position to make demands, they decided to do the fair and admirable thing by not raising ticket prices.

Suckers.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.