STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : Tickets Worth King’s Ransom as Hockey’s Popularity Soars

On Oct. 14, 1967, there were some strange people in a strange land.

There were Cowboy Flett, Jet Joyal, Frenchy Lemieux and Killer Kilrea, young Canadian lads who appeared somewhat starry-eyed in their gold and purple uniforms as they prepared to launch major league hockey’s lukewarm romance with Southern California.

The Forum was still being built--it would open in December--and the Sports Arena, retaliating against Jack Kent Cooke for not only getting the National Hockey League expansion franchise but for building the Forum as well, wouldn’t accommodate the Kings’ entire early-season schedule. So they had to play a few games at Long Beach.

That first game in the Long Beach Arena was like a blind date. The spectators didn’t know the players, and the players didn’t know anybody. But you could get in for only $2.50--or $6 tops--so 7,023 showed up, many out of curiosity.

The team, except for brief moments of prosperity, struggled for many years, drifting aimlessly in the backwaters of a sports-crazy metropolis that had no time for losers.

Then came Wayne Gretzky, gone were the garish uniforms and-- voila!-- a whole new flock of stars was born.

Most of those who already had tickets for tonight’s third game of the semifinal playoff series against the Calgary Flames paid between $19 and $33. Others were expected to shell out much more, according to ticket brokers.

“We’re selling the best tickets for a couple hundred dollars,” Harris Rosner of VIP Tickets in Sherman Oaks told The Times Friday. “They’ve gone as high as $250.”

Kenny Solky of Murray’s Tickets said: “For (tonight’s) game, the top price is $300. . . . For a couple of VIP tickets on the glass, as high as $350.”

But the brokers, who buy their best tickets from season-ticket holders, have discovered something about hockey fans.

“What makes the demand for the Kings big is because most of their true fans have been there for a lot of years, and most of their season ticket-holders are loyal fans,” Rosner said. “They do not sell their tickets.

“Laker people, for the right price, they’ll sit home and watch it on television. A true King fan is going to that game, so there are fewer tickets on the market for us to procure from season-ticket holders.”

Solky agreed. “It’s definitely a different crowd for hockey,” he said. “The hockey season-ticket holder is more of a fan than the Laker season-ticket holder.

“However, I do believe that money is the universal language, and for the right amount of money, a Kings fan can be convinced to stay at home and watch his team on television.”

The Kings’ recent surge in popularity also has been a boon for Prime Ticket, the regional cable sports network started by Bill Daniels and former King owner Jerry Buss, who still owns the Lakers and the Forum.

“The exposure’s been incredible,” said Mike Kincaid, Prime Ticket’s vice president in charge of sales. “Wherever you go, that’s all people talk about, so obviously they’re watching.”

Kincaid said that when Prime Ticket did a Nielsen survey for the second game of the Kings’ series against Edmonton two weeks ago, the rating was 4.0, meaning the game was on in 4%, or 88,000, of the 2.2 million Los Angeles-area homes with Prime Ticket.

“But more important, there were more male viewers of 18-plus watching the Kings than were watching either NBC, ABC or CBS--and that was on a Thursday night when NBC’s got (Bill) Cosby,” Kincaid said. “We doubled each of the networks in male (viewers).”

Critics have said hockey isn’t suited for television because viewers can’t see the puck.

“That’s baloney,” Kincaid said. “This isn’t television in 1950. The problem was that there wasn’t a superstar. There is now. And it’s a simple game, but people thought it was complicated. You can see the puck.”

Kincaid was unable to say how many new subscribers have signed up just so they could watch the Kings. That would require a survey of the many individual cable companies that carry Prime Ticket.

“But our success will create greater demand on each of those cable companies,” Kincaid said. “Because if you don’t have cable, you don’t have Gretzky.”

Or Bob Miller, the Kings’ longtime play-by-play broadcaster, except on radio.

Another Gretzky spinoff, according to Kincaid: “Bob Miller is turning into a superstar. This thing has been a godsend for him. He’s been sitting somewhat in obscurity for so many years. With the addition of Gretzky, it’s changed the lives of everybody.”

Kincaid, on the phone from his office in Inglewood, added: “And you should see it right now across the street at the Forum. It’s a madhouse over there, people trying to get tickets.”

Who would have thought?

Bill Flett was L.A.’s first big league hockey star. Cooke tried to arouse interest in his hockey team by attaching a nickname to anything that moved. When Cooke learned that Flett had once competed in a rodeo, Bill Flett became Cowboy Flett.

Center Eddie Joyal, a smooth, swift skater, became the Jet, the late Real Lemieux was Frenchy and Brian Kilrea was Killer.

But Flett said this week that he was Cowboy long before he had met Cooke.

“I had that nickname before Cooke ever gave it to me, but he likes to say that he stuck it on me,” Flett said. “I was called that in junior (hockey), and it’s still with me today.”

Flett was general manager of the Red Deer Rustlers of the Alberta Junior League this season, which for them ended with a tough playoff loss to British Columbia Wednesday night.

In Los Angeles, Flett was a big, brawling, slap-shooting wing who wound up his 17-year career in the National Hockey League at Edmonton when Gretzky was breaking in.

Flett said: “I played with Gretz. He lived at my house and he’s one of my real good friends. When he came to Edmonton, Ace Bailey and he and I spent a lot of time together. I took him duck hunting. He shot a .22 and thought it kicked too much. But he started to hunt after that.”

Hockey in Los Angeles was very different in Flett’s days.

The Kings didn’t have a sellout--16,005, then as now--until their third season, when they filled the Forum for Bobby Orr and the Boston Bruins, rewarding those fans with a 5-4 victory.

The average home attendance for 21 seasons through 1988 was 10,664, and they never had more than five sellouts in a season. Flett said the most money he ever made with the Kings was about $25,000 one year. Gretzky’s complicated agreement averages about $2 million a year--and, apparently, he’s earned it.

This year the Kings had 24 sellouts and averaged 14,875 fans.

Flett has no regrets.

“Los Angeles was a great place to play hockey,” he said. “The people treated me very well. I happened to be one of the guys that was recognized. Most of the guys weren’t.

“We had pretty good crowds the first two years. Then, when they started trading people, like buying and selling horses, that hurt L.A. hockey. I thought they were great fans. The hard-core fans of the Kings have been there since Day 1.

“It was a very easy place to play. Anybody in his right mind would rather play in 70-degree weather than when it’s 30-below outside.”

Now, despite weather in the 70s, hockey is the toughest ticket in town.

“It’s definitely increased business, both in volume and the retail price of the tickets,” Solky said. “The average price range last year went anywhere from $10 to as high as maybe $75 for the best seat for the best games. This year, you’re looking at anywhere from $25 to as high as $150-plus.

“Since Gretzky has joined the team, volume has increased by 500%.”