If there's such a thing as a consumer advocate for hockey fans, it may well be Los Angeles money manager Philip Propper.
For the last month, executives for the Los Angeles Kings have allowed the season ticket holder to review their books on behalf of the team's long-suffering fans, who have never enjoyed a Stanley Cup championship.
Propper isn't offering many hints about his findings, which will be posted in about two weeks on a popular fan-run Web site, www.letsgokings.com.
As for his improbable role as the Ralph Nader of ice hockey, the 42-year-old chartered financial analyst sees it as part of an inexorable movement in which pro sports teams are being pushed to come clean with the people they're charging $8.50 for a beer and $4,300 for season tickets.
"People are more sophisticated now, and there's too much competition for the entertainment dollar," Propper said. "You cannot ask for the fans to invest both their emotions and their cash without keeping them in the loop as to what's happening with the team."
Not only is Propper's exercise highly unusual for the Anschutz Entertainment Group, a firm that traditionally has closely guarded the details of its private ownership of the Kings and Staples Center. It also is believed to be unprecedented for a professional sports franchise in any league.
Although Major League Baseball recently released financial summaries showing that the majority of its teams were awash in red ink, it didn't allow outsiders to inspect individual franchise books. That triggered widespread skepticism about the numbers, which many believed had been rigged to justify contraction and hardball labor negotiations.
As the National Hockey League faces its own labor showdown next year, two of its teams have allowed journalists to view and report on their balance sheets. But only the Kings have agreed to let a fan take a look and issue his own findings, according to NHL officials.
King followers, a vocal lot that trusts team management about as much as it would a one-eyed referee, eagerly await the results.
"A lot of people think it's an excellent PR move by the Kings," said Mike Zampelli, a former Long Beach record store owner who runs Letsgokings.com. "A lot of people are waiting for Phil's report. Not only is he going to look at the numbers and see if they're losing money, he's going to tell why he thinks they're losing money."
