Clippers Raise Price of Tickets

It’s going to cost more for basketball fans to support the Clippers next season.

After failing to make the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season and the 17th time in their 20 seasons in Los Angeles, owner Donald T. Sterling’s club has raised ticket prices for the 2004-05 season.

Less than a month removed from their 11th consecutive losing season, one in which they lost 14 of their last 15 games, the Clippers have not yet informed their season-seat subscribers of the increases.

But the new prices are posted on their website, clippers.com.

The price of most of the best seats in the lower bowl has increased by $5, with the face value of courtside seats climbing from $700 to $750.

The Clippers, whose payroll and ticket prices rank among the lowest in the NBA, were 28-54 last season, a one-game improvement over the 2002-03 season. They invested some $124 million last summer to retain free agents Elton Brand and Corey Maggette and signed Coach Mike Dunleavy to a four-year, $10-million contract, but they lost six other free agents, among them starters Michael Olowokandi, Lamar Odom and Andre Miller.

They have promised to be active in the free-agent market this summer, when they hope to fill pressing needs at point guard and center.

“My initial reaction is that it seems entirely inappropriate for them to change the prices at all,” Michael J. Sammis of Oak Park, a season ticket-holder, said Friday upon learning of the hikes. “Any normal, thinking individual would realize they’re not going to lower their ticket prices, but you’d think that they’d at least do the politically correct thing and keep the prices the same.

“That being said, five bucks is not a lot. They did sign a couple of guys in Brand and Maggette, which was a total departure from what they’d done in the past, and they brought in Dunleavy, a real coach. So one would hope that they’re going to look at the reasons for such a horrible season and make some real changes.

“So, for five bucks, I’ll probably renew. If it were 20 bucks, I really would have a question, I’ll tell you.”

The Clippers declined comment.