The three Stanley Cup Final games at Staples Center smashed records for merchandise sales at the 13-year-old arena, according to venue Senior VP & GM Lee Zeidman. AEG Merchandising, the facility’s retail concessionaire, sold more than $1.5M in Kings apparel and novelties at the Team L.A. Store, auxiliary stands and at a temporary Stanley Cup Plaza walk-in store set up across the street at L.A. Live. Retail per caps were $26.40 for Game Three, $24.95 for Game Four and just under $30 for the series-clinching Game Six. Those numbers beat the previous arena record of a $22.28 retail per cap set by the Lakers during Game Seven of the '10 NBA Finals. They also blew away the previous record for a Kings retail per cap of $11.39 set at Game Three of this year’s Western Conference Final against the Coyotes. For the regular season, a typical Kings merchandise per cap is $3 to $5, Zeidman said. The L.A. Live location opened at noon on game days, five hours before the puck dropped, and its three cash registers accounted for 10% of total merchandise sales, said AEG VP/Merchandising Sean Ryan. The vendor rolled out Stanley Cup championship hats ($35) and T-shirts ($25) as soon as the Kings won Game Six, driving sales even higher than their previous two Final home games. About 3,200 of those hats and 2,500 T-shirts were sold after the game, Ryan said. Meanwhile, Levy Restaurants, the food provider at Staples Center, generated close to $1.7M in gross sales for the three Stanley Cup Final games ranging from $27.40 to $31.35. Those numbers cover both general concessions and premium dining.
COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUES: During the offseason, AEG Merchandising will develop high-end souvenirs by cutting the dasher board plexiglass at ice level into several hundred pieces that will be etched with the Stanley Cup logo and results of the Kings’ four playoff series wins. Those pieces will be displayed in plaques to be made available for season-ticket holders. The price for those plaques has not been set, but will most likely be $249, Ryan said.
