When Mark Walter took over as majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, he and president of business operations Lon Rosen were very transparent that season ticket prices would increase moving forward.
Walter has already decided to sell the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger though, so it was unclear if the plan to raise ticket prices would remain or if the new owners had other ideas. According to Jessica Toonkel and Mark Maurer of the Wall Street Journal, the new Lakers ownership group laid out plans to investors that does include an increase in ticket prices from an average of $217 to $361:
The plan outlined by Thrive identifies around $150 million in near-term incremental revenue by 2028. That would come partly by reclaiming roughly 6,000 broker-held season tickets for single-game sales, which would raise average single-game ticket prices from $217 to $361. Lakers ticket prices have already been on the rise, and under Thrive’s plan more of that revenue would go to the team, according to a person familiar with the situation.
But according to Dan Woike of The Athletic, it will not be a rapid increase with the focus being on cutting out secondary ticket markets:
One note – per sources with knowledge of the Kushner-Iger plans, the team is not planning a rapid price hike to increase ticket revenue. Team does, however, want to grab control of tickets controlled by outside brokerages and increase revenue by cutting out those brokers.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) September 18, 2026
The ticket increase for this year was enacted prior to the agreed sale from Mark Walter to the Kushner group.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) September 18, 2026
As mentioned, the ticket price increase for the 2026-27 season was already planned under Walter. Once Kushner ad Iger officially take over as majority owners, which may not happen for a while, there likely will be more clarity on their plans for the organization and just how much ticket prices will continue to increase.
New Lakers owners planning to increase valuation to $30 billion
When the Buss family sold their majority stake in the Lakers to Walter, it was for a record $10 billion valuation. Then just one year later, Walter sold the team to Kushner and Iger for a $12.5 billion valuation, which was another record.
The new ownership group has plans of that valuation continuing to rise as they reportedly told investors that the goal is to get it to $30 billion in the next 10 years. Obviously, increasing ticket prices would help bring in more revenue to achieve that goal, even if it is unfortunate for the fanbase.
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
