The sporting life stumbles out of the gate as attendance figures fall short.

Attendance at six of the seven professional sports teams in the Los Angeles area fell during the last completed season, creating financial problems for just about all of the region's franchises, according to analysts and available information.

The six teams' home attendance dropped an average of 13.4 percent, which is tied directly to one of the main sources of franchises' revenues -- ticket sales.

According to information provided by the teams, the only professional sports franchise to increase attendance was the football Raiders, which from the 1990 to the 1991 season recorded a 9.5 percent jump in patrons. The current National Football League season will not be over until next month but the Raiders are expected to show a fairly sizable drop in attendance.

Industry analysts and sources doubted the decline in patronage has forced any local franchises into serious financial trouble. But they said 1992 was not a good year for the local teams because none of them had particularly a strong season on the field, which generally translates into a good year financially. They said the drop in attendance can generally be linked to an equal or smaller decline in overall revenues.

All the local franchises are operated as private companies and therefore are not required to reveal financial data. But industry experts said the value of most of the local teams has probably dropped over the last couple of years.

The sources noted a Financial World magazine study last summer that asserted the only local teams to have increased in value over the past year were the basketball Clippers and the hockey Kings.

In its second annual study of professional sports teams, the magazine said the Kings' value has increased 33 percent during the past year to $60 million and the Clippers' value has climbed 26 percent to $54 million.

Industry analysts said baseball teams generally are having a more difficult time financially than football, basketball and hockey franchises.

"From a business point of view, baseball teams have a cloud over them right now," said Robert Kelly, who does valuations of professional sports teams for American Appraisal Associates, an international consulting firm based in Milwaukee, Wis.

"Other leagues have been able to hold down salaries better than baseball and it's expected that future television contracts will be worth less than current agreements," said Kelly.

The basic sources of professional sports teams' revenues are ticket sales and multiple-year television and radio broadcast contracts. Other revenue sources, which vary among teams, include stadium parking, and concession stand and team merchandise sales.

A team's main expense today is player salaries, followed by general operating expenses that include costs related to renting or owning a stadium.

The Los Angeles area's two professional baseball teams -- the Dodgers and Angels -- both recorded significant drops in attendance during the season that ended in October.

Attendance at Angels home games in Anaheim dropped 14.5 percent and the number of people who watch- ed the Dodgers play in Los Angeles declined 26 percent.

The team that suffered the most in 1992 was the Dodgers, a franchise that because of its winning tradition and location was thought to be one of the most valuable professional sports operations.

"This was not a good year for us," said Bob Graziano, vice president of finance for the Los Angeles Dodgers Inc.

"A combination of factors led to our problems: the economy, the civil commotion in April that forced us to cancel games, an earthquake prior to the start of a game, the second highest payroll in major league baseball and one of the worst on-field performances in baseball.

"I can't give you specifics but we are losing money and could lose more because salaries keep going up and it's forecasted that television revenues will be going down," he said. Team officials from the Angels were unavailable.

The local team with the strongest gate performance over the past two years has been the Kings, which sells out just about every game it plays at the Great Western Forum. But even the Kings are struggling financially, said team President Roy Mlakar.

"Even though we continue to sell out our games, our expenses keep rising from player salaries and our agreements for stadium rental. And unlike other teams, we are limited in our concession and parking agreements. Right now, we are trying to address those problems and do something about our expenses," Mlakar said.

Teams that seem to be going in opposite directions in terms of both on-field and financial performances are the National Basketball Association Lakers and Clippers. In the basketball season that concluded last spring, home attendance at Lakers games fell 19.5 percent but it dropped only 1.5 percent for the Clippers. So far this season, which started in November, home attendance at Clippers games is up but it's down at Lakers games, according to the two teams.

"The team has been in the black for the past couple of years now and we think that we are now becoming part of the sports scene here," said Clippers spokesman Mike Williams. "But in sports teams, it all comes down to how well you perform. So we have to keep playing well."

Home attendance for Los Angeles-area professional sports teams
(include regular season and playoff games)
                1991-92        1990-91      % incr/
Team             season         season       (decr)
Angels         2,065,444      2,416,236      (14.5)
Clippers         514,286        522,104       (1.5)
Dodgers        2,473,266      3,348,170        (26)
Kings            686,025        722,987       (4.8)
Lakers           715,930        889,740      (19.5)
Raiders          521,600        476,581         9.5
Rams             412,685        479,356        (14)