With decreased attendance and increased financial losses, the Carolina Hurricanes are going to try to balance the books by charging more for tickets.

The team is raising ticket prices for the 2008-09 season, despite missing the playoffs for the second straight year. Team officials say they have been faced with a reduced payout from the NHL's revenue-sharing money and need to make up that revenue.

For next season, the team is raising season-ticket prices in 12 of the 15 seating categories, with increases ranging from $12.50 to $1.25 per ticket. The increases amount to a 10 percent jump in most categories.

Game ticket prices are also going up, in some cases by substantially more than that. The cheapest seats will increase by 25 percent to $25 per ticket. Second-row seats, for example, are going from $90 to $150 -- a 67 percent hike.

"The reason behind the decision was to be in position to get 100 percent of revenue sharing," Canes GM Jim Rutherford said.

Under the league's revenue-sharing program established after the 2005 lockout, teams are required to grow revenues at a faster rate than the league average while meeting attendance standards. The Canes attendance dropped from 17,386 a game in 2006-07 to 16,663 per game this season.

The Hurricanes lost a quarter of their NHL revenue-sharing money -- more than $2 million in free money from the league -- when they failed to meet the growth benchmarks.

The penalty gets steeper the more the league's standards are missed. Failure to meet the targets one time results in a 25 percent decrease in revenue-sharing payments, while three straight years of financial non-performance would cut revenue-sharing payments in half.

The Canes did not change season-ticket prices after missing the playoffs in 2006-07.

Kyle Prairie, the team's director of ticket sales, says the response from the fan base has so far been one of understanding.

"Any time you increase prices, you're going to get some folks who'll complain," Prairie said, "but so far the response has been positive."

Prairie said his staff has been charting the positive and negative phone calls and e-mails from a season-ticket base of 5,000.

"It's a small sample size, but we haven't reached 10 in the negative and we have about 60 positive," Prairie said.

The fans might understand, said Camille Klein, 37, of Raleigh, who writes a fan blog called "Sweet Tea, Barbecue and Body Checks." But they're not all happy.

"After missing the playoffs for a second straight season, you can question the wisdom of the timing," Klein said. "It seems like they're trying to take advantage of us."

The team has tried to offset the price increase with a ticket voucher program. Full season-ticket holders receive four ticket vouchers, redeemable for tickets at select games, with their plan. The 26-game package includes three vouchers and the 12-game plan includes two.

The Canes also have created a gift-incentive program where fans can earn "points," akin to what hotel chains and credit card companies do, for team-themed gifts, ranging from umbrellas to autographed memorabilia.