When the National Hockey League season got canceled, the owners of luxury suites at Fleet Center in Boston got a refund for part of the $200,000 they spent to see Bruins and Celtics games.

A generous accommodation was made to Arrowhead Pond suite holders, who got a refund or a credit – with 5 percent interest – on money they paid to see Mighty Ducks games.

Not at Staples Center.

Bills sent out for the 2005-2006 season, which also includes Lakers, Clippers and other games and events, made no mention of any credit or refund for the 41 L.A. Kings home games lost.

In fact, prices went up by between 3 percent and 7 percent, to as high as $360,000 for one of the 160 suites. And there’s no guarantee there will be an NHL season this year either.

That’s ticked off some suite holders who believe they are being treated unfairly. All Kings season-ticket holders received their money back or credits for the next billing cycle, while corporate sponsors that committed to additional ad space at Kings games were not billed for the hockey season.

“They should have come forward with some form of compensations for the missed Kings games,” said Norris Bishton, president and chief executive of the Noarus Auto Group, which owns five area dealerships. “I am surprised and disappointed. There has been no communication – nothing.”

While they’re mad, there’s nothing much that suite holders can do, with the exception of giving up their suites to one of the 24 parties on the waiting list to grab them up. (So far, no one’s done so.)

Each contract guarantees that suite holders are entitled to 150 events per year – essentially, most every event that takes place at Staples with the exception of the Grammy Awards, which is operated by an outside promoter.

To fill in some of the gaps, arena owner Anschutz Entertainment Group scheduled nearly 40 concerts – the most ever – and again secured the X Games, the Women’s Tennis Association Championships and the Pac-10 men’s basketball championships and boxing matches.

“Am I saying at the end of the day that I feel like we have completely made it up to them? No,” said Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive of AEG. “I’m not asking them to do back flips because we missed hockey. But the majority of suite holders I’ve talked to are very aware of how aggressive we’ve been to fill in the blanks and they’re very appreciative of that.”

Team ownership
Some of the fan dissension stems from the belief that officials at AEG – which has a stake in the Kings – should have known in advance that the hockey season, scheduled to start last October, would begin late or be lost altogether.

After the season was canceled in February, some fans say that Staples Center salespeople led them to believe they would be compensated.