DENVER -- The Colorado Avalanche are paying the price for success with a team payroll that has reached $50 million.

Five years ago, the former owners of the team paid $75 million for the entire franchise. This year, new owner Stan Kroenke will spend nearly two thirds of that figure just on player salaries.

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At the end of the 1995-96 season, when the Avs swept Florida to win their first Cup, the team payroll was a little more than $16 million. As of Tuesday, the payroll was $50,520,000, a 320-percent increase. ”

"Since we won the Stanley Cup in 1996, we had to face the obvious," Avs president and general manager Pierre Lacroix said. "You win, and you pay a price. It's a reflection of the league as a whole, but also a reflection of our commitment to our fans to put out a good product. We decided to be competitive and be a contender, and that's the price to pay."

At the end of the 1995-96 season, when the Avs swept Florida to win their first Cup, the team payroll was a little more than $16 million. As of Tuesday, the payroll was $50,520,000, a 320-percent increase.

And yet, there are four other NHL teams -- New York Rangers, Dallas, Detroit and Philadelphia -- with higher payrolls. Despite a $7 million increase over last season's payroll, the Avalanche stayed in the same No. 5 position on the league-wide salary list.

"That's the situation in the hockey world, with an overall inflation rate. We're no different," Lacroix said. "It's a reflection of the market."

	Forsberg pulls down a cool $10 million to play for the Avs.

But the market has changed in 10 years. In 1991, the average NHL player salary was $271,000. Entering this season, it is $1.49 million.

NHL teams are charging more to fans to make up for much of the salary increases, but, in the case of the Avalanche, not at the rate of inflation in player salaries.

In 1995-96, the average Avs ticket price was $32. It is $59 entering this year, but that's well under the 320-percent increase in the team's payroll since then.

Change is expected to come to the NHL in the form of a salary cap in 2004, when the league's collective-bargaining agreement expires. Until then, however, costs are expected to keep rising.

"Stan Kroenke made it clear with us," Lacroix said, "any decision that we make, as long as it is fiscally responsible, he'll be supportive. If we're not going to be fiscally responsible, he won't be supportive."