Professional football is returning to Los Angeles.
A new Arena Football League team called the Los Angeles Kiss, named after the famous rock band, will begin play in Southern California in 2014.
Sure, it's not the NFL, but it's better than nothing (which is what LA has had since its last AFL team, the Los Angeles Avengers, folded in 2009).
"L.A. is dying for a football team,'' Paul Stanley, one of the band's founding members, said at a press conference. ''What we want to see happen is to take the excitement that is AFL football and bring entertainment to it. We don't put our name on something unless we believe in it. This is something that really resonates with us.''
While the Avengers played their games at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, the Kiss will call Anaheim's Honda Center home. Season tickets will start at $99, and inaugural season seat holders can attend a free Kiss concert at the Honda Center next year.
“As a fast-paced, high-action band this partnership with the AFL was an obvious fit for us,” said Kiss frontman Gene Simmons. “With Arena Football, you are much closer to the action -- sitting in the front row is like putting a folding chair on the hash mark of an NFL game -- and it’s one of the only sports where you can experience this level of intensity. Attending an LA KISS game in 2014 will be similar to a live KISS show, with thrilling, heart-pounding action.”
Simmons and Stanley will be part owners of the team.
This is not the first time that a pair of rockers has been associated with an AFL team. When the Philadelphia Soul came into the league in 2004, Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora were part owners.
