JamesG
08-17-2013, 07:44 PM
KISS Brings Football Team to L.A.
8/16/2013
by David Greenwald, Billboard
Los Angeles will have a football team again this spring -- thanks, in part, to KISS.
According to ESPN, the Arena Football League will bring an expansion team to Anaheim under the ownership of a group that includes KISS' Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
The team will be dubbed the LA KISS and will use the rock act's logo. They'll join the league with play starting in March. Season tickets will reportedly come with a free KISS concert.
"As a fast-paced, high-action band, this partnership with the AFL was an obvious fit for us," Simmons told ESPN in a statement. "Attending an LA KISS game in 2014 will be similar to a live Kiss show, with thrilling, heart-pounding action."
Stanley also had praise for the AFL's underdog status in a sport dominated by NFL coverage. "The whole idea of an alternative to what has perhaps become a corporate sport is very intriguing, and resonates with us," Stanley told USA Today.
"We’ve always tried to be a band that relates to everybody, and the AFL is built on that whole premise."
L.A. has seen two previous AFL franchises, though no NFL team has called the city home since the Raiders and Rams both left after the 1994 season.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earshot/kiss-bringing-football-team-la-608148
8/16/2013
by David Greenwald, Billboard
Los Angeles will have a football team again this spring -- thanks, in part, to KISS.
According to ESPN, the Arena Football League will bring an expansion team to Anaheim under the ownership of a group that includes KISS' Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
The team will be dubbed the LA KISS and will use the rock act's logo. They'll join the league with play starting in March. Season tickets will reportedly come with a free KISS concert.
"As a fast-paced, high-action band, this partnership with the AFL was an obvious fit for us," Simmons told ESPN in a statement. "Attending an LA KISS game in 2014 will be similar to a live Kiss show, with thrilling, heart-pounding action."
Stanley also had praise for the AFL's underdog status in a sport dominated by NFL coverage. "The whole idea of an alternative to what has perhaps become a corporate sport is very intriguing, and resonates with us," Stanley told USA Today.
"We’ve always tried to be a band that relates to everybody, and the AFL is built on that whole premise."
L.A. has seen two previous AFL franchises, though no NFL team has called the city home since the Raiders and Rams both left after the 1994 season.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earshot/kiss-bringing-football-team-la-608148