Get your face paint and eye black ready — football is back in Los Angeles.
The Arena Football League has awarded an expansion franchise, which will be named the LA KISS, to a group that includes two of the founding members of the team’s namesake, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, the league announced Thursday.
The team will play its home games at the Honda Center — the home of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks — beginning in March.
The KISS will be the first AFL team to call L.A. home since the Los Angeles Avengers folded in 2009. Season tickets for the team are already on sale beginning at $99 each and include free admission to a KISS concert.
Unlike the Philadelphia Soul, who were formerly co-owned by Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi, the LA KISS plan to fully embrace the band’s identity, even including the iconic “KISS” lettering in their logo (which can be seen above).
“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.”
Stanley and Simmons may be known more for their musical talent and on-stage showmanship than their football prowess, but the two assured fans that their venture into arena football is far more than a publicity stunt.
“There’s been a lot of attention to detail, to nuances, so that people don’t think this is a rock band in football helmets,” Simmons said. “This is real football, and this is good for the game.
“We wouldn’t put LA KISS on a football helmet if we didn’t believe we could kick it out of the park.”
Photo via Facebook/KISS
