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KISS Co-Owned LA KISS Football Team Reportedly Ceases Operations

October 18, 2016

According to The Orange County Register, LA KISS, the Arena Football League team co-owned by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS, has ceased operations.

"As I understand, [LA KISS] won't be involved in any football moving forward," AFL Players Union executive director Ivan Soto wrote in an e-mail on Monday.

LA KISS became the third AFL team to fold and the fifth to leave the league over the past week. First, one of the league's longest serving teams, the Orlando Predators, folded earlier this week. Then, one of the league's newer teams, the Jacksonville Sharks, announced they were leaving the AFL for a rival league. Another long-standing team, the Arizona Rattlers, are looking to join the Indoor Football League. That leaves just four teams in the AFL, half the number that started the 2015 season.

No official announcement about LA KISS's status has been made by the team or the league.

When LA KISS was launched in August 2013, Simmons and Stanley had high hopes for the Anaheim-based expansion team.

"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 at the time. "We've always tried to be a band that relates to everybody, and the AFL is built on that whole premise."

Regarding their involvement in the team, Stanley said: "We don't want to wear too many hats. When it's appropriate, we will defer to the people who have experience with this. We're bringing something new to the party."

"We're not going to be passive players in this," Simmons added. "We're really going to be a part of this thing."

According to The Orange County Register, attendance for LA KISS games dropped sharply in the second season, to an average of 7,913 fans at Honda Center in 2015. That was down from the 10,945 LA KISS averaged in 2014, when they were second in the AFL in attendance.

The team drew an average of 7,056 this past season, next to last in the league.

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