Confirmed: Kiss’ Football Team Folds
The L.A. Kiss, the Arena Football League team owned by Kiss stars Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, has folded after three seasons.
11/15 Update: Simmons, Stanley and manager Doc McGhee have confirmed that the team will not play next year with a post on the team's official Facebook page:
“As I understand, [the Kiss] won’t be involved in any football moving forward,” AFL Player’s Union Executive Director Ivan Soto told the Orange County Register on Monday. Neither Simmons nor Stanley has confirmed the report, and there is no mention of the team's dissolution on its official site, Facebook page or Twitter.
According to the Register, the team's attendance sank to an average of just a little more than 7,000 per game last season, the second lowest in the league. Their report goes on to note that two other teams – the Orlando Predators and the Portland Steel -- have also folded in recent weeks, and that two additional franchises, the Jacksonville Sharks and the Arizona Rattlers, have announced their intentions to join the rival Indoor Football League.
The L.A. Kiss were announced in August 2013, and featured the team sporting the band's famous logo on its helmet, and fireworks, lasers and dancers in cages suspended over the field were regular parts of their home game presentations. Season ticket holders were also treated to an exclusive annual concert by the group. Although the Kiss posted losing records in each of its three seasons, their 7-9 mark this year was good enough to earn them their first-ever playoff appearance.
Stanley and Simmons weren't the only rock stars to try their hands at owning an AFL team. Jon Bon Jovi was a co-majority owner of the Philadelphia Soul from 2004 until 2009, and Motley Crue singer Vince Neil was briefly the owner of the now-defunct Las Vegas Outlaws.
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