Ontario (California) Hockey Update

So–some of my questions have been answered. 

• There’s the new Reign logo on the left. It’s a rework of the Kings’ logo from the 90’s. Now when I get mail from the Reign, I wonder why the Kings are sending me stuff. There is, alas, no dragon to be found on it. 
• It certainly looks like the new management knows it has a good thing going in the Reign sales department. All those competent account managers look to be staying on, for now. 
• Ticket prices have gone up, but only slightly. Management is going to great effort to retain season subscribers–i.e., us. 
• No word on our mascots, yet. However, every bit of old Reign regalia is 50% off in the team store. All the fans are stocking up on “vintage” jerseys, hats, and blankets. 

I suppose I must wait until October to find out about mascots. Meanwhile, our boys are doing their best to bring one more ECHL Pacific Division banner to the Citizens’ Business Bank Arena before they leave us for New Hampshire. 

GO REIGN! 

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Change Comes to Ontario (California) Hockey

ECHL logo for Ontario Reign — soon to be gone forever

I’ve blogged before that the Hubby and I have season tickets to the Ontario Reign. Now, change is coming to the hockey club, and I am one of the few fans who seems to dread it.

Background: The Reign are an ECHL minor league club, two levels below the NHL. The next level up is the AHL, whose players often are called directly to the NHL. The Los Angeles Kings are affiliated with both the Reign and the AHL Manchester Monarchs.

Long story short, the Monarchs are moving to Ontario and the Reign to Manchester because that’s how the Kings want it.

The name will stay the same; we will still have a team called the Reign. The logo will change. The top executives, the coaching staff, and the players will swap cities. Many of the “new” players will be familiar — after all, the Monarchs team is where our improved players have gone. Most of my fellow fans are delighted; we will get to see a higher level of play. But I still have questions:

• Will the excellent sales and support staff stay?
• Will we still have the Dark Knight and Blaze the Dragon as our mascots?
• Will there still be a dragon on our logo?
• Will the ticket prices go up?

Stay tuned…

Hockey Madness

I may as well quit trying to even pretend to focus on writing today.

The Kings might win the Stanley Cup!

Two years ago, Los Angeles made a sacrifice to the Hockey Gods, which they found acceptable – the Sandley Cup, a sand sculpture put in place in front of Staples Center. No such sculpture arrived this year, sadly, so I sacrifice my weekly blog post.

We are the Kings of the ice
We have a goalie named Quick
And he is
We have a defenceman named Doughty
And he is
We are as strong as the Santa Ana winds
As enduring as the mountains
As tough as East L.A.
Like the earthquake we bring all to their knees
The City of Angels sneers at the Big Apple

GO KINGS GO!

— Update 6/17/14 —

The Kings won the Stanley Cup on Friday! In the words of the beer commercial, it’s only weird if it doesn’t work.

Outdoor Ice Hockey in Southern California

Dear Lord, what are they thinking?

I understand the reasoning behind the NHL Stadium Series. NHL brass, NHL players, Canadian fans, and northern USA fans all grew up playing outdoor ice hockey. They’re nostalgic. The NHL is betting on that nostalgia, and on the fact that the teams they’ve selected for the series sell out their indoor arenas regularly. Surely, they think, between longing for the Good Old Days, and pent-up fan demand, we can sell out these huge stadia at unreasonable prices.

This reasoning has worked well for the Chicago-Pittsburg game, which is already sold out. None of the others has sold out, yet. I can’t say whether the Los Angeles-Anaheim game will sell out, but it will do so, or not, without me.

I looked into buying tickets, as I haven’t seen an NHL game in quite some time. I was thinking that seats might be less expensive in order to fill such a large venue. Instead, I got a nosebleed looking at the prices. They are more expensive than seats in Staples Center, for crummy Dodger Stadium seats where you’ll need the Hubble Telescope to see the game. So, I should pay more to see this game… why?

Nostalgia for outdoor hockey? I’m a Southern girl. Ice is what you put in tea. I can’t help thinking that much of the Southern California fan base sees the terms “outdoor” and “hockey” in the same sentence and asks “Why?”

And oh yes, there are significant weather challenges for outdoor ice venues here in Los Angeles. January has its occasional sunny days where the temperature rises past 80F. Alternatively, it could be raining. Not snowing, raining. It’s the rainy season here.

They better have some darn good refrigeration under that rink, or the Kings and the Ducks will be playing water polo.

Meanwhile, I will enjoy watching Kings prospects on the Ontario Reign play hockey indoors, as God intended California hockey be played.