'We're all behind it': Firebirds fan support has been 'absolutely tremendous' in first season

Longtime ESPN radio personality and boxing analyst Beto Durán has traveled many times over the years to the Coachella Valley, where golf, tennis and boxing have a home in the community. But on a recent trip to the desert, it was hockey, of all things, that Durán heard buzzing inside an Indio boxing gym.

The moment made such an impression on Durán that the lifelong Los Angeles area resident took to Instagram to share his amusement with his more than 25,000 followers.

“It’s weird,” Durán said. “I never thought I’d be in the desert, especially in a boxing gym, having a hockey conversation.”

That is the new reality during the ninth month of the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ inaugural season in the American Hockey League.

When it was first announced in 2019 that a professional hockey team would be coming to the valley, some local residents couldn’t understand the rationale behind it. It didn’t seem to make sense, and they were vocal in sharing their belief that it wouldn’t work.

Now, the Firebirds are playing for a Calder Cup championship. It will be the newest AHL franchise playing the oldest league franchise when the Hershey Bears visit Acrisure Arena for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series on Thursday night.

The business side seems to be in full stride with what the team is doing on the ice. In the most recent game inside the $500 million Palm Desert venue completed last December, the Firebirds set an attendance record with a crowd of 10,087 at a sold-out Game 6 against Milwaukee.

The arena packed in that many fans at a time when many seasonal residents have either left the valley for their summer homes or have begun to retreat toward cooler climates for summer vacations.

“I don’t think any of us would have guessed that we would continue to do as well as we are today without the snowbirds,” said Tim Leiweke, whose company, Oak View Group, spearheaded efforts to bring the arena and the Firebirds to the valley. “The fact that the local community has embraced us. They relish that we’re putting this community on our chest and playing for this community every night, and they’ve responded in a way that has been really, absolutely tremendous. We’re very, very grateful that the local community has adopted and supported the team as well as they have.”

In the six months Acrisure Arena has been in operation, more than a million people have walked through the doors, Leiweke said. After the Firebirds’ Game 2 sellout, the arena then hosted Grammy winners Shania Twain and Lizzo for three consecutive sold-out events within the span of six days.

The arena is also on track to generate more than $2 million in its first year solely from the use of the Berger Foundation Iceplex, the second sheet of ice attached to the arena.

For their part, the Firebirds have led the AHL in the number of season tickets — more than 5,000 — and in average ticket price, gross gate and sponsorship revenue.

In some ways, OVG and the Firebirds’ organization is reinventing how to do business in the AHL, combining quality hockey with a world-class venue that has captivated the local community.

With the success of the Firebirds this season, and the strategic marketing and community outreach throughout the valley, the team already has sold more than 1,000 additional season tickets for the 2023-24 season.

“It’s been an unbelievable success,” Leiweke said. “It has rattled the rest of the AHL just as to the results we’re generating here.”

'The right spot'

While the valley now seems to have Firebirds Fever, it’s worth considering whether the team would have been as widely accepted and supported across the valley had the team and the arena instead been based in Palm Springs, as originally planned.

OVG, a Los Angeles-based sports and live entertainment company, originally had a deal in place to partner with the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians to build an arena for the Firebirds, that would also serve as a concert venue, on tribal land in downtown Palm Springs.

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, several factors went into the partnership dissolving. OVG quickly pivoted, instead partnering with the H.N. & Frances C. Berger Foundation to build a mid-valley arena with private financing on 43 acres of unincorporated land between Cook and Washington streets north of Interstate 10.

While the arena would lose some of the cachet of being in Palm Springs, a city renowned for its stylish hotels and spas, resort lifestyle and history as a celebrity playground, the mid-valley location seemed more practical for a team hoping to attract support from the valley's half-million permanent residents and thousands of seasonal residents.

“There are a lot of people in the valley who would never go downtown,” said Antonio Diaz, a former world champion boxer from Coachella. “I know people from Indio, Coachella, Thermal and Mecca who go to games, but I think it would be different if the arena was in Palm Springs. They put the arena in the right spot.”

Palm Desert resident Timothy Clancy, a self-proclaimed life-long hockey fan who has three Firebirds' season tickets, said that he “most definitely” would not have purchased season tickets if the team were based in Palm Springs.

“Having a team named ‘Coachella Valley’ makes those of us that live in the valley, but not in Palm Springs, feel more like we are going to a home (arena) rather than visiting an (arena) and team in Palm Springs,” Clancy said. “Although it is just a name, there is a palpable feeling of pride rooting for a team with your hometown in the title.”

That hometown pride is a powerful thing. Among those who have it are Antonio Diaz’s nephew, Joel Diaz, Jr., who has lived in Indio and Coachella most of his life.

Diaz Jr., 25, has been to a handful of Coachella Valley games this season and when he goes, he wears his custom-made Firebirds jersey. He said that he “for sure” intends to purchase season tickets for next season.

Part of that is because of the proximity of the arena.

“It’s a great location, honestly,” Diaz Jr. said. “It’s nice having it fairly even for everyone around the valley to reach it.”

A downtown Palm Springs arena would have had its advantages, too. It would still be a draw for the valley and for other Southern California residents and would have drawn from the tourists and convention center and restaurants in Palm Springs.

But Leiweke points out that the current location allows the arena to have a much greater imprint on the entire valley. It doesn’t just touch Palm Springs but also the surrounding cities in the valley.

“The economic impact that we were trying to create has absolutely happened,” Leiweke said. “I think, quite frankly, that’s why we’ve already sold 1,000 new season tickets and I think we’re going to have roughly 2,000 on top of the already more than 4,000 that we have. So, I think we’re going to go into next season with 6,000 season tickets because it has been the community’s team and the community’s arena.”

'We're all behind it'

As Durán passed Acrisure Arena time and again during its 18-month construction, on trips from Los Angeles to Indio, he said he often wondered if a hockey team could really succeed in the valley. Would there be enough local support?

Last week, after another big Firebirds win, Durán walked into the boxing gym Antonio Diaz runs with his brother, renowned trainer Joel Sr., and quickly sensed how much the community has taken ownership of its team.

“Everybody in that gym was a local,” Durán said, “and they knew who was playing, they knew the implications of the game, they knew that they belonged to the Kraken. It wasn’t just like, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s a hockey game going’ on or a playoff game or whatever. They weren’t bandwagon fans. They were real into it — little kids and adults, so it was cool to see.”

The message Durán got from Diaz Jr. was clear: “It’s our first pro team in the valley,” Diaz Jr. said, “so we’re all behind it.”

After Durán recently covered a Golden Boy fight night event at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, he learned that the entire staff he was working with were going to the Firebirds’ game. Locals had convinced them that they needed to come and check it out.

“Never would I have thought about hockey in the desert,” Diaz Jr. said, “but that’s probably why it’s made such a big impact in the valley. It’s something new and engaging for everyone to enjoy. We would never have realized it otherwise.”

Leiweke has maintained for years that the impact of the Firebirds and the arena would do just that for the valley. Now, it’s happening.

And with the Firebirds still in their first season and the arena in its first year, these first six months have offered merely a glimpse of what’s to come.

“I’m not sure it could have gone better,” Leiweke said.

Andrew John covers the Coachella Valley Firebirds for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella Valley Firebirds have had 'absolutely tremendous' support in first season