Faithful & Ready - Fan Rally Builds Excitement For Home-Ice Advantage

It’s a pristine 72 degrees in Los Angeles and it seems like just another spring day.

Except it’s not.

At Grand Central Market in downtown LA, there is a line wrapped around the front of the market with people decked from head to toe in Kings gear, their energy and enthusiasm creating curiosity with regular market patrons. The Los Angeles Kings playoff-opening game is just two days away, and the excitement among the Kings faithful is plentiful and evident at the official Kings Fan Rally.

Michelle Szabo, director of brand marketing for the Kings, arrived by 7:15 a.m. - more than two hours ahead of the scheduled event time - to begin setting up, and observed a mother and daughter already in line, who said they had arrived 30 minutes before.

“They were jazzed up. They said they had been season ticket members for 30 years and they were at the Forum before,” Szabo says.

The Kings’ brass band was on hand at the rally as well as Kings’ mascot Bailey, Ice Crew members, a DJ, face painters, along with a Kings pop-up merch shop. Kings in-arena host, Mikey Alexander was hyping up the crowd.

“We have these fan rallies to kick of playoffs every year, and we have one per round just to generate some buzz,” Szabo explains. “We want to bring the fans together, cheer on the team as we take on the Oilers yet again, and really just have some fun. It’s such a family-centric fan base, right? So anytime we can get together like this is a win in our book.”

There were plenty of families present to celebrate the Kings’ playoff run, including the Miranda family from Rosemead. Fernando, 37, was at the rally with his family, including his daughter Phoenix, 4, and son Sebastian, 9. Sebastian, whose favorite player is Drew Doughty, was enjoying some video game time in the Chel Chariot parked in front of the market.

Fernando is a generational Kings fan, becoming a Kings fan at the age of five.

“My grandpa became a hockey fan when he first moved here to California from Mexico, he just started liking the Kings. Then my dad was born the same year that the Kings became a franchise, so then he became a fan with my grandpa,” Fernando chronicles. “Then around five is when I started noticing them watching the games and that’s when I got super into it.”

At the rally, Phoenix is wearing her dad’s first-ever Kings jersey, with the Miranda name on the back. She starts her own “Go Kings Go,” chant, unprompted. Both Phoenix and Sebastian were about six months old when they attended their first Kings game, and Phoenix’s first game was in a luxury suite the Mirandas were invited to.

Being a Kings fan for more than three decades, Fernando has seen his share of ups and downs. Being ousted in the first round of the playoffs for the last three years by the Edmonton Oilers has left a bad taste in his mouth, like it has for many. But this year, the fact that the Kings have home-ice advantage for the first time since 2016, makes things different.

“We have to take advantage of it. We have to just win the first two games, we have to beat them the way we beat them the last regular season game that we played.” Fernando insists, referring to the Kings’ 5-0 rout of the Oilers in Edmonton on April 14th.

Nancy Kube happened to be the third person in line for the rally and got in line just before 7:30 a.m. - she and her husband drove down from Santa Clarita.

“I first started back when I was 10 years old. One of my classmates’ dad had company tickets and when it trickled down to her and she could take a friend, I was the friend that got to go, and this was in 1969,” Kube recalls about how she became a Kings fan. “I’ve seen pretty much everything this team has ever gone through, a lot of struggles, but the Stanley Cups were just phenomenal.”

Kube is not a season ticket member, but goes to about 20 games each season and also attends official watch parties when she can. They’ve already secured tickets for Games 1 and 2 of the Kings’ first round series against Edmonton.

“It’s more fun to watch it with a group of people than to just be the two at home, yelling at the TV,” admits Kube.

Joe and Teresa Hernandez, season ticket members from section 311, were out late the previous night at the ACDC concert and didn’t get home until after 1 o’clock in the morning, but they still got in line at Grand Central Market prior to 9:30 a.m. and there were already more than 100 people in front of them.

“I am 57 and I was born in ’67, the same year that the Kings were born, and the reason I’m a Kings fan is a very good friend - actually, the best man at our wedding - introduced me to hockey and I’ve been hooked ever since,” asserts Joe, who has been a season ticket member since 1991. “It’s been a roller coaster, but it’s been great. We’re trending up and it’s going to be fun. The fun is about to begin Monday.”

Jonathan Bui, from Simi Valley, has been a fan since 1993, when he enjoyed watching Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille. He already has his tickets for Monday’s game, and is looking forward to the Kings having home-ice in Round 1.

“This year I think we could go deep in the playoffs, maybe the conference final, or hopefully the Stanley Cup,” muses Bui, 35. I’m happy that we have home-ice advantage and we’re pretty good at home, so hopefully we can get the 2-0 lead.”

About half-a-dozen friends were with Bui on Saturday at Grand Central Market, each sporting one of the swag bags that were given out to the first 500 fans in attendance. Inside Bui’s bag were a variety of items, ranging from apparel to collectibles. After enjoying the rally, the group sat down to enjoy some lunch at one of the market’s many food offerings.

No matter which part of LA they come from, how long they’ve been fans or what generation they belong to, this is the time of year when Kings faithful come together to support the team they love. As the Kings open their postseason on Monday at Crypto.com Arena, the fans and the kingdom are ready.