For more than a decade now, the LA Kings have been kicking around the idea of hosting an outdoor game on the beach in Southern California. And various sources have indicated this topic is once again gaining traction.
The origins of the idea trace back to about 2010 — or a few years after the NHL debuted their Winter Classic concept in Buffalo on Jan. 1, 2008. We reported on the Kings and Ducks beach idea a few times through the years and then it all sort of died down once the two SoCal teams eventually squared off at Dodger Stadium, as part of the NHL’s Stadium Series in early 2014.
However, when team president Luc Robitaille was on an early Kings Of The Podcast episode, he admitted talks between the two clubs occurred as recently as 2018 — so the idea of a beach game never really went away.
“It could be a great visual and certainly would be very special,” Robitaille said at the time. “I think the one thing that we have to be careful of is [if it’s very] windy and a bunch of sand ends up on the ice. It can be a problem, but it’s definitely something we’ve entertained. And we’ve discussed [with] the Ducks.”
While it’s probably too late to pull off in time for the 2026-27 season, Robitaille also indicated in that interview that it may not end up as a regular season game — at least that was the thinking back then.
“I could see it maybe being like a preseason game or two,” said the Hall of Famer. “It could be a lot of fun, just doing a big event outdoors, [similar to] the setting that we had in Vegas when we played there in ’91.”
So, about 10k people, in a small intimate setting? Sounds pretty cool.
In the past, there has been talk internally about doing this type of event in the South Bay, where the Kings are quite popular among the locals — so much so that the area hosted its own Stanley Cup parade, separate from the larger (more publicized) ones in Downtown LA.
Now, Santa Monica is rumored to be in the mix. There’s even a bit of a connection there, as Goldenvoice (a subsidiary of the Kings’ parent company AEG) recently signed a three-year agreement to host a music festival launching later this year. Perhaps the parties can work together again on bringing a beach outdoor game to life.
From what we’ve learned thus far, the NHL initially reached out to the city of Santa Monica about a year ago. Talks have been “pretty serious” for a few months now, with things focused on Lot 1 North. The idea is to have the rink built in the parking lot by the pier, with the iconic Ferris wheel as the backdrop. At one point, there was even talk about this being a two-year contract, leading up to the Olympics in 2028. Exactly what a multi-year contract would look like remains to be seen.
If nothing else, Steve Mayer and the NHL brass were said to be in LA recently to do some sort of due diligence.
One thing is certain, when it comes to these types of events, the Kings organization is open to thinking outside the box. While it didn’t get a lot of attention in the mass media, Robitaille also talked about a totally different outdoor concept. When fans couldn’t attend games inside an arena during the pandemic, the Kings and NHL had ongoing talks about hosting 10-15 outdoor games at the soccer stadium in Carson.
Obviously, that never came to fruition, for a variety of reasons. Yet, one of the things Robitaille noted was the league’s sensitivity toward possibly diluting the outdoor game experience.
“At the same time, if you have an opportunity to bring 10,000 fans to [such an event], it’s certainly something worth looking at,” he remarked.
We’ll have more on this story as it develops. In the meantime, be sure to check out that original interview linked below.
Follow @mayorsmanor
MORE LA KINGS NEWS:
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please remember to include a link to www.MayorsManor.com
Continue reading...