Ryan Kartje | OC Register

LA KissÕ Thyron Lewis catches a pass as a fan reaches out in case he missed during an arena football game against the Las Vegas Outlaws at the Honda Center.
STEVEN GEORGES, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
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LA Kiss vs. Las Vegas Outlaws arena football at the Honda Center.
7/25/15 Slug: LAKiss.0412

The Arena Football League’s L.A. KISS, faced with dwindling attendance and concerns about the league’s viability, has ceased operations.

“As I understand, (the KISS) won’t be involved in any football moving forward,” AFL Player’s Union Executive Director Ivan Soto wrote in an email on Monday.

The KISS, named after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band led by co-owners Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, became the third AFL team to fold and the fifth to leave the league over the past week. In that span, the Orlando Predators and Portland Steel also folded, and the Jacksonville and Arizona franchises announced intentions to join the rival Indoor Football League. That leaves just four teams in the AFL, half the number that started the 2015 season.

KISS players and season ticket-holders remain completely in the dark. No official announcement about the team’s status has been made by the team or the league. Calls made to KISS officials over several days were not returned. When pressed about the future of the KISS, a spokesperson for the league referred only to a recent release that said the AFL was “focused on solidifying its foundation for the long term.”

That future apparently won’t include the KISS. The team’s players, along with those from the other two folding franchises, were put in a player pool for a dispersal draft held Friday for the league’s remaining teams. All undrafted players become free agents, according to an AFL spokesperson.

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Martin Kielty | Team Rock

Kiss drummer Eric Singer has recalled the “awkward moment” when he came third in a drumming contest – while future Guns N’ Roses sticksman Steven Adler didn’t reach the final.

And he’s used the memory to demonstrate how life can be unpredictable.

Neither of them were established musicians when they entered the Los Angeles competition in 1984, hosted by veteran drummer Carmine Appice.

Singer tells MusicRadar: “It was a radio station. You sent in a tape and from that they picked 50 people, 15 girls and 35 guys.

“They had you play in a parking lot – out of that they picked the finalists. Steven Adler didn’t get picked for the finals. I remember he was upset.

“His mother went up to Carmine Appice, ‘How come my son Steven didn’t get picked?’ I was standing right on the sidewalk next to him, while his mother was asking Carmine. It had to be an awkward moment.”

He continues: “The funny thing was, three years later he’s in the biggest band in the world – so you never know how things are going to turn out.

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