Timothy Leiweke took the stage during the American Hockey League Hall of Fame ceremony and started his speech with an apology. An apology no one expected.
“I’m dreadfully sorry for our weather,” Leiweke said. “For everyone from the east, I’m sorry we had to drag you here. Hopefully, it’ll get better in the next few days.”
It was 75 degrees in Coachella Valley with nothing but blue skies as the AHL All-Star Weekend kicked off. For the Coachella Valley area, it’s another accolade that the hockey scene has to boast as it quickly grows into a powerhouse in the state of California.
Coachella’s Rapidly Growing Hockey Community
It all started when the Seattle Kraken was announced as an expansion team. After getting the team, one of the next steps for the Seattle Hockey Partners (the owners of the Kraken) and general manager Ron Francis was to establish an AHL franchise. It came down to two options. One was to promote the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads: a longtime powerhouse franchise in the league. The Steelheads averaged within the top 10 of attendance in the ECHL almost every season and have only missed the playoffs once since joining the league in 2003.
The other option was more risky. It involved building a state-of-the-art arena from the ground up in Palm Desert. Palm Desert is nearly a three-hour flight from Seattle and had never had a hockey team before. In fact, the area had never had a professional sports franchise period. However, when Leiweke stepped up with the Oak View Group with the interest of starting and running an AHL franchise in the area, there was no better choice.
The group started building an arena that would eventually cost a quarter of a billion dollars. However, the gamble paid off as Acrisure Arena would quickly become a staple of the Coachella Valley community. The arena has hosted plenty of non-hockey events like NBA preseason games and concerts but its main use as a hockey arena has been the biggest draw.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds began play in 2022 and won their first game in the arena 4-3 over the Tucson Roadrunners. The inaugural year of the Firebirds was a very successful one. At first, the Firebirds games were attended by mainly snowbirds. However, as time went on and spring came around, the community was falling in love with the team.
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“I saw fans at our first games who just came for a night out,” Firebirds play-by-play announcer Evan Pivnick said. “A month later, those same fans were wearing Firebirds shirts. A month after that, they were wearing Firebirds jerseys. Then around the time the playoffs came around, they had their favorite player customized on the back of their jerseys.”
The Firebirds finished the season with a 48-17-5-2 record and within the top 10 of attendance in the whole AHL. Their first-round matchup with the Tucson Roadrunners began a memorable playoff run as Joey Daccord, Kole Lind, Max McCormick, and head coach Dan Bylsma helped get the Firebirds through a gauntlet of Western Conference teams, including a five-game series against the Calgary Wranglers where Daccord outdueled Dustin Wolf, and a six-game Western Conference Final against the Milwaukee Adrimals. Throughout the playoffs, the team established an AHL record for total playoff attendance with 138,053 fans attending 16 postseason games.
The Firebirds got to the Calder Cup Final in their first year of existence facing off against one of the oldest teams in the AHL, the Hershey Bears. In a thrilling seven-game series, Daccord shut out the Bears in the first two games at Acrisure Arena before eventually falling in overtime in Game 7.
In their second season, the winning didn’t stop, even with the departure of Daccord. Chris Driedger would take over as the Firebirds finished on top of the Pacific Division with a 46-15-6-5 record. The team would once again go on another playoff run, making it back to the Calder Cup Final. However, just like the year before, the Firebirds fell to the Bears in overtime, this time in six games.
The support of the Firebirds in the area only grew in their second season as the team ended up top five in the AHL in attendance with an average of 8,884 fans coming to each game. It showed that the fanbase consisted of more than just snowbirds, it was a whole community that supported the franchise.
“They had a lot of Canadian snowbirds that were season ticket holders,” AHL president Scott Howson said. “Then they had this big run to the finals, and the snowbirds had all gone home. It was a challenge for them, and they did a remarkable job of appealing to the whole community. You can sense how proud this community is of this team and their ownership of this team. They’ve done a great job in terms of community outreach, appealing to the Hispanic population and they’ve done so many things right here.”
You could tell just by driving around the area during All-Star Weekend that this is a community that really supports its team. Firebirds flags and stickers could be seen on cars, and merchandise was adorned by fans walking the streets of the city.
The team has also done a great job creating a youth hockey scene. Before the construction of Acrisure Arena, the area had one ice rink that closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When Acrisure Arena was built, an adjacent rink was built as well serving not just as the practice rink for the Firebirds but a sheet of ice for the community, which now serves as a home for the Jr Firebirds – a youth program that currently has nine different teams.
An All-Star Paradise
When the AHL announced that the league’s All-Star Weekend would be coming to Coachella Valley in just the team’s third year of existence, it wasn’t a surprise at all. It’s a great spot for the league’s fans and best players to have a fun weekend. 75-degree weather with clear skies means golf and pool time for multiple families that made the trip to Coachella Valley.
“We didn’t have to convince too many people to want to come out here,” Howson said.
The league made the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa Indian Wells their headquarters for the weekend. Complete with a spa, a fake beach by the pool, firepits, an entertainment center, multiple golf courses, bars, and a gorgeous view of the Coachella Valley mountains, it was the perfect place for the players to relax and spend a good weekend with their families.
As we saw during the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend, sometimes it’s not an enjoyable weekend for the players who may rather be in Mexico or some tropical place instead of cold Toronto. However, all of the players who attended the AHL’s All-Star Weekend enjoyed their time in the city.
“It’s a great city,” Yaroslav Askarov said. “My wife is happy, she likes this place a lot. She’s never been here before. She said ‘Oh my God, this place is so nice.’ I’ve been here a few times. It’s a pretty good place.”
“It’s been just so awesome to be here in Palm Springs,” Cameron Hebig said. “What a great venue and place to be.”
As mentioned, the 75-degree weather was enjoyable for everyone who was a part of the event, especially for the players who play for Eastern teams.
“It’s a great experience to be here,” Šimon Nemec said. “The weather is nice too. It’s good to be here.”
Overall, many of the players were impressed by the work that was put into making the event possible in an appealing area.
“It’s been a ton of fun,” Devin Cooley said. “They’ve (the league) done a really good job putting together this event. It’s been a blast.”
The fans did not disappoint. Obviously, most of the cheering went to Jani Nyman, who was the lone representative for the Firebirds, but a lot of the players got the crowd on its feet including most of the players from the hometown Pacific Division team.
Jani Nyman is introduced as the lone Firebirds representative at the AHL all-star game.
— Chase Beardsley (@ChaseBeardsley_) February 3, 2025
Surprisingly, Yaroslav Askarov got the second loudest reaction from the crowd.#LetsFly #AHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/OgaVp4L047
“It was just so much fun,” Hebig said. “It’s such a great event, and the fans out here in Coachella, they’re always so loud and they cheered us on.”
Overall, it was a slamdunk to put the AHL All-Star Weekend in Coachella Valley. From the state-of-the-art arena to the enjoyable weather, it was a fun weekend for everyone involved. The Firebirds have raised the bar on not just how to run a premier AHL event but also how to run a franchise and build a community around it.
“In terms of what the revenue they generate, it’s by far best of the league,” Howson said. “For a new franchise, it’s the best we’ve ever seen. It’s just all the things they’ve done right. Naming the team Coachella Valley so everybody has ownership, this beautiful building, and the energy of the fans. This is a great place to come to.”
Howson has seen teams come and go throughout his years working in the AHL. When the Kraken and ownership first approached him about placing a team in Coachella Valley, there were some doubters. However, despite the area having no sports history and literally being in the middle of a desert in California, hockey has thrived in Coachella with an incredible community backing the Firebirds. It proves that with a good and committed ownership group, the sport can grow and be successful anywhere.
“Six or seven years ago, Tim Leiweke and the Kraken had this vision that it would work here,” Howson said. “I’m sure there were a lot of doubters but it just shows when you do things right like when you have a beautiful building, you market the team properly, you get people engaged and feeling like they own that piece of it, it shows you what it can do. I’m not surprised at where they are now. I’ve been here for two Calder Cup Finals now, and it’s phenomenal. The energy and the aura around the team and around the community, you can really feel how proud they are.”
The Firebirds continue to be an incredible story in the sports world. While perhaps the level of success on the ice will someday diminish, it seems like the Coachella Valley community will still support them every step of the way as the area continues to be one of the strongest hockey communities in California.
