Coachella Valley Firebirds reveal home and away jerseys, which are now on sale

The Coachella Valley Firebirds will not play in Palm Springs, but the newest American Hockey League organization couldn’t resist the opportunity to use one of the city’s most picturesque locations for its latest unveiling.

With planes landing and taking off and mountains as the backdrop, a few hundred season ticket holders and others affiliated with the Firebirds gathered Monday morning at Palm Springs Air Museum, just off the runway at Palm Springs International Airport, for a reveal of the team’s home and away jerseys. It was the first look at what players will wear when they take the ice later this year and another page in the early chapters of the team.

The pageantry included a treasure chest delivered to the desert from Seattle, which was opened up to reveal the new jerseys.

Oak View Group, the Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment firm that owns the Firebirds, will make another big announcement Wednesday, when it reveals the name of the new $300 million arena being built off Interstate 10 in the Coachella Valley. The arena is scheduled to open later this year.

Monday, though, was about the jerseys. Home jerseys will be deep blue with orange and red team logos, numbers and lettering. Road jerseys will be white with the same orange and red logos, numbers and letters. Jersey customizations are available on the team’s online store.

In an ode to the valley, letters and numbers are in mid-century modern style, with sharp points and angles.

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“I really like the way they look,” season ticket holder Wayne Gordon said. “There’s clearly a theme and I think fans will be into it.”

Jerseys are now on sale at the team’s online store. The Firebirds said that more than 300 fans had purchased jerseys even before Monday’s reveal. Replica jerseys are going for $135 and authentic jerseys are for $300.

Among those in attendance Monday were Tim Leiweke and business partner Irving Azoff of Oak View Group, who are responsible for bringing the team to the valley, along with Leiweke’s brother Todd, the president of the Seattle Kraken of the NHL. The Firebirds are the AHL affiliate of the Kraken. Retired NHL goalie Grant Fuhr was also in attendance.

Tim Leiweke said that more than 4,000 season ticket deposits have been made and that the arena is nearly sold out of suites for home games.

“The thing that we are really driven by,” Leiweke said, “is that the Firebirds will be your first professional team. It will represent all nine cities and the million people in this valley, when we start to play. Everything we’ve thought about. … to everything we’re doing on an outreach to the community will be about giving you that you can be proud of.”

The team’s first home game is scheduled to be played in December. Some season ticket holders who were in attendance said that there’s a real excitement among hockey fans in the valley.

They said that there’s an anticipation for even these small reveals that the team will have throughout the year.

“We’re excited to have a team of our own here in the valley,” said season ticket holder Melissa Clark. “There’s a lot of hockey fans here who are from other parts of the country. Now none of us will have to travel to LA or San Diego for a game.”

Andrew John covers sports for The Desert Sun and the USA Today Network. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com and find him on Twitter at @Andrew_L_John.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella Valley Firebirds: Desert's AHL team reveals new jerseys