On September 4th, the Coachella Valley Firebirds announced they have signed a deal with local television station, NBC Palm Springs, to bring all 36 home games to local TV. For their third season in the AHL, the Coachella Valley Firebirds will be more accessible to local fans in the California area.
For their first two seasons, the Coachella Valley Firebirds were previously signed with KESQ, another local station. This station, however, only aired a handful of games throughout the season. This made for a distinct lack of coverage for the new Firebirds, trying to gain their wings in the league.
Hockey Night Coachella Valley will be the name of the broadcast. Each broadcast will feature the full game, as well as pregame and postgame coverage. Fans can rejoice, as the original broadcast team, Evan Pivnick, Grant Fuhr, and Gino LaMont, will also be making the move to NBC Palm Springs as well.
The coverage begins on NBC Palm Springs when the Coachella Valley Firebirds play their home opener on October 11th against the Bakersfield Condors.
Coachella Valley will be playing 72 games in the regular season, with 36 of those games being at home. There will be three week long homesteads throughout the regular season.
From December 12th to December 20th, the Coachella Valley Firebirds will play the San Jose Barracuda twice, the Calgary Rangers twice, and they will close out the homestead with a game against the Ontario Reign.
January 5th to January 16th will be the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ second week long homestead. They will start the week off facing the San Diego Gulls, the Tucson Roadrunners, two games against the Chicago Wolves, and finally closing out the homestead against the Henderson Silver Knights.
The third and final homestead of the season will take place from April 9th to April 18th. Here the Coachella Valley Firebirds will face off against the San Jose Barracuda, the Bakersfield Condors, the San Diego Gulls, and finally the Abbotsford Canucks.
In the past two seasons for the Coachella Valley Firebirds, they pulled off a successful playoff run that landed them in the Calder Cup Finals against the Hershey Bears both times. Even though the Coachella Valley Firebirds are a newer team in the league, they have managed to gain a strong following in their short time within the AHL.
This new deal with NBC Palm Springs will allow local fans access to more home games throughout the season. This will be a great way to grow attention for the American Hockey League. More access to games should hopefully mean more fans as the season goes on.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds are the AHL affiliate for the Seattle Kraken, who are currently gearing up for their fourth season in the NHL. Earlier this off-season, the Kraken acquired Dan Bylsma as their head coach, previously the head coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Alongside Bylsma, Jess Campbell will take charge as the assistant coach for the Kraken. Campbell will be the first female coach in the NHL. She worked with Bylsma throughout the two past seasons of the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
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This is great exposure for the league and the team