Former Los Angeles King Willie Mitchell said he “got shit” for being the big outlier on the team in regards to where he wanted to live.
While all of Mitchell’s teammates decided stay in L.A.’s South Bay – mostly the Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beach areas – Mitchell opted for Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, a fine spot in its own right but a place that was foreign to a lot of Kings players.
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“The (general manager) at the time, Dean Lombardi, was like, ‘What the hell are you doing living down there?’ ” Mitchell recalled. “I don’t know. I like traveling the road that’s least traveled per se.”
Mitchell recalled he tried to get other players to join him in his location, which was not far from the team’s practice facility in El Segundo as well as LAX and Staples Center downtown. But as hard as he tried, nobody followed. He was the only player on the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup teams who did not live in the South Bay.
“I was close with Mike Richards (in trying to get him to move to Abbot Kinney) when he came in from Philadelphia and Jeff Carter, and they were really, really close (in following me),” Mitchell recalled. “They were kicking their tires on coming down there and they kind of just conformed to everyone else and the ‘herd syndrome’ and went to the South Bay.”
Really, no major pro team in Los Angeles is as synonymous with a residential area as the Kings and the South Bay. Players have been drawn to its scenic beauty, smaller-town feel – in comparison to other high-priced locations in metro L.A. – and the fact that it’s super close to where the team does its work on most days.
In many ways, the Kings’ association with this community is rare in pro sports in that all players generally never live within 10 minutes driving from each other – and especially in a city like Los Angeles with so many world-class residential neighborhoods spread out around miles of urban sprawl.
“This is by far, out of all the teams I’ve played for, where you’re the closest to everyone,” said center Nate Thompson, who has also played for the Bruins, Lightning, Islanders, Ducks and Senators. “When you can say you’re walking distance to a few guys on your team, that’s pretty close and I don’t think I could have said that at any other places I’ve played.”
The origin of the Kings players – in their entirety – moving into the South Bay beach communities mostly coincides with the opening of Toyota Sports Center, the team’s current practice facility, in 2000. This, along with the increase in NHL player salaries, made living there both convenient and feasible. Currently, the median home price in Manhattan Beach, according to Zillow, is $2,479,800. In Hermosa Beach it’s $1,683,000 and in Redondo Beach it’s $1,071,000.
Original King Bob Wall said he and a few other players with families lived in Torrance. The only player he knew of who lived near the beach in the South Bay was goaltender Terry Sawchuk, who played just one season with Los Angeles.
Over the years, Kings players tried to find spots that were affordable and reasonably close to games, practices and LAX. But for whatever reason, until their current set-up, it seemed they didn’t all congregate in one area like today and actually did spread out around Los Angeles.
The Kings also practiced in Culver City and North Hills at various points and played their games at The Forum in Inglewood until 1999 when Staples Center opened downtown. They also held practices at The Forum sometimes.
“I think the No. 1 factor, and it’s probably obvious, is proximity to the practice facility,” said longtime Kings television analyst Jim Fox who played with the team from 1980-81 through 1989-90. “When I first came here, I lived in Manhattan Beach my first year, but I was renting with three other guys so it was like college. And we were all single at the time, so there was no families or stuff like that. Then I moved to Culver City, which was where the practice facility was. I think a lot of guys lived in Culver City, they lived in Marina del Rey – they lived close to the practice facility and close to the airport. We did have some veterans, married guys, who lived in the Valley. So certainly way more spread out then than it is now.”
But even before Toyota Sports Center opened and made the area highly convenient and led to the players moving there en masse, the South Bay offered a level of insulation from the glitz and glam to the hockey players who started to migrate there in search of homes. No place in Los Angeles has a classic “small town” type feel, but those beach communities gave the players – many of whom grew up in small Canadian municipalities – a sense of comfort, mixed with something they didn’t have in their childhoods, namely the ocean itself.
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“I talked to my wife about where we were going to live because we grew up in Alberta, nowhere near a beach and living on Long Island (while playing for the Islanders) we didn’t really live near a beach,” said former Kings goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who played with the team from 1988-89 through 1995-96. “Our thing was, ‘You know what, if we’re going to L.A., we’re going to make it worthwhile and move to the South Bay,’ and we did and we loved it and fell in love with it.”
As more players moved there, a mutually beneficial partnership formed between local businesses and the Kings.
“The first time I remember the Kings conversation was when Marty McSorley came around … McSorley (who was traded to the Kings in 1988) was a customer here,” said Jeff Byron, general manager of The Kettle restaurant on Highland Avenue in Manhattan Beach.
“I think it’s good for everybody down here so as far as The Kettle specifically. Those guys come around here late night and what have you for years. But they’ve never been problematic. It’s never been ‘goddam those guys’ and we have experienced that with some other pro athletes, but never the Kings. They’re a good-natured bunch of guys, very approachable and they seem to be having a lot of fun wherever they go.”
For younger players, there were a lot of social spots for them to frequent. The older players with families liked the schools in the area. As the younger players grew into older players, they really didn’t need to move because everything they needed was there.
“Once the families did start to move there, and what’s important to the family are schools,” Fox said. “So once you get a certain one, or two, or three of the guys with families move to an area, it just spreads. Within the room guys are talking and, ‘My kid goes to this school, my kid’s in kindergarten’ and it just spreads that way.”
Though the Kings have been predominantly living in the South Bay for a long time, only recently does it feel like the organization has really planted its flag in the area. Maybe this has to do, in some respects, to the team’s rise this decade with its two championships, which lends to a certain visibility and celebrity for the players.
All communities want to feel pride when their residents accomplish something extraordinary and the South Bay was no different when the Kings reached the pinnacle of the hockey world. In 2014, the team had a second parade in the South Bay, outside of the one it had downtown, after it won the Stanley Cup. Also, after they won both Cups, the Kings celebrated at their favorite local establishment, North End Bar and Grill in Hermosa Beach.
This way, the players could see the familiar faces they had gotten to know in the community during their time there and share the championship with them.
“The amount of people that came out (to the South Bay parade), you’re looking in the crowd and you’re seeing the guy that runs the dry cleaner you go to or the local bartender of the place you go to. So stuff like that. It’s crazy,” former Kings player and current development coach Jarret Stoll said.
Stepping out in the South Bay, there’s generally a decent chance someone will see someone they recognize from the Kings organization.
Stoll estimated he sees Kings people 30-40 percent of the time.
Thompson said he sees people involved with the team, “Almost every day.”
“Jeff Carter lives on my same street but probably three blocks down from me. Drew Doughty is right around the corner from me. Even former players or guys who have places here like Milan Lucic lives down the street from me. I mean I could go on,” Thompson said. “Torrey Mitchell when he was here lived right next to me. Tanner Pearson. I mean everyone … literally we live in a pocket. I could keep going. (Alec) Martinez, (Jake) Muzzin – guys are all literally blocks from each other. Guys are obviously active and outside and have dogs and kids and pretty much. I think if you walk around and go a good distance of a walk, you’re probably going to run into someone whether it’s by Hermosa Beach pier or walking on The Strand, you’re going to run into somebody.”
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Stoll believes the closeness of where they all lived forged friendships that lent to the team’s championship success.
“We did so many things together away from the rink,” he said. “It just adds so much to your relationships as teammates that I think it helped us immensely in those years we were winning.”
The only issue Mitchell found with the South Bay was how well-known the players were. He signed with the Kings after playing with the Vancouver Canucks – a team in a city where players are recognized in most public locations – and didn’t want to be pinned down as a pro athlete wherever he went.
“We were looking for places and it’s really small, the South Bay, because it’s almost like a gated community in the sense. People were like, ‘Oh you’re the hockey player? You’re the hockey player?’ ” he recalled. “That was the exact thing I was trying to get … like that’s why I came to L.A. One, it was a good up-and-coming team with a chance at a Stanley Cup, but for me it was, I just wanted to be Willie Mitchell, just Willie Mitchell, not Willie Mitchell the hockey player.”
That being said, Mitchell pointed out that he has mostly been the outlier wherever he has played – in regards to where he has lived – and understands why so many teammates opted for the South Bay over anywhere else in Los Angeles. Generally, people want to live nearer to their friends.
“It kind of gives them a support network right away,” he said. “That’s a big part of it for sure is just the spouses and the families and having other like-minded individuals around to just kind of insulate.”
Beyond just being solid citizens in the area, the Kings also do their best to give back with events benefitting the South Bay. This past summer, the team’s Taste of the South Bay evening raised an estimated $50,000 to purchase emergency safety kits to equip South Bay classrooms. It was their 10th annual festival/fundraiser of its kind.
Saturday is the Kings’ 5K/10K that will start in South Redondo Beach and raise money for the Hydrocephalus Association.
“We appreciate all they do to give back to the community,” said Manhattan Beach city councilmember Steve Napolitano, via email. “I’ve been at many events where the players and cheering teams show up and support. It makes a difference.”
So much of this has to do with the time the organization’s players have invested in the area throughout generations.
“I think it’s just the roots the players have put down there and it just becomes automatic,” Fox said. “You certainly want to help whoever you can, but charity begins at home.”
If they didn’t love the area from their time playing in L.A., maybe they wouldn’t feel this way. But to the Kings, the South Bay really is home and, for many, it remains so after their playing days.
Said Stoll: “There are some good cities out there that are in the league, but this is a special place.”
(Top photo of Kings 2014 Stanley Cup parade in the South Bay by Noah Graham/NHLI via Getty Images)
Source: https://t-tees.com
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