How the West Was Won: An interview with ChiefsLA

Is your member roll comprised of long-time Chiefs fans, recent converts or both?

Most are die-hard Chiefs fans. That being said, many have never been to Arrowhead or even Kansas City for that matter. I have found that in the mid-90’s, when the Raiders left for Oakland, many were so pissed they decided they were going to root for a different team. And what better team than the rival of the one that straight up left you?

Another factor was Joe Montana’s huge presence in California. When he came to K.C. around the same time, that was all the reason many of these fans donned the red and yellow. Still, none of them have wavered and have been true fans from that decision over 20 years ago—raising their children as Chiefs fans. There’s also a score of Kansas and Missouri natives that moved out to Cali (both Chris, myself and Reggie Flenory as examples) so we have been gathering them up as well. It seems like every season we meet another couple hundred Chiefs fans that we haven’t met before and because of that, the fan base has just been incredible out here.

There are reportedly three other Chiefs bars in the area (Champs in Burbank, The Whaler in Venice and The Bar-B-Que Bar in North Hollywood). Is ChiefsLA in any way mobile or affiliated with these other venues?

I can’t speak on Champs as we haven’t been there or heard of them actually, but The Whaler changed ownership nearly 10 years ago, and with it went the Chiefs watch parties. Now they show football but it isn’t Chief’d out like before. That actually was where we use to go until they shut down. The Bar-B-Que Bar actually approached us about holding our watch parties there. However, they don’t quite have the capacity for the amount of fans we’ve garnered.

Also, to us, we want it to be an experience, which you don’t get at any of those other bars. We want you to feel like you are back in K.C. We do discounts for those wearing Chiefs gear. We raffle off jerseys, K.C. Steak Company gift certificates, Chiefs ponchos and uniquely-designed ChiefsLA hats (among other things). We also play K.C.-themed music during halftime, have Boulevard beer on tap and will have Gates BBQ sauce to throw on your wings this season.

That’s the biggest thing for us, the experience along with the Midwest hospitality. We greet everyone with a “CHHHIIIIIEEEEFFFFSS” ring out at the front door so they know they’ve come to the right place.

How many people from ChiefsLA typically turn up at The Rec Room on Sundays?

On a regular early morning game (10am PST) we get about 75 people consistently. For primetime games, which we have six of this year, we can double that number. It’s good to show up early and lock down a table.