This post is more for reflection than suggestion, but still a few things worth keeping in-mind.
UltraChen did an episode that touched on two things that can relate to KOF in some ways.
The Sanford Kelly thing about no one is stepping up to ChrisG's level on the EC in Marvel, I know circumstances are VERY different, but the same can still be said about SoCal versus everywhere else in America. No one is saying it now, but I hope people do say it. And since I hear some SoCal players have been taking a break since EVO, I'm hoping the scene doesn't suffer just because the biggest KOF hotspot isn't showing up to TRB (unless I heard wrong, which I hope I did).
Second thing was expanding the fighting game community (having people play more than one game/Capcom games/etc.) Chen talked about using other fighters (P4A, SG, etc.) to badmouth games like SFxT, but don't put time into the "better" games. KOF was a one point one of them and we got lucky with the EVO showing, cause no one can say KOF is dead after EVO. Chen called out people who said they want P4A and wants to hold them to their word and not drop it after a month. While we can't hold people to that, one way I think we can help ourselves is (again) respecting other fighters. Not collectively talking trash about a game just because it isn't our main game, and admiting that we play more than just KOF (if we do, there's nothing wrong with just playing KOF) helps. More people were open to playing KOF with me when I admitted I played GG, SF, some Marvel, VF, Tekken, and CVS2, among others. Since most of the FGC is casual SF players probably, more people playing multiple fighters means more people getting into KOF.