The Carolina Ghostriders is a now-defunct indoor football team and charter member of the American Indoor Football League. The team has a rather strange history.
In 2005, they were originally going to be the Carolina Sharks and play their home games at the Cricket Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, the Sharks folded and were replaced by a traveling team, the AIFL Ghostriders (often called either the Greensboro Ghostriders or their future official name, the Carolina Ghostriders). The team did very poorly, compiling an 0-10 record in the regular season. Because the league only had 6 teams, however, they still made the playoffs (every team did). They lost to the Johnstown Riverhawks in the opening round.
With that fiasco, the AIFL put in its best efforts to establish them in a market. On December 28, 2005 it was announced that the team would play in Asheville. And would play their home games at the Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina.
At the beginning of the 2006 season, the team was bought up by Robert W. Boyd from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, after losing 15 games in a row, the franchise officially broke up on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 (four games into the 2006 season) . Robert W. Boyd and the Carolina Ghostriders on 18 April 2006 filed an eight count, civil complaint against the American Indoor Football League, David Edward Dix, and Bizsellers.com for:
- I) Breach of Contract
- II) Fraud
- III) Conversion
- IV) Negligent Selection and Retention
- V) Trespass to Chattels
- VI) Appropriation of Name and likeness
- VII) Violation of Ohio Rev. Code 1334 et seq
- VIII) Violation of Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law 73 Pa. CS 201-1 et seq.
On 6 June 2006 Robert W Boyd and the Carolina GhostRiders received a judgment against the American Indoor Football League (AIFL) and Bizsellers.com inc for $435,127.50. Litigation still pending against David Edward Dix along with a criminal investigation.
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—Wilfred M. McClay, educator, author. The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America, p. 4, University of North Carolina Press (1994)