The Mahoning Valley Thunder was a professional af2 arena football team from 2007-2009.
Having entered af2 as an expansion team in 2007, the Thunder played its home games at Cortland Banks Field at the Covelli Centre in downtown Youngstown, Ohio.
The teams colors were a combination of Black and Navy Blue, with the minor color of Gray.
Single-game tickets ranged from $5.00 to $50.00.
The team sold out their inaugural home game, on March 31, 2007, to a crowd of over 5,900 fans, while their 2nd home game entertained almost 4,800 fans, on April 21, 2007.
The Thunder's first head coach, Mike Hold, went 11-26 in his two-plus years at the helm. Hold was fired on April 28, 2009.
After going 0-3 under interim head coach, Brennan Booth, the Thunder named the franchise's second head coach, Chris MacKeown, on May 26, 2009. The team ended with a 2-14 record in 2009.
Attendance declined steadily over the three years, and the owners were unable to find investors to keep the team afloat. This led to an announcement on September 9, 2009 that the team will suspend operations indefinitely. It is assumed that the team will not return, as the af2 league disbanded the same day.
Read more about Mahoning Valley Thunder: Season-by-season
Famous quotes containing the words valley and/or thunder:
“How old the world is! I walk between two eternities.... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, that valley digging its channel ever deeper, that forest that is tottering and those great masses above my head about to fall? I see the marble of tombs crumbling into dust; and yet I don’t want to die!”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“So gladly, from the songs of modern speech
Men turn, and see the stars, and feel the free
Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers,
And through the music of the languid hours,
They hear like ocean on a western beach
The surge and thunder of the Odyssey.”
—Andrew Lang (1844–1912)