The Baltimore Blast is an American professional indoor soccer team based in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, United States. The team is a part of the

Major Arena Soccer League The Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) is a North American professional indoor soccer league. The MASL features teams playing coast-to-coast in the United States and Mexico. MASL is the highest level of arena soccer in North America. MASL players ...

. The team has won 10 championships since it was founded in 1980. Beginning with the 2017-2018 season, home games have been played at

Towson University Towson University (TU or Towson) is a public university in Towson, Maryland. Founded in 1866 as Maryland's first training school for teachers, Towson University is a part of the University System of Maryland. Since its founding, the university h ...

SECU Arena SECU Arena is a 5,200-seat multi-purpose arena on the Towson University campus in Towson, Maryland. The arena was completed and opened in 2013, and now hosts the men's and women's basketball teams, as well as the volleyball and gymnastics teams ...

. The Blast previously played at

Royal Farms Arena CFG Bank Arena (originally the Baltimore Civic Center and formerly Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore Arena and 1st Mariner Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Convention ...

in downtown Baltimore. Team colors are red and gold and their current head coach is David Bascome, who took over after 16 year head coach Danny Kelly had moved on.

History

NPSL, MISL II and MISL III years

The team was founded by

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

-based software executive

Bill Stealey John Wilbur Stealey Sr. is an American game developer and publisher who founded MicroProse with Sid Meier. He also founded (in 1995) and is the current CEO of iEntertainment Network. Business career Stealey took a job with General Instrument as ...

as the Baltimore Spirit at the end of July 1992 and joined the National Professional Soccer League. The team replaced the earlier Baltimore Blast, who folded along with the original Major Indoor Soccer League. When the team was purchased by Ed Hale, a former owner of the original team, the Spirit were renamed the Blast on July 10, 1998 (Hale had the rights to the Blast name, hence the reason why the team decided to change its name) and joined the new

MISL II The Misls (derived from an Arabic word مِثْل meaning 'equal') were the twelve sovereign states of the Sikh Confederacy, which rose during the 18th century in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and is cit ...

in 2001. After the MISL II folded in 2008, the team announced it would be joining the new

National Indoor Soccer League The National Indoor Soccer League (NISL) is an indoor soccer league that began play in 2021 and is based in the Southeast United States. The league fields men's and women's divisions. On March 24, 2021, the league announced its partnership with N ...

, which would later acquire the rights to, and became, the third version of the MISL.

Shift to MASL

One day after the 2013–2014 MISL Championship final, USL President Tim Holt announced a number of teams would not be returning to the MISL the following year. The franchise announced on April 2, 2014, that it would not return to the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) after its contract with the United Soccer Leagues (USL), owners of the circuit, expired following the 2013–14 season. It was officially announced the Blast would be one of six teams joining the Professional Arena Soccer League (later renamed the

) in the 2014–2015 season. In their first two seasons as a member of MASL, the Blast would win 33 out of 39 games. They placed first in the Eastern Division in both the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons, played in the 2015 and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

championship series and won the 2016 series over

Soles de Sonora The Soles de Sonora (English: "Sonora Suns") are a Mexican professional indoor soccer franchise based in Hermosillo, capital city of the northwestern state of Sonora. Founded in October 2014, the team made its debut in the Major Arena Soccer Lea ...

two games to none. The Blast repeated as Newman Cup Champions in 2017, again winning the final series over Soles de Sonora two games to one. In 2018, the Blast won their third straight championship, defeating the

Monterrey Flash The Monterrey Flash, is a Mexican professional indoor soccer team based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. Founded in 2011 as part of the Liga Mexicana de Futbol Rapido Profesional (LMFRPro), the team made its debut in the Professional Arena Socc ...

4-3 in the final.

Attempted launch of the IPL

On February 18, 2016, Blast owner Ed Hale announced his intentions to leave the

and form a new league. On May 3, 2016, the expansion franchise

Florida Tropics SC Florida Tropics SC is a professional soccer club based in Lakeland, Florida. They are owned by Central Florida Sports Ventures, LLC, led by Dr. Panos Iakovidis, and former USL commissioner and Rochester Rhinos owner Chris Economides. The org ...

held a press conference stating they would be joining the IPL. At the press conference Ed Hale was announced as the chairman of the league, and Sam Fantauzzo, former owner of the Rochester Lancers, was announced as the first commissioner of the league. It was announced that the St. Louis Ambush, Baltimore Blast, and Harrisburg Heat had "resigned" from the MASL. On August 29, 2016, the Blast, Heat, Ambush re-entered the MASL with the expansion Tropics joining. The move effectively folded the IPL as no teams remained in the league. After rejoining the MASL, the Blast would go on to win their second Eastern Division championship and MASL championship over

for the second year in a row.

Move to SECU Arena

The Blast announced in August 2017 that they would move from the

to the

on the campus of

, beginning in the 2017-2018 MASL season. The move was the first time the Blast franchise played home games in an arena other than the Royal Farms Arena. In June 2021 the Blast announced an affiliation partnership with Baltimore Kings, who will be playing their first arena soccer season in MASL 3 in January 2022.

Players

2021–22 roster

Active players

*As of 6 July 2020

Inactive players

Staff

* David Bascome – ''Head coach, (2020–present)''

Retired numbers

Hall of Fame

Notable former players

* Denison Cabral * Jason Dieter * Levi Houapeu * Jason Maricle * Tony McPeak *

Tino Nuñez Agustin "Tino" Nuñez (born August 22, 1984) is an American soccer player who most recently played for Ontario Fury in the Major Arena Soccer League. Playing career Youth and college Nuñez was a four-year letter-winner at Millikan High S ...

* Onua Obasi * Rusty Troy * Barry Stitz * PJ Wakefield * Tarik Walker

Year-by-year

Records

Statistics below show the all-time regular-season club leaders and include player statistics from the original

Baltimore Blast The Baltimore Blast is an American professional indoor soccer team based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The team is a part of the Major Arena Soccer League. The team has won 10 championships since it was founded in 1980. Beginning with ...

which competed in the Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992). Bold indicates active Blast players.

Head coaches

* Kenny Cooper Sr. (1992–1994) *

Dave MacWilliams Dave MacWilliams (last name also spelled McWilliams) (born May 20, 1957, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a retired American soccer forward and head coach who played professionally in the North American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer L ...

(1994–1996) * Mike Stankovic (1996–1998) * Kevin Healey (1998–2002) *

Sean Bowers Sean Patrick Bowers (born August 12, 1968) is a retired U.S. soccer defender. He spent most of his career playing indoor soccer, earning the 1992 NPSL Rookie of the Year, four-time Defender of the Year and a six-time first team All Star in fou ...

(2002) * Bobby McAvan (2002–2003) * Tim Wittman (2003–2006) * Danny Kelly (2006–2020) * David Bascome (2020–present)https://www.baltimoreblast.com/news/baltimore-blast-announce-new-coach

Arenas

;

(1992–2017) (previously known as Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore Arena, 1st Mariner Arena) *

;

Towson, Maryland Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincor ...

(2017–present)

References

External links

*
Baltimore Blast on FunWhileItLasted.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baltimore Blast 1992 establishments in Maryland Indoor soccer clubs in the United States Major Arena Soccer League teams Major Indoor Soccer League (2001–2008) teams Major Indoor Soccer League (2008–2014) teams Soccer clubs in Maryland National Professional Soccer League (1984–2001) teams Soccer clubs in Baltimore Association football clubs established in 1992