The Mahoning Valley Thunder was a professional

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football r ...

arena football Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, an ...

team from 2007 to 2009. Having entered af2 as an expansion team in 2007, the Thunder played its home games at Cortland Banks Field at the

Covelli Centre The Covelli Centre is a multi-purpose arena in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. It opened in 2005, thanks in a large part to a $26 million HUD redevelopment grant secured in 2000 by Congressman James Traficant, James A. Traficant Jr. It is home ...

in downtown

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

. The team's colors were a combination of

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

and

Navy Blue Navy blue is a dark shade of the color blue. Navy blue got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with naval white) worn by officers in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. When this color name, ...

, with the minor color of

Gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

. 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 would suspend operations indefinitely. The af2 disbanded the same day."Youngstown Thunder af2 Team Folds"
Youngstown Vindicator. Sept. 9, 2009

Season-by-season

, - , 2007 , , 7 , , 9 , , 0 , , 3rd AC East , , -- , - , 2008 , , 3 , , 13 , , 0 , , 4th AC East , , -- , - , 2009 , , 2 , , 14 , , 0 , , 4th AC East , , , - !Totals , , 12 , , 36 , , 0 , colspan="2",

References

External links

Official website

ArenaFan
Defunct American football teams in Ohio Sports in Youngstown, Ohio Defunct af2 teams American football teams established in 2007 American football teams disestablished in 2009 2007 establishments in Ohio 2009 disestablishments in Ohio {{Ohio-sport-team-stub