The Syracuse Blitz was a

Professional Indoor Football League The Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) was a professional indoor football league that played four seasons from 2012 to 2015. Like the Lone Star Football League, the PIFL was mainly composed of teams formerly part of Southern Indoor F ...

(PIFL) team that played one exhibition game in 1998 and was going to join the league officially in 1999. The franchise was originally awarded to

Buffalo, NY Buffalo is a city in the U.S. state of New York and county seat of Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River on the Canadian border. With a population of 278,349 according to ...

as the Buffalo Blitz on June 16, 1997. The move was part of a rush brought on by the threat of the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

' lease expiration, which had led to speculation that the Bills would leave Buffalo (speculation that turned out to be unfounded as an extension was reached). The Blitz was owned by Don Angelo, Bryan Perry, and a group of area investors. At that time, they were negotiating with the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

Buffalo State College The State University of New York Buffalo State University (colloquially referred to as Buffalo State University, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo State, or simply Buff State) is a public college, public university in Buffalo, New York. It is part of ...

for playing sites for the upcoming PIFL season. In September of '97, the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

announced their next franchise would be in Buffalo also, later on known as the Buffalo Destroyers. This forced the move of the PIFL "Blitz" to

Syracuse, NY Syracuse ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13th-most populated municipality in the state o ...

. After one scheduled tryout (Feb. 21, 1998), the Syracuse Blitz did not come together in time for the 1998 PIFL season, so the team had changed their plans to enter the league in 1999. The "Blitz" in fact did play one exhibition game against the

Louisiana Bayou Beast The Louisiana Bayou Beast were a team in the Professional Indoor Football League (1998), Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) in 1998, in the Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) in 1999 and reincarnated in 2001 in the National Indoor ...

at the

Pete Maravich Assembly Center The Pete Maravich Assembly Center is a 13,215-seat multi-purpose arena in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The arena opened in 1972. It was originally known as the LSU Assembly Center, but was renamed in honor of Pete Maravich, a Tiger basketball legend, ...

on the

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

campus in

Baton Rouge, LA Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

on July 4, 1998. The Beast won the exhibition game 39–18. The "Blitz" wore all black uniforms with all black helmets (no logos used). The Syracuse Blitz never did take to the field in the 1999 regular season, as the league changed its name to the

Indoor Professional Football League The Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) was the new incarnation of the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL), which started in 1998. Two of its teams (the Madison Mad Dogs and the Green Bay Bombers) left the league and their owner ...

that season. Twenty years after the original Buffalo Blitz were proposed, the Buffalo Lightning indoor football team (itself an offshoot of the long-established Buffalo Gladiators semi-pro squad) rebranded itself as the

Buffalo Blitz The Buffalo Blitz was a professional indoor football team based in Buffalo, New York. The club was established in 2014 as the Buffalo Lightning, an expansion team in American Indoor Football for the 2015 season. Playing as an independent in 20 ...

External links

Buffalo Awarded Indoor Football Franchise

Are You Ready for Even More Football?
{{Indoor Professional Football League American football teams in New York (state)

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, several ships of the Prussian, Imperia ...

Professional Indoor Football League teams Indoor Professional Football League teams Sports in Buffalo, New York American football teams established in 1998 American football teams disestablished in 1999