National Professional Soccer League (1995-1997)
Tombstone
Born: December 8, 1994 – NPSL expansion franchise
Folded: August 19971Ward, Bill. “Terror take hiatus after sale collapses”. The Tribune (Tampa, FL). August 29, 1997.
First Game: October 20, 1995 (L 11-7 vs. Canton Invaders)
Last Game: April 8, 1997 (L 16-11 @ Cincinnati Silverbacks)
NPSL Championships: None
Arena
The Bayfront Center
Opened: 1965
Demolished: 2004
Branding
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners: William Collins III, Tony Agnone & Kenny Cooper
Attendance
Background
The Tampa Bay Terror (1995-1997) were a dead-on-arrival attempt to relive the glory days of indoor soccer in the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area.
From 1979 to 1982 the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League routinely sold out the 5,000-seat Bayfront Center for indoor matches. By the time William Collins III purchased an expansion franchise in the National Professional Soccer League in December 1994, the glory days of the Rowdies were a distant memory and national interest in indoor soccer had declined steeply.
Collins brought in a top-flight coach in Kenny Cooper, who was also a minority owner of the team. Cooper had great success as manager of the popular Baltimore Blast club in the Major Indoor Soccer League from 1980 to 1992, winning a title in 1984. The Terror also went the nostalgia route by signing a popular former Rowdie, Perry Van Der Beck, as a player/assistant coach.
The Terror finished a disappointing 14-26 under Cooper during the winter of 1995-96. Van Der Beck replaced Cooper as Head Coach for the team’s second and final season in 1996-97. It didn’t help. The Terror finished 15-25, but made the playoffs thanks to the NPSL’s generous playoff system. The Cincinnati Silverbacks eliminated the Terror in the first round of postseason action.
Box Office Failure & Demise
The Terror’s draw at the box office was even more dismal. The club claimed an average of 1,827 fans per match in 1995-96 and 2,073 in 1996-97. The figures were among the worst in the NPSL, which averaged over 5,000 fans per game league-wide in those years.
The Terror seemed like an odd distraction for team owner William Collins III. Collins, a Virginia-based wireless communications executive and former minor league baseball player, was a baseball fanatic. His great passion was to bring Major League Baseball to Northern Virginia and he lead a decade long (and ultimately fruitless) effort to secure an expansion or relocated franchise for the region. Collins’ group spent $13 millon on the Major League effort between 1994 and 2004. During the time Collins owned the Terror, he also owned two minor league baseball clubs – the Greensboro (NC) Bats and the Michigan Battle Cats.
The Terror folded during the summer of 1997 after a planned sale to new investors fell apart at the 11th hour.2Ward, Bill. “Terror take hiatus after sale collapses”. The Tribune (Tampa, FL). August 29, 1997.
The Bayfront Center was demolished in 2004 and is now the site of the Salvador Dali Museum.
Tampa Bay Terror Shop
Tampa Bay Terror Video
Terror @ Cleveland Crunch broadcast. 1996-97 season.
In Memoriam
Forward Ken Snow (Terror ’95-’96) died on June 21, 2020 at age 50 from COVID-19 complications. ESPN.com obituary.
Links
###
2 Responses
Good lord, that logo is dreadful.
I was an intern for the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 1996 and went to a Terror game before our season began. We knew they would fold as soon as MLS came to town. There were only a few hundred people at the Bayfront Center and the club made no effort to draw fans. Surprisingly indoor soccer did very well in certain markets in both the winter & summer season, but with the success of MLS it pretty much doomed any national appeal for indoor soccer. It’s still fun to watch though.