Toronto Phantoms | |||||
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Established 1997 Folded 2002 Played in Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario |
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League/conference affiliations | |||||
Arena Football League (1997–2002)
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Team colors |
Black, Light Blue, Red, Grey, and White |
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Personnel | |||||
Owner(s) | Rogers Communications, Inc. (2000-2002) | ||||
Head coach | Mark Stoute (2001-2002) | ||||
Team history | |||||
New York CityHawks (1997-1998) |
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Championships | |||||
League championships (0) |
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Conference championships (0) Prior to 2005, the AFL did not have conference championship games |
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Division championships (0) |
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Playoff appearances (2001, 2002) | |||||
2 | |||||
Home arena(s) | |||||
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Arena Football League (1997–2002)
Black, Light Blue, Red, Grey, and White
New York CityHawks (1997-1998)
New England SeaWolves (1999-2000)
Toronto Phantoms (2001-2002)
The Toronto Phantoms were a professional arena football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The team was a member of the Eastern Division of the National Conference of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team also previously operated in New York City and Hartford, Connecticut.
The team began in 1997 as the New York CityHawks. Their name was a reference to the peregrine falcon, several of which make their nests on ledges high up on New York's skyscrapers.
Despite the failure of the New York Knights in 1988, the AFL decided once again to make an effort to establish a team in the nation's largest media market, and granted a franchise to the New York CityHawks prior to the 1997 season. The major circumstance that differentiated this situation from that of the Knights was that the CityHawks were owned by Madison Square Garden, while the Knights had been tenants at the Garden.
The Arena Football League had intended to re-enter the New York market in 1997 by putting an expansion team in the New Jersey Meadowlands, located just across the Hudson River from New York City. Among the ownership of the new New Jersey Red Dogs were several ex-NFL players, most notably former New York Giant Joe Morris.