Tampa Bay Bandits
| Tampa Bay Bandits | |
|---|---|
 
|
|
| Founded | 1983 |
| Folded | 1986 |
| Based in | Tampa, Florida, United States |
| Home field | Tampa Stadium |
| League | USFL |
| Conference | Eastern |
| Division | Central (1983) Southern (1984) |
| Team History | 35–19 overall record |
| Team colors |
Red, Silver, Black, White |
| Head coaches | Steve Spurrier |
| Owner(s) |
John F. Bassett (managing general partner) Stephen Arky (general partner) Burt Reynolds (general partner) 26 other partners |
| Mascot(s) | Smokey |
| Fan Website | http://www.tampabaybandits.com/bandits/ |
Red, Silver, Black, White
The Tampa Bay Bandits was a professional American football team in the United States Football League (USFL) which was based in Tampa, Florida. The Bandits was a charter member of the USFL and was the only franchise to have the same principal owner (John F. Bassett), head football coach (Steve Spurrier), and home field (Tampa Stadium) during the league's three seasons of play. The team folded along with the USFL after the league suspended play prior to the 1986 season.
The Tampa Bay Bandits' majority owners were Canadian businessman John F. Bassett (who was still in litigation against the NFL over his previous Memphis Southmen franchise from the World Football League in the mid-1970s) and Miami attorney Steve Arky. Minority owners included Hollywood mainstay Burt Reynolds, at that time one of the most popular motion picture actors in the world.
Bassett's original plan was to place his team at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, Ontario. Not only was this outside the league's namesake United States, but it would have been by far the smallest market during the USFL's first season had it gone through (Bassett intended to draw from Southern Ontario, the largest market in Canada when factoring in nearby Toronto, and possibly from Buffalo as well; Hamilton also had the advantage of not having any other major league sports outside the Canadian Football League's Hamilton Tiger-Cats with which the team would have competed). Canadian government officials were dead-set against any other league challenging the CFL's monopoly on professional football in Canada, even if they played in different seasons, and Senator Keith Davey, a former CFL commissioner, threatened to re-introduce the Canadian Football Act, a 1974 unpassed bill (proposed in the wake of Bassett's previous proposal to put the Southmen in Toronto) that would have had the government endorse the CFL's monopoly and prohibited any other league from playing in Canada.
...
Wikipedia