The Tampa Tornadoes are a professional developmental football team based in Tampa, Florida.
The team was founded in 2017 as the indoor football team the Tampa Bay Tornadoes and later joined American Arena League (AAL) for the 2020 season, but did not play due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team was announced to have joined the National Arena League for the 2021 season; however, the team was terminated from the league after failing to provide letters of credit. Following the dismissal from the National Arena League, the team rejoined the AAL and began play in 2021 as a member of the East division, but did not finish the season. They then left the AAL for a newly formed league called the American Indoor Football Alliance for the 2022 season. The team succeeded the region's previous arena football team, the Tampa Bay Storm, that ceased operations in 2017.
The team "relocated" to Tallahassee after the 2022 season as the Capital City Cyclones, but played as a traveling team from that point until 2024 when they became an 11-man developmental team and rebranded as the Tampa Tornadoes.
In July 2020, they were approved to join the National Arena League (NAL) for the 2021 season, where they were to play against former Tampa Bay Storm rivals, Jacksonville Sharks and a relaunched Orlando Predators.[5] The team was terminated from the NAL after not providing letters of credit, although the Tornadoes had notified the league about their intentions to withdraw and rejoin the AAL.[6][7] Shortly after, the team rejoined the AAL for the 2021 season, but were instead playing home games in Lakeland, Florida, at the RP Funding Center.[8] The team did not finish the 2021 season and have since joined the American Indoor Football Alliance (AIFA), along with other former AAL teams.[9] The team appears to have been rebranded as the Tampa Bay Cyclones prior to the 2022 season.[10][11]
Capital City Cyclones (2023)
On October 20, 2022, the Cyclones and the AIFA announced their intentions to relocate to Tallahassee, Florida.[12][13] The team subsequently rebranded as the Capital City Cyclones, but played no home games in the 2023 season.[14]
On August 26, 2023, Jeffery Singletary, speaking on behalf of Cyclones owner Alton Walker, announced that the Cyclones would be joining the Arena Football League.[15] The AFL had announced a team from Tallahassee in July.[16] The Cyclones wouldn't join the AFL, but instead was announced as one of the inaugural teams in the International Football Alliance (an outdoor developmental league) as the Tampa Bay Tornadoes.[17]
The 2021 Tampa Bay Tornadoes season was the team's inaugural season. Prior to the season, the Tornadoes were originally scheduled to play at the St. Louis Bandits (March 27), Georgia Cobras (April 3), at the Spokane Shock (May 8), and Northern Arizona Wranglers (August 8); however, these games were not played during the course of the season. The Tornadoes withdrew from the rest of the season near the end of May.
