Columbus Destroyers History
Columbus Destroyers, which is an Arena Football league team founded in Buffalo, New York in 1999 and have played for Columbus, Ohio since 2004. Columbus Destroyers, earlier known as the Buffalo Destroyers, started the play during 1999 AFL season playing at HSBC Arena which was regarded as their home arena. The team was owned by Buffalo-area businessman Mark Hamister. A naming contest was held to select the name ‘Destroyers' which alludes to a naval ship which can be seen outside the HSBC arena in the Buffalo Naval and serviceman's park nearby. The Destroyers were very popular and had good crowd during their early matches but lost the popularity slowly because they could not win enough matches. The second season score of 1-17 resulted in the firing of the head coach, Dave Whinham in the middle of the season. Ray Bentley, former Bills player was chosen as the head coach but could not guide Destroyers to a winning season. His tam somehow made playoffs but lost in the first round in 2002. Ray Bentley resigned after this season to find a job in broadcasting. The team had very low support and lost a lot of money (nearly $5 million). The Buffalo Destroyers moved to Colorado after the 2003 season started playing their home games at the Nationwide Arena which is shared by NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets. John H. McConnell and Jim Renacci were the new owners of the Columbus Destroyers. Columbus Destroyers played their first game against Carolina Cobras which they lost 54-53 in front of a record breaking crowd of 17,171. After the move to Columbus, the Destroyers have enjoyed good support from the fans and the attendance levels are some of highest in the AFL. The destroyers play in the eastern division of the National Conference of the AFL.
