Tampa Tornadoes
The Tampa Tornadoes are a professional American 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 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, briefly joining the International Football Alliance but withdrawing along with most of the other IFA's teams prior to the launch of the season.
History
Following the dissolvement of the Tampa Bay Storm in 2017, after playing for thirty years and being the only remaining charter member from the Arena Football League's inaugural season, the Tampa Bay Tornado advertised themselves as the successor to the former team. In 2019, the Tornadoes were an expansion team in the South Division of the American Arena League for the 2020 season with Arena Football Hall of Famer and former Storm player Stevie Thomas serving as the team's first head coach and home games at Expo Hall in Tampa, Florida. The 2020 season was then cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Tampa Bay Tornadoes/Cyclones (2020–2022)
In July 2020, they were approved to join the National Arena League for the 2021 season, where they were to play against former Tampa Bay Storm rivals, Jacksonville Sharks and a relaunched Orlando Predators. 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. 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. The team did not finish the 2021 season and have since joined the American Indoor Football Alliance, along with other former AAL teams. The team appears to have been rebranded as the Tampa Bay Cyclones prior to the 2022 season.Capital City Cyclones (2023)
On October 20, 2022, the Cyclones and the AIFA announced their intentions to relocate to Tallahassee, Florida. The team subsequently rebranded as the Capital City Cyclones, but played no home games in the 2023 season.Tampa Bay Tornadoes (2025)
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. The AFL had announced a team from Tallahassee in July. The Cyclones wouldn't join the AFL, but instead was announced as one of the inaugural teams in the International Football Alliance as the Tampa Bay Tornadoes. The Tornadoes withdrew from the IFA shortly before the 2025 season and will play that season as an independent team.On June 22, 2025, hours before the Tornadoes were scheduled to play a game that evening, one of the team's investors withdrew his funding from the team and the team announced it would not play any further games in the 2025 season.
Podcaster Mike Lathrop captured a screenshot of an earlier version of the announcement, one that the Tornadoes had deleted, that the team would be making another effort to join the Arena Football League's successor, Arena Football One.
The Tornadoes were not included in the AF1 schedule for 2026.
Statistics and records
Season-by-season results
| League Champions | Conference Champions | Division Champions | Playoff berth | League leader |