The Baltimore Blackbirds were an indoor football team based in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. They played the 2007 season as an expansion member of the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

, at the

1st Mariner Arena CFG Bank Arena (originally the Baltimore Civic Center and formerly Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore Arena and 1st Mariner Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Convention ...

History

The team was originally going to be a member of the Eastern Indoor Football League, but left for the AIFA soon after the "League Showcase/Jamboree" held inside the Mahoning Valley HitMen's "ThunderDome". The Blackbirds played a predominant road schedule (eight away games, five at home), finishing with a record of 1–12. The team suffered severe financial problems, which resulted in players and coaches not receiving paychecks from their last two games for several months. Simpson resigned as head coach on August 3, 2007, expressing doubt about the future of the team. Three days later the AIFA moved to expel the Blackbirds from the league for breach of contract resulting from the Blackbirds negotiations with other leagues. The arena lease was held by the league who opted to replace them with a new team which brought about the creation of the Baltimore Mariners.

Season-by-season

, - , 2007 , , 1 , , 12 , , 0 , , 7th Southern , , --

2007 season schedule

References

External links

Official website
Website down as of 9/19/07
Blackbirds' 2007 Stats
American Indoor Football Association teams American football teams in Baltimore Defunct American football teams in Maryland American football teams established in 2007 American football teams disestablished in 2007 2007 establishments in Maryland 2007 disestablishments in Maryland {{Maryland-sport-team-stub