The Detroit Lightning was a Major Indoor Soccer League franchise which existed for only one season, 1979–1980. The Lightning finished that season at 15–17. The team's home arena was

Cobo Arena Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall, Cobo Center, and briefly as TCF Center) is a convention center in Downtown Detroit, owned by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) and operated by ASM Global. Located at 1 Was ...

. On May 28, 1980, at the end of the 1979–1980 season, David Schoenstadt bought the Lightning and moved the team from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

where he renamed the team the

San Francisco Fog Fog is a common weather phenomenon in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as along the entire coastline of California extending south to the northwest coast of the Baja California Peninsula. The frequency of fog and low-lying stratus clouds is ...

Owners

* Norman Lear *

Jerry Perenchio Andrew Jerrold Perenchio (December 20, 1930 – May 23, 2017) was an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He was at one time the chairman and chief executive officer of Univision. Early life Perenchio was the grandson of Italian ...

Staff

* Lynne Saunders – President / General Manager *

Klaas de Boer Klaas de Boer (born 6 January 1942, Kollum) is a retired U.S. soccer player and coach. He played professionally in the American Soccer League and was the 1977 NSCAA Coach of the Year and 1985 American Indoor Soccer Association Coach of the Yea ...

– Assistant Coach * Jack Nida - Operations Assistant

Record

Honors

First Team All MISL * 1979–1980 Flemming Lund

References

Soccer clubs in Detroit, L Soccer clubs in Michigan Defunct indoor soccer clubs in the United States Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) teams 1979 establishments in Michigan 1980 disestablishments in Michigan Association football clubs established in 1979 Association football clubs disestablished in 1980 {{Michigan-footyclub-stub