The New Haven Ninjas were an

indoor American football Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller ...

team based in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

. They were an expansion team in the

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

for the 2002 season. On October 24, 2001, it was announced that

Ninjas A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 21– ...

had won the name-the-team contest over Cyclones, Gladiators, Hawkeyes and ShoreDawgs. Along with the Ninjas, New Haven was joined by the Albany Conquest, Bakersfield Blitz, Cape Fear Wildcats, Fresno Frenzy,

Hawaiian Islanders The Hawaiian Islanders were a minor league team of the Arena Football League's developmental league, the AF2. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, the Hawaiian Islanders home field was at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center Arena. It competed in the AF2 Natio ...

, Mobile Wizards, Mohegan Wolves,

San Diego Riptide The San Diego Riptide was a professional arena football team based in San Diego, California. The team played its home games at the San Diego Sports Arena. The team was originally coached by Cree Morris, then Mouse Davis and finally by Sean Ponde ...

& the

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers were a minor league arena football team that played in the AF2. The team was part of the East Division in the American conference. The Pioneers were an expansion team for the league's 2002 season, and were th ...

. New Haven played in the American Conference of the Northeast Division. In 2002, the Ninjas finished 6–10, third in the Northeast Division. Still, that wasn't enough to play football in August. After the 2002 season, the Ninjas folded because the

New Haven Coliseum New Haven Coliseum was a sports and entertainment arena located in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. Construction began in 1968 and was completed in 1972. The Coliseum was officially closed on September 1, 2002, by Mayor John DeStefano Jr., and d ...

closed, and the experiment for arena football in New Haven was done.

Roster

Season-By-Season

, - , 2002 , , 6 , , 10 , , 0 , , 4th AC Northeast , , --

References

External links

New Haven Ninjas on ArenaFan.com
{{Af2 Defunct American football teams in Connecticut

Defunct af2 teams American football teams established in 2001 American football teams disestablished in 2002 2001 establishments in Connecticut 2002 disestablishments in Connecticut