Tag: Rockford MetroCentre

Chicago Rush Arena Football

Chicago Rush

Arena Football League (2001-2008 & 2010-2013) Born: June 28, 1999 – AFL expansion franchise Folded: 2013 First Game: April 21, 2001 (L 45-44 @ Oklahoma

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1989 Rockford Lightning Program from the Continental Basketball Association

Rockford Lightning

The Rockford Lightning were a popular attraction in Illinois’ third-largest city from 1986 until 2006. The Lightning’s twenty-season run was unusually long by the standards of minor league basketball. The club played in the Continental Basketball Association championship series on four occasions but never managed to win a title.

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1990 Chicago Power program from the National Professional Soccer League

Chicago Power

The Chicago Power were an indoor soccer club formed in 1988. The Power were a lower-budget successor to the Chicago Sting, the city’s popular and long-running pro side that went out of business in July of that same year.  Several weeks after the Sting closed their doors, a former Sting investor named Lou Weisbach purchased an expansion franchise in the American Indoor Soccer Association (AISA). Karl-Heinz Granitza, Pato Margetic, Batata, Bret Hall, and other former Sting stars suited up for the Power over the years, who played mostly at the suburban Rosemont Horizon. The franchise moved to Edmonton in 1996 after years of behind-the-scenes turmoil.

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1990 Illinois Thunder program from the National Professional Soccer League

Illinois Thunder

The Illinois Thunder were a short-lived, sparsely attended indoor soccer promotion based at the Rockford MetroCentre for two seasons from 1990 to 1992. The Thunder shared the MetroCentre during the winter months with the more popular Rockford Lightning of the Continental Basketball Association.

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