Buffalo Blizzard

National Professional Soccer League (1992-2001)

Tombstone

Born: June 1992 – NPSL expansion franchise
Folded: August 15, 2001

First Game: November 6, 1992 (W 15-7 vs. Denver Thunder)
Last Game: April 13, 2001 (L 18-13 @ Baltimore Blast)

NPSL Championships: None

Arenas

1992-1996: Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (16,325)¹
Opened: 1940
Demolished: 2009

1996-2001: Marine Midland Arena (18,500)²
Opened: 1996

Marketing

Team Colors: Blue, Purple, Black & White³

Radio:

1992-93: WXBX (1400 AM)

Radio Broadcaster:

1992-93: Clip Smith

Mascot: Spyke (the Dog)

Dance Team: The Storm

Ownership

Owners:

1992-1996: Seymour Knox III, Northrup Knox, Robert Rich, Melinda Rich
1996-2001: John Bellanti

Attendance

Fun While It Lasted has put together a partial chart of Buffalo Blizzard attendance, but we are still missing several seasons of team and league attendance data.

Tilting your mobile device may offer better viewing.

Source: 1999-00 St. Louis Ambush & Buffalo Blizzard Media Guides

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Background

The Buffalo Blizzard were a long-running indoor soccer franchise that enjoyed a degree of popularity in Western New York during the early 1990’s. The team started in 1992 with a strong managerial pedigree. The original owners included brothers Seymour & Northrup Knox, then owners of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, as well as Bob and Melinda Rich, the owners of the city’s wildly popular minor league baseball club, the Buffalo Bisons.

The Knox/Rich soccer group became the subject of a heated competition between America’s two indoor leagues, the Major Indoor Soccer League and the National Professional Soccer League. The MISL was older, played in bigger cities and had better talent. Buffalo also had a previous history with the MISL – the city’s previous indoor club, the Buffalo Stallions, played in the league from 1979 to 1984. But by the early 1990’s the MISL was frail, shrinking and wracked by labor unrest. The upstart NPSL, formed in 1984, was expanding into a nationwide air travel league after spending much of the 1980’s as a Midwestern bus circuit. The Blizzard ultimately chose to join the NPSL, a decision that hastened the demise of the 14-year old MISL in July of 1992.

Rivalry with Cleveland Crunch

The Blizzard’s finest season came during the expansion year of 1992-93. The team posted an all-time best mark of 23-17 under Head Coach Trevor Dawkins, but lost in the quarterfinals of the NPSL playoffs to the Cleveland Crunch. Just about every Blizzard season to follow more or less followed the same plot. The team had only two losing seasons in nine years, but never won a playoff series. The Crunch eliminated the Blizzard in the first round four consecutive years from 1993 to 1996.

Key Players

Key players for the Blizz included local brothers Randy Pikuzinski and Rudy Pikuzinski. Randy was the only Blizzard player to play all nine seasons for the club. Rudy played eight years, missing only the club’s final season in the winter of 2000-01. U.S. National Team goalkeeper and captain Tony Meola, one of the best known soccer players in the country at the time, appeared in a dozen games for the Blizzard during the 1994-95 season. But Meola would leave the team before the playoffs after getting cast in an off-Broadway play.

The Blizzard played at The Aud for their first four seasons until that building closed in 1996. Then they moved into the brand new Marine Midland Arena in 1996. The move into the new arena coincided with a sale of the team in August 1996. Team President John Bellanti, a long-time local soccer booster who also served as a top exec for the MISL’s Stallions in the early 80’s, purchased the club from the Knox family.

Decline & Closure

Bellanti kept the Stallions going for another five seasons. But interest in the team waned as the population of Buffalo shrank and the sport of indoor soccer ceded ground to a resurgence of the outdoor game. The city’s crowded sports landscape was another challenge. The Blizzard faced competition from both the Sabres and the Buffalo Bandits box lacrosse team for ticket sales and sponsorships.

The National Professional Soccer League re-organized and re-branded itself in the summer of 2001, adopting the now-nostalgic “Major Indoor Soccer League” name. During this time, Bellanti acknowledged that the team had lost money for nine straight years. He decided to fold the club in August 2001.