Tombstone
Born: 2001 – AF2 expansion franchise
Folded: 2004
First Game: April 6, 2001 (W 43-6 vs. Louisville Fire)
Last Game: July 31, 2004 (L 47-43 vs. Rio Grande Valley Dorados)
ArenaCup Championships: None
Arena
Kansas Coliseum (9,686)
Opened: 1977
Closed: 2010
Marketing
Team Colors: Black, Purple & Copper
Ownership
Owners:
- 2001: Ed Gatlin, Jon Thompson & Dr. J.T. Davis
- 2002: Dan DeVos
- 2003-2004: David Key
- 2004: Arena Football 2
Background
The Wichita Stealth were an indoor football team that played in Arena Football 2, the small-market developmental league for the Arena Football League, in the early 2000’s. During the franchise’s first two seasons, the club was operated on a management contact by the DeVos family of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The DeVos’ owned the Orlando Magic of the NBA, several Midwestern minor league hockey teams and the Grand Rapids Rampage of the Arena Football League.
Arena Football Shop
af2 Apparel
af2, also branded as arenafootball2 was a minor league indoor football circuit established by the Arena Football League (AFL) in 1999. It began play in 2000. After the AFL went out of business, the af2 owners got together, bought the AFL branding in a bankruptcy settlement, and relaunched as the “new” Arena Football League in 2010.
Remember the glory days of af2 in apparel from Royal Retros!
Shortly before the Stealth’s third season in 2003, the Devos’ sold the team to a local buyer in Wichita named David Key. Key was a novice sports investor who owned a rapidly growing facilities management business called Premier Maintenance Management. Less than a year after purchasing the Stealth, Key ran into a string of legal and financial troubles. Late in the 2004 season, Key handed the franchise back to the league and the Stealth finished out the season as wards of the league office. Postseason efforts to find a new buyer were hampered by uncertain over the availability of the Kansas Coliseum for the 2005 season. The Stealth franchise quietly closed it doors during the 2004-05 offseason.
Arena Football 2 went out of business after the 2009 season.
Links
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