The announced crowd of 25,087 was the largest crowd ever to watch an Arena Bowl and the second largest in the sport’s history, trailing only a regular season Predators-Storm tilt that drew 28,745 to the same building in 1993. On September 1st, 1995 the teams met in Arena Bowl IX at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in St.
The rivals met in the Arena Bowl twice with a split results. The Storm captured five Arena Bowl championship game victories, compared to two for the Predators. While the Predators got the best of the I-4 rivalry (34 wins versus 27 defeats), the Storm ultimately won more when it mattered the most. The Predators-Storm rivalry became the fiercest and most enduring in Arena Football history, comprising 61 meetings across twenty-five seasons between 19.īoth teams were routinely among the best teams in the AFL. The same year the the Predators joined the AFL in 1991, the league’s Pittsburgh Gladiators franchise moved to Tampa and became the Tampa Bay Storm. Former Renegades owner Donald Dizney had a small interest in the team when it formed in 1991 and bought controlling interest in the Predators from Davey Johnson at the tail end of the 1992 season. Ex-Renegades quarterback Reggie Collier was the Predators starting quarterback during the team’s debut season in 1991. The early Predators also had several connections with Orlando’s short-lived United States Football League team, the Renegades, that had played at the Citrus Bowl in 1985. Originsįormer Major League Baseball player and manager Davey Johnson fronted the original Orlando ownership group that bought into the Arena Football League for the sport’s fifth season of play in the spring of 1991. The Preds earned seven Arena Bowl appearances in twenty-five seasons (winning twice) and routinely played to packed houses at Orlando Arena during the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The original Orlando Predators were one of the most popular and entertaining teams during the peak years of the Arena Football League. In 2006 the team claimed an all-time record of 11,244 season ticket holders. Orlando Predators attendance routinely ranked near the top of the league’s box office charts, the exception being the disastrous 2014 season when the team moved to CFE Arena.
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