Monday, June 15, 2015

Tampa Bay Marauders

The area's first pirate team, the Marauders and Miami were the two Floridian teams that broke through early in the second league's history. While the power was in the North East, the Marauders were known as a physical group of players. Mostly consisting of scrappy players cut from other teams, they hold the top 3 records for yellow cards in a season. Their first taste of the top league came in 1962. They would stay up for 10 seasons, before being relegated. The Marauders are very inconsistent in the league, and have been relegated and promoted very often. After bouncing around the leagues in the 1970s, the new Houlihan Stadium was built to accommodate the owner's new idea to bring NFL football to the Bay Area. The soccer team struggled, just as the football team. While most resources went to the Bucs, the Marauders fell down to the 3rd tier in 1980. Looking back, many fans think of this as the period of the greatest growth in team history. Moving back up to League 2 in 1992, then the Premier League in 1995 proved the team was back on track. After a relegation to L2, the team has remained in the top tier since 2001. They've built up one of the stronger youth networks in the country, which helps the team reload when they sell players. The team's only two trophies were a 2006 US Open Cup, and a League Title in 2010 after a run as the 6th seed in the playoffs. After moving to Raymond James Stadium, they're currently building a new 25,000 seat Soccer Specific Stadium in the Ybor district of Tampa.

They have been wearing red and black for their entire history, and the skull and cross bones are seen as an honor to wear over your heart.

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