Tri-Cities Fire
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The Tri-Cities Fire were a professional indoor football team based out of Kennewick, Washington, with home games at the Toyota Center during the 2019 season.[1] They were owned by Kinshasa Martin of Rampage Sports Entertainment, LLC.[2] They folded in February 2020 after playing one season, citing lack of support from sponsors and ticket sales.[3] They were the second arena/indoor team to play in the Tri-City region preceded by the Tri-Cities Fever of the NIFL, af2 and the Indoor Football League and followed by the Tri-City Rush of the AWFC.
at Toyota Center
| Tri-Cities Fire | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| General information | |||
| Founded | 2018 | ||
| Folded | 2020 | ||
| Headquartered | Kennewick, Washington at Toyota Center | ||
| Colors | Black, red, gold, white | ||
| Mascot | Sparky | ||
| GoFireFootball.com | |||
| Personnel | |||
| Owners | Rampage Sports Entertainment, LLC (Kinshasa Martin) | ||
| General manager | Andy Allord | ||
| Head coach | Kevin Heard | ||
| Team history | |||
| |||
| Home fields | |||
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| League / conference affiliations | |||
| American West Football Conference (2019) | |||
History
On October 15, 2018, the American West Football Conference was founded by the Idaho Horsemen and added the Fire and two other teams to the league: the Reno Express, and Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks.[4][5] The Fire were the first indoor football team in the Tri-Cities following the departure of the Tri-Cities Fever of the Indoor Football League in 2016. Despite being announced in October 2018, they were one of the last AWFC teams to sign a lease with the arena in January 2019.[6]
Their season began on March 23, 2019, in a 42–24 loss at Reno. After a 0–5 start to their inaugural season, the Fire fired head coach Warren Reynolds and was replaced by defensive coordinator Kevin Heard.[7] The Fire finished the season losing all twelve games. The team abruptly folded two weeks prior to the planned start of the 2020 season.[8] They would be replaced a year later by the Tri-City Rush.
2019 standings
Final standings.[9]
| 2019 American West Football Conference | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L | PCT | PF | PA | GB | STK | |
| y — Idaho Horsemen | 12 | 0 | 1.000 | 597 | 331 | — | W12 | |
| x – Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks | 6 | 6 | .500 | 461 | 381 | 6 | W2 | |
| x – Reno Express | 6 | 6 | .500 | 339 | 396 | W1 | ||
| Tri-Cities Fire | 0 | 12 | .000 | 303 | 592 | 12 | L12 | |
y – clinched regular season title
x – clinched playoff spot
Playoffs
| Semifinal | Final | ||||||||
| 3 | Reno Express | 20 | |||||||
| 3 | Reno Express | 28 | 1 | Idaho Horsemen | 40[10][11] | ||||
| 2 | Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks | 27 | |||||||