| Charlotte Thunder | |
| Founded: | 2017 |
| Folded: | 2022 |
| City: | Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Misc: | CharlotteThunder.com |
| Colors: | Black, Panther blue, silver |
| Coach: | Ervin Bryson |
| Owner: | Thomas Davis Sr. Ted Ginn Jr. Joe Maus[1] |
| League: |
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| Team History: |
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| No Conf Champs: | 0 |
| No Div Champs: | 2 |
| Div Champs: |
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| No League Champs: | 0 |
| No Playoff Appearances: | 3 |
| Playoff Appearances: |
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| Arena Years: |
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The Charlotte Thunder were a professional indoor American football team based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and played their home games at the Bojangles' Coliseum.
The team was formed prior to the 2018 season as the Carolina Energy as members of the American Arena League (AAL) and was co-owned by Daniel Rudmann and head coach Ervin Bryson.[2] They are the fourth team to play in Charlotte behind the Charlotte Rage and Carolina Cobras, both formerly of the Arena Football League, and the Carolina Speed of the American Indoor Football Association.
In 2020, the team was sold to an ownership group led by former NFL players, Ted Ginn Jr. and Thomas Davis Sr. and rebranded as the Charlotte Thunder.[3] The team also has several other minority owners including former players Jeff Reed and Frank Garcia.[4] The team left the AAL following the 2021 season and founded the Arena Professional Football League, recruiting several other team teams from the AAL while it was on hiatus.[5] The Thunder scheduled games against the West Michigan Ironmen, Alabama Empire, Carolina Predators, and Maryland Warriors.[6] On October 21, 2022, the team announced on their Facebook page that the team would not be playing in the 2023 season.[7]
| League Champions | Conference Champions | Division Champions | Playoff berth | League leader |
| Season | League | Division | Regular season | Postseason results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | Wins | Losses | Ties | ||||||
| 2018 | bgcolor=#96cdcd | 5th | 5 | 3 | 0 | align=left | Lost semifinal (Richmond) 43–57[8] | ||
| 2019 | AAL | Southern | bgcolor=#96cdcd | 1st | 6 | 0 | 0 | align=left | Won semifinal (Carolina) 58–38 Lost AAL Championship (West Virginia) 29–55 |
| 2020 | AAL | Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||
| 2021 | AAL | East | bgcolor=#96cdcd | 1st | 10 | 0 | 0 | align=left | No official postseason held by the league; named East Division champion via regular season record[9] Lost league championship, 43–60 vs. (North Texas) |
| Totals | 21 | 3 | 0 | All-time regular season record (2018–2021) | |||||
| 1 | 3 | — | All-time postseason record (2018–2021) | ||||||
| 22 | 6 | 0 | All-time regular season and postseason record (2018–2021) | ||||||