Hamilton Thunder
 | |||
| Full name | Hamilton Thunder Soccer Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Thunder, Thunder Bolts, Thunder Crew | ||
| Founded | 2001 | ||
| Dissolved | 2005 | ||
| Ground | Brian Timmis Stadium, Hamilton, Ontario | ||
| Capacity | 5000+ | ||
| Chairman | Italo Ferrari | ||
| Manager | Salvator DeSimone | ||
| Coach | Marco Maschke | ||
| League | Canadian Professional Soccer League | ||
| |||
The Hamilton Thunder were a soccer team located in Hamilton, Ontario, playing in the Western Conference of the Canadian Professional Soccer League.
The team was founded in 2001 and played its home fixtures at Brian Timmis Stadium until a rent dispute with the city caused home games to be moved to Vaughan midway through the 2005 season. The Thunder won the regular season Western Conference championship each season from 2003 to 2005, but lost in the Rogers Cup semifinal each of those years. During the 2005 playoffs, the Hamilton Spectator revealed that Italo Ferrari, thought to be the owner of the team, was involved in personal bankruptcy proceedings with no assets, and debts of $2 million; Ferrari claimed to in fact not be the owner. Two weeks after the semifinal loss, the league announced the revocation of the franchise.