Thunderbirds thank fans after unforgettable 10th season in Springfield
The Thunderbirds capped their 10th season with a playoff berth and a 4-3 win, then looked back on a decade that turned the Thunderdome into a sellout machine.
The Springfield Thunderbirds closed their 10th season by clinching a playoff berth and beating the Hartford Wolfpack 4-3 in their final regular-season game, a fitting finish for a club that spent the year celebrating how far it had come in Springfield. Afterward, the team thanked fans for an unforgettable season and said it would be back next year, with the message landing in a city that has turned the MassMutual Center into one of the league’s toughest places to play.
That identity did not happen by accident. The Thunderbirds first took the ice in the AHL in 2016-17, when local ownership helped bring pro hockey back to Springfield after the Portland Pirates era. Ten seasons later, team president Nathan Costa said the franchise was proud of the atmosphere fans had built and that the Thunderdome had become one of the fiercest environments in the league. The club marked 2025-26 as its 10th anniversary season in advance, stacking the schedule with specialty nights, new giveaways and six themed jerseys tied to Teddy Bear Toss, Throwback Night, Ice-O-Topes Night, Pink in the Rink, St. Paddy’s and the T-Birds Semi-Quincentennial Extravaganza.
The numbers behind the noise are just as striking. The Thunderbirds said their operations have generated $126 million in local economic impact since 2017, including $76 million in cumulative personal income and $10 million in state and local taxes, according to a UMass Donahue Institute study. The team also said 78 percent of fans spend money on something other than hockey on game nights, while 68 percent patronize a bar, restaurant or MGM Springfield, a reminder that the Thunderbirds have become as much a downtown driver as a sports team.
The hockey results matched the growth. Springfield posted a franchise-record 20 sellouts in 2023-24, including a 14-game sellout streak, and averaged 6,321 fans per game during its eighth straight season of attendance growth. The organization’s long-term affiliation extension with the St. Louis Blues, announced in September 2023, gave the Thunderbirds stability on the ice as well as in the stands. The club’s run to the 2022 Calder Cup Finals, its first Eastern Conference championship and the Richard F. Canning Trophy, still stands as the signature playoff memory of the decade, with Springfield’s 2019 AHL All-Star Classic and the 2024 extension of MGM Springfield’s presenting sponsorship reinforcing how deeply the franchise had settled into the city’s identity.
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