After the Central Hockey League (CHL) version of the Stingers folded 33 games into the 1979/80 season, Cincinnati was left without a pro hockey team for the first time since 1974, when the American Hockey League's Swords folded. The Tigers hit the ice in 1981 and like the second incarnation of the Stingers, played in the CHL. They averaged just 1,500 fans a game and were folded by their parent club the Toronto Maple Leafs in the spring of 1982. The city would be without a team for the next eight seasons.