Newspaper headline writers in the greater Pittsburgh area had to be giddy with excitement when the Pittsburgh Power Arena Football League team folded Monday afternoon with little fanfare.

Nothing like a chance to use cheesy puns to announce a team folding.

These teams that come and go in the Pittsburgh market trying to make it big often fizzle out, leaving behind a legacy that most times is lost to history.

Teams in the metropolitan area, like the Butler BlueSox and Washington Wild Things have found ways to be successful.

The Pittsburgh Passion and Riverhounds, while not tremendously popular, have both survived for close to 15 years.

But most of the time when teams shoot for the Pittsburgh name, the teams flame out and become a joke.

It’s especially true with the Pittsburgh Power.

Few people will remember that during its last season, the team went 15-4 and made the playoffs for the first time.

During the Power’s four-year stay, starting in 2011, its most memorable moment came in a Florida Olive Garden in 2012.

Matt Shaner, the team’s owner, fired all 24 members of his team during a pregame meal before a season-opener against the Orlando Predators.

The AFL’s Players Association wanted to increase players salary by $400 a game and the players were considering a strike.

All the players who were willing to strike were left in Orlando and had to get back to Pittsburgh on their own.

The game was still played with replacement players.

Not a great message to send in a town with many people that are currently in or used to be in unions.

The Power’s footnote is considerably worse than some of the other embarrassing forays into pro sports.

The United States Football League’s Pittsburgh Maulers are best known for having fans turn out to Three Rivers Stadium to throw snowballs at Birmingham Stallions quarterback Cliff Stoudt, who used to play for the Steelers.

But, hey, at least they got the game to sell out.

The Pittsburgh Spirit, of the Major League Indoor Soccer League, in the 1980s once outdrew the Pittsburgh Penguins before folding after eight seasons.

The Pittsburgh Pipers won the city’s only professional basketball title when it captured the American Basketball Association crown in 1967-68, then they moved to Minnesota.

When they came back as the Condors, there was still little interest in professional hoops here.

Pittsburgh has a colorful history of failures with professional sports teams.

It’ll be fun to see what tries to come next.

Until then, we’ll always have the Olive Garden.

It was a shame to see the Power pull the plug.

Josh Rizzo is a sports writer for the Butler Eagle.