In the team's inaugural season, head coach Bill Musselman led the Thrillers to a 35-13 record with a roster featuring Coby Dietrick, Sidney Lowe, Brian Martin, Freeman Williams, Ronnie Valentine, Charles Jones, and Perry Moss.

[2] In the postseason, Tampa Bay swept the Lancaster Lightning in the first round (3–0) and disposed of the Albany Patroons (3–2) before getting by the Detroit Spirits, 4–3, in the CBA championship series, for which Williams earned MVP honors.

Because of a lease dispute during the off-season,[2] Rosenberg moved the Thrillers' 1985–86 home games to the University of Tampa's Spartan Sports Center, a 4,200-seat venue built in 1984, but their regular season attendance dipped to an average of 1,339.

[3] In 1986–87, the Thrillers moved back to the Bayfront Center and had another outstanding season, albeit with a new owner, John Tuschman, head of Fidelity Management Company, which owned and operated residential communities.

However the team's general manager, Sandy Smith, revealed that the 1986–87 advertising budget was approximately $30,000 –well below the figures spent in previous seasons.