The Cyclones' main rivals prior to the 2021 restructuring of Minor League Baseball were the Staten Island Yankees, a rivalry often called the "Battle of the Boroughs", after the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, or the "Battle for the Bridge", after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which separated the two teams. Only apart, the two teams had the closest proximity in the Minor Leagues. The two teams generally sold out the games which pitted them against each other. A major contribution to this intense rivalry was the fact that both parent teams were also based in New York (the Mets in Queens, and the Yankees in the Bronx). Other regional rivals included the Hudson Valley Renegades and the Tri-City ValleyCats.