The Roanoke Steam was an

arena football Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, an ...

team that began as a charter member franchise of

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football r ...

, the developmental league for the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

. They played their home games at the

Roanoke Civic Center Berglund Center (originally called the Roanoke Civic Center) is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located in the Williamson Road neighborhood of Roanoke, Virginia. It was built in 1971 and is currently the home of the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs of ...

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It lies in Southwest Virginia, along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanok ...

. The Steam were unable to get into the playoffs during their only three years in the league. In early May of the 2002 season, the original ownership group, consisting of businessmen Harold Jordan, Richard Macher, and Richard Yancey, declared that the LLC controlling the franchise was bankrupt and subsequently fired all team employees. In order to preserve the existing af2 schedule, the league office assumed control of the team and hired back the remaining employees. After a two-month search for a new ownership group, the league ceased operations of the franchise in late July 2002. Several reasons were cited for the collapse of the Steam, including poor attendance, inadequate marketing, and Roanoke being an unsuitable market to maintain a minor league football franchise. The Steam were not the only minor league franchise in the Roanoke area to encounter problems in the 2000s. The

Roanoke Dazzle The Roanoke Dazzle were an NBA Development League team based in Roanoke, Virginia, U.S. In operation from the inaugural D-League season of 2001–02 through the 2005–06 season, the Dazzle marked the return of professional basketball to Roanoke ...

of the NBDL were relocated after also never developing a consistent following; however, the team's attendance was similar to the other inaugural franchises of the NBDL which were located in small cities in the Southeast. The Roanoke Express, a minor league

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team who were owned for a time by the Steam's ownership group and had enjoyed an unprecedented level of popularity in the mid to late 1990s, began to falter in the early 2000s due to a lack of postseason success and an eventual decline in regular season performance and turmoil in ownership and management that contributed to bad press and less effective marketing than earlier seasons. The Express folded after the 2003-2004 season. A

United Hockey League The United Hockey League (UHL), originally known as the Colonial Hockey League from 1991 to 1997 and last known as the International Hockey League from 2007 to 2010, was a low-level minor professional ice hockey league, with teams in the Unite ...

franchise, the

Roanoke Valley Vipers The Roanoke Valley Vipers were a minor professional ice hockey team located in Roanoke, Virginia. They were a member of the United Hockey League and played in the Roanoke Civic Center. The franchise was formed in 2002 as the Port Huron Beacons ...

, relocated to Roanoke for the 2005-2006 season to replace the Express, but this venture folded after just one season due to poor attendance blamed on a losing record, high ticket prices, and a general disconnect between the local fan base and the

midwestern The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

-based league and owners. On May 1, 2004, nearly two years after the Steam folded, their turf field was sold to the owners of the Wichita Falls Thunder indoor football team for the non-negotiable price of $45,000 Last wisp of Steam dissipates with AstroTurf
Kathy Lu, The Roanoke Times website (roanoke.com), May 2, 2004

Season-by-season

, - , 2000 , , 3 , , 13 , , 0 , , 7th AC , , -- , - , 2001 , , 7 , , 9 , , 0 , , 4th AC Northeastern , , -- , - , 2002 , , 8 , , 8 , , 0 , , 4th AC Atlantic , , -- , - !Totals , , 18 , , 30 , , 0 , colspan="2",

Notable players

* Al Clark * Matt D'Orazio * Derrick McBride * Lindsey Fleshman * Tee Jones * amuel Rice

References

External links

Roanoke Steam on ArenaFan.com
{{Af2 Defunct American football teams in Virginia Defunct af2 teams Sports in Roanoke, Virginia American football teams established in 1999 American football teams disestablished in 2002 1999 establishments in Virginia 2002 disestablishments in Virginia