Y2K / Early 2000s

The Dallas Desperados played in the Arena Football League from 2002 until 2008. The city previously had a team in the league from 1990 to 1993 called the Texans.

The Ottawa Renegades were a Canadian Football League (CFL) expansion team established in 2002. The city's previous team, the Rough Riders, folded after the 1996 season. The new team only lasted four seasons before being suspended. After two years the franchise was awarded to...

Ames Department Stores Inc. was a chain of discount stores??founded in 1958??in Rocky Hill, Connecticut and at its peak operated 700 stores in 20 states. Despite some success in its later years, Ames was plagued by debt and a slow decline in sales and...

After the Cleveland Lumberjacks folded in 2001, along with the entire International Hockey League (IHL) in 2001, the city welcomed the third incarnation of the Barons. The new team was an American Hockey League (AHL) team relocated from Lexington where they were known as...

The Gladiators were Cleveland's second foray into the Arena Football League, after the Thunderbolts (1992-1994). The team began in New Jersey as the Red Dogs in 1997. They changed their name to Gladiators in 2001 and moved to Las Vegas in 2003. In 2007,...

The Lumberjacks moved to Cleveland in 1992 from Muskegon, MI as the Internationl Hockey League (IHL) sought to place teams in bigger markets. The Jacks, as they were also known, began play in 1960 as the Zephyrs, then became the Mohawks in 1965. From...

Offering higher quality video and audio than its rivals, VHS and Betamax, LaserDisc was the first commercial optical disc storage when it was introduced in 1978. The format, however, never gained traction and was replaced by the smaller Digital Video Disc (DVD) in 2001.

The Pontiac Silverdome, better known as just the Silverdome, opened in 1975 in suburban Detroit. Its primary tenant was Detroit's pro football team. They left for a new downtown stadium in 2001. The city's pro basketball team played there for a decade (1978-1988). Other...

The Long Beach Ice Dogs were established in 1990 as the San Diego Gulls in the International Hockey League. The team moved up the 5 in 1995 and became the Los Angeles Ice Dogs. After one season in the old Los Angeles Memorial Sports...

Before major league hockey arrived in Columbus, the city had many minor league teams. None were more popular than the Columbus Chill. In 1991, the team debuted as an expansion franchise in the East Coast Hockey League (now just the ECHL, thank you). Their...

The??Kissimmee Cobras played in the Florida State League from 1985 to 2000. For most of their existence, the were a farm team of Houston in the Senior Circuit of the big leagues. Indeed, they used the parent club's nickname until 1995, when they became...

The Oklahoma Wranglers played in the Arena Football League from 2000 to 2001. The team started in 1995 as the Memphis Pharaohs. In 1997 they became the Portland Forest Dragons, before moving to Oklahoma City in 2000. The team folded after the 2001 season.

The Red and Black Cafe??was a radical safer space??cafe??and worker-managed collective??in Portland from 2000 to 2015. It served an all-vegan??menu and hosted community-based events.

When it was completed in 1976 it was "the biggest mall, in all the world." It thrived for years but started to decline at the beginning of the 2000s, finally succumbing to other area shopping centers as well as Internet retailers. The mall was...

The Birmingham Iron were charter members of the short-lived Alliance of American Football (AAF), a league that launched in spring 2019. It folded halfway through its inaugural season.??

Ear X-tacy, a name inspired by British band XTC, opened in 1985 and quickly became Louisville's premiere alternative record store. Major recording artists often came and played in-store including Queens of the Stone Age, My Morning Jacket, Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Tenacious D,...

Ear X-tacy, a name inspired by British band XTC, opened in 1985 and quickly became Louisville's premiere alternative record store. Major recording artists often came and played in-store including Queens of the Stone Age, My Morning Jacket, Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Tenacious D,...

The Northern Kentucky River Monsters were an indoor football team that played their home games at??NKU's Bank of Kentucky Center (now BB&T Arena). For their inaugural season in 2011, they were part of the Ultimate Indoor Football League (UIFL), before going on a two-year...

The Philadelphia Independence was a Women's Professional Soccer club that played for just 2 seasons in 2010 and 2011.  OS15757

The Virginia Destroyers played in the United Football League in 2011 and 2012. The team was established in 2009 as the Florida Tuskers, a charter member of the league. After the 2010 season, the team relocated to Virginia Beach. The Destroyers won the 2011...

Downtown malls were all the rage in the late '80s and early '90s, especially in the Buckeye State. Beating fellow Ohio cities Cleveland and Cincinnati by about a year, Columbus opened City Center in 1989. A popular destination at first, it soon lost shoppers...

Sudsy Malone's, officially, Sudsy Malone's Rock 'n Roll Laundry & Bar, and just Sudsy's to music fans, was a laundromat and rock & roll venue on Short Vine in Corryville. It opened in 1986 and hosted smaller rock and indie acts. During its run,...

ATA Airlines started as Ambassador travel club in 1973. It later became American Trans Air, then simply ATA.?? It had hubs at Indianapolis International Airport and Chicago's Midway Airport. In 2008, it ceased operations.

The New Orleans Night in the Arena Football League starting in 1991 and 1992. Their home field was the Superdome. The team folded before the start of the 1993 season. In 2004, the city welcomed a new Arena League team, the VooDoo, who played...

The Data East video game company was founded in 1976 in Tokyo, Japan, just before the home video game system explosion. Among its most popular titles were Burger Time, Robocop, and Cobra Command. The company went out of business in 2003.

The Tampa Bay Storm played in the Arena Football League from the league's inception in 1987, until it's demise in 2017. Founded as the Pittsburgh Gladiators, the club moved to Tampa in 1991. The team made the playoffs in 24 of its 26 seasons...

The Ft. Wayne Freedom was an indoor football team established in 2003. In their seven seasons, they played in three different leagues: The National Indoor Football League, United Indoor Football, and the Continental Indoor Football League. The team also operated as the Fusion and...

In 1999, the Arena Football League formed AF2 as a farm league and as well as a way to bring the sport to mostly smaller markets. Cincinnati joined up in 2003 with the??Swarm who??posted a 7 and 9 record in their only season.??They drew...

Riverfront Stadium, later Cinergy Field, was the home of the Reds from 1970 until 2002. The team captured three World Series titles (1975, 1976, and 1990) while playing there.

The AAA Stars were stablished in 1983 when the Spokane Indians moved to the Las Vegas Valley. The team was known as the Portland Beavers from 1919 to 1973. The team changed its name to the 51s in 2001, in honor of nearby Area...