The Quad City Steamwheelers are an

indoor American football Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller ...

team that began play in 2018. They played their first season as part of the

Champions Indoor Football Champions Indoor Football (CIF) is a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team fr ...

, but have joined the

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams am ...

prior to their second season. Based in

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island ...

, the Steamwheelers play their home games at the

TaxSlayer Center The Vibrant Arena at The MARK, formerly known as The MARK of the Quad Cities, the iWireless Center, and the TaxSlayer Center is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in Moline, Illinois. The facility opened in May 1993, under the name The MA ...

. The team announced it would be dormant for the 2021 season due to the arena capacity restrictions caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The Steamwheelers are named after the Quad Cities' previous team of the same name, which played in all ten of the

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 ru ...

's seasons (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

– 2009) and won the

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

two 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...

ArenaCup The ArenaCup was the af2's championship game. For the league's first five years, it was held at the arena of the higher seeded team. However, the 2005 ArenaCup was the first to be played at a neutral site in Bossier City, Louisiana. The 2006 Ar ...

History

After the original

Quad City Steamwheelers The Quad City Steamwheelers were a professional arena football team. They were a charter member of the AF2 and played their home games at iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois. The team was founded on September 1, 1999 when the Quad Cities was ...

folded along with the

, TaxSlayer Center director Scott Mullen had been in talks with various investors seeking to bring back the Steamwheelers, but none were financially secure enough to meet his standards. During 2017, a splash page emerged allegedly belonging to a revived Steamwheelers team in the CIF, however, neither Mullen nor the CIF would comment on the page. On August 15, 2017, the Center confirmed that a deal had been reached which would see the Wheelers return as members of the CIF for 2018, with a press conference taking place the following day. At the press conference, the Wheelers introduced their owner/general manager Doug Bland (previously part-owner of fellow CIF team the

Dallas Marshals The Dallas Marshals were a member of Champions Indoor Football and based in Dallas, Texas. The Marshals were scheduled to play their home games at the Fair Park Coliseum, but all remaining Marshals games were listed as postponed as of April 21, 2 ...

) and head coach Cory Ross (most recently head coach for the

Omaha Beef The Omaha Beef is an indoor football team and a charter member of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, the Beef play their home games at Liberty First Credit Union Arena in nearby Ralston. History First 13 se ...

). After one season in the CIF, the Steamwheelers announced they were joining the

for the 2019 season. After playing only one game in 2020, the Steamwheelers' season was initially postponed and the league's season was eventually cancelled due to the

. On October 23, 2020, the team announced that due to the restrictions on arena capacity during the pandemic, they would be dormant for at least the 2021 season. In September 2021, they announced they planned to return for the 2022 season.

Roster

Statistics and records

Season-by-season results

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quad City Steamwheelers 2018- American football teams in Illinois Former Champions Indoor Football teams Indoor Football League teams Steamwheelers American football teams established in 2018 2018 establishments in Illinois