History
The Flames AHL franchise relocated from Omaha, Nebraska, where the team spent two seasons as the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. Following two disappointing seasons at the gate in which the Flames and the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben lost over $4 million, the Flames chose to relocate the franchise. The new franchise joined former UHL rival, the Rockford IceHogs in moving up to the AHL. The Flames made their AHL regular-season debut in Moline on October 6, 2007 with a 5–1 victory over Rockford.
The Flames were the third team to attempt to place an AHL team in the Quad Cities. Both the San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers were unable to reach an agreement with the owners of the Mallards, and of the arena. While the NHL franchise had signed an affiliation agreement to the end of the 2011–12 season, the Flames and Quad City Sports Ventures agreed to end the agreement after just two seasons as the Flames will place their affiliate in Abbotsford, British Columbia for the 2009–10 AHL season. Local ownership in Quad Cities estimated the team's losses for 2008–09 at $1.3 million.
This market was previously served by:
- Quad City Mallards of the UHL (1995–2007)
The market was subsequently home to:
- Quad City Mallards of the IHL (2009–2011)
Read more about this topic: Quad City Flames
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“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
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