Dragons

The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale held between 13,900 and 14,500 people, depending on how the arena was set up for the Dragons. The move to Long Island was announced on 1 November 2000, and the team played its first Arena Football League (AFL) season there in 2001.

The Iowa years were the more decorated ones. As the Barnstormers the franchise reached ArenaBowl X and ArenaBowl XI, and lost both. Kurt Warner was the quarterback in that era. New York never got as far as the title game, but the Dragons won the Eastern Division in 2003, 2004 and 2005, three years running.

Aaron Garcia was the quarterback for the whole New York run, from 2001 until the team folded in 2008. In one game he threw 11 touchdown passes, an AFL record. The coaching side changed more often. John Gregory, who had started with the club in Iowa in 1995, stayed until 2003. Both were named AFL Coach of the Year.

The Dragons had a mascot, Sparky the Dragon, and an argument with the neighbours. First the New York/New Jersey Hitmen and later the New York Buzz were the opposition in what was billed as the "Battle of New York". That rivalry ended when the Buzz did, before the Dragons' own last season.

The end came when the AFL suspended operations indefinitely in 2008, amid financial difficulties and bankruptcy. In September of that year the team had announced new colours, black, green and silver, to replace the black, red, gold and white it had worn since 2001. No game was ever played in them.