St. Louis Vipers

The St. Louis Vipers were an original Roller Hockey International franchise and actually were one of two teams to span all of RHI's existence (Anaheim Bullfrogs being the other). The team was an original franchise in 1993 and lasted through to RHI's second coming in 1999. But that didn't mean they could turn a profit... The team apparently lost over a million dollars during their tenure. 

On the rink, the team was pretty good. They won the 1999 championship as the league's final champions and were attracting north of 5,000 fans per game. The team also had a number of 1980s St. Louis Blues connections, with Bernie Federko as the team's first coach. They also had skating for them Rik Wilson and Perry Turnbull, who both played for the Blues in the early 80s along with Doug Evans, and Greg Paslawski.