# 'So it's over': NBA benches Roanoke Dazzle



## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

Minor-league professional basketball in Roanoke got slam-dunked Monday.

Upon hearing in a morning conference call that a local ownership group didn't possess the immediate financial wherewithal to purchase the Roanoke Dazzle, NBA Development League president Phil Evans announced minutes later in a press release that the NBA had decided to cease operation of the franchise.

"Phil showed up at our office at 10:15 [a.m.], and broke the news to us that the NBA wasn't going to go forward in owning the team next year. So as of right now, our office is closed," Dazzle president Dennis Robarge said early Monday afternoon.

The Roanoke franchise was one of only two of the eight original charter members left in the five-year league. The other one, the Fayetteville (N.C.) Patriots, will officially be terminated today. The Roanoke and Fayetteville clubs were the only teams left in the westward-moving league that were still owned and operated by the NBA. Both clubs operated in red ink for each of their five seasons, thanks primarily to lack of fan support.

The Dazzle's last chance for survival was flushed when Evans learned that the interested group of local investors didn't possess the required finances to consummate an immediate deal.

"I think [the NBA] expected in the call that we were going to have an ownership and we've got a deal," said Dr. Frank Cotter, a Roanoke ophthalmologist who spearheaded the local group. "Well, it's not what they heard ... and that was it.

"We had a sizable amount of money that we were going to put up, but we didn't feel we could assume full ownership right away. We thought that next season could be kind of a transition year in which we could shrink the bottom line, attract other investors, and take over the whole thing.

"It was clear they wanted immediately out of the business of being full owners or part owners of these teams. They were just very rushed and very hurried. It was either buy it all right now or 'we're going to put this press release out.' And we just weren't in a position to do that.

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