Augusta Lynx Cease Operations

Just 17 games into their 11th season in Augusta, the Augusta Lynx of the ECHL ceased operations on Tuesday, ending hockey's stay in the CSRA.

At a Tuesday night press conference, Lynx owners revealed that the ECHL had given them a 5pm Tuesday deadline to come up with the approximately $200,000 that would have been required to keep the team on the ice.

"We have looked long and hard to find someone to come on board and help us financially," said Lynx co-owner Robert Burch. "We have been unsuccessful."

At 5pm Tuesday Lynx owners turned their membership over to the ECHL Board of Governors, which in turn voted to cease the Lynx operations. All future Lynx games are cancelled as the league scrambles to adjust the remainder of the 2008-2009 schedule to account for the missing Lynx.

Declining attendance in recent years, in addition to the sluggish state of the economy, were the main reasons Lynx owners pointed to for the team's demise.

"We just didn't do a very good job of getting enough new people out to the games instead of sitting home and watching TV," Burch said.

"In the end I just feel numb," said Lynx co-owner and general manager Dan Troutman, who spent the last few weeks trying to find an investor to join the Lynx ownership group to save the team. "It's unbelievably sad," he added.

Troutman and Burch, along with Jan Hodges-Burch, purchased the team before the 2006 season with the goal of keeping professional hockey in Augusta. Tuesday night, their dream came to an end.

"I'm not used to failing," said Burch. "At anything."

Reached by phone late Tuesday night first-year Lynx head coach John Marks said he was "obviously disappointed. We had a bad start to the year," Marks said of the Lynx 6-9-1-1 record after 17 games. "We were looking forward to better days. If last Friday was black Friday, this is as black as it gets."

Marks is the ECHL's all-time winningest head coach, but this is the third straight season he has coached a team that has folded. It is the first time in ECHL history a team has disbanded in the middle of a season.

Marks, along with players and front office staff will begin looking for new jobs. Players immediately become unrestricted free agents, free to sign with any team they choose. Front office personnel like first-year play-by-play announcer Anthony Langella become immediately unemployed.

"It's the middle of the season," Langella said. "Barring a miracle there's little chance I can catch on with anyone else right now. I'm just in a state of shock. I don't really have any answers. I don't know what to say."

Troutman promised to spent the coming days helping displace front office workers find housing and employment for the Holidays.

Lynx owners said they were unsure what they would do for season ticket holders who have already paid through the 2008-2009 season. They also did not rule out bringing hockey back to Augusta in some form in the future.