Flames move again?

[MJHankel]

http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/213002

According to this article (about halfway down) the Flames have moved to Casa Grande for the 08 season and will be known as the Arizona Flames. Didn't they just move to Scottsdale?

[Dan K]

The team is the Arizona Flame, not Flames, and yes it recently announced the team as the Scottsdale Flame for 2008. I noticed the article mentioned the team's owner pulled back on his proposed Tucson Flame franchise in the ABA. I had not noticed any other reference to a nickname for the ABA Tucson team. Wasn't this owner also involved with the ABA's Phoenix Phantoms, which may be replaced by the Fury?

[MJHankel]

oops! Sorry about that, I knew it was the Flame, I just wrote it flames in haste of writing sense most teams end in an "S". So will this be the end of the Arizona Lightning which were also owned by the same guy?

[besl]

I just noticed today that the Arizona Flame has been dropped from the current team list and is now listed with Vancouver and Seattle as a 2009 team. Returning teams are supposed to have their dues paid in full by this Friday, so perhaps they realized they don't have the funds to operate this year?

With the departure of Arizona, the IBL is at 21 teams for 2008, pending any more drop-outs once the bill collector comes by on Friday. Even without Arizona, the IBL still has a decent pod of teams in the Southwest with Vegas, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles... All within decent driving distance.

[LandRoverUT60]

Too bad St. George was dropped before the 2007 season as well...