Five years after bringing minor-league basketball to Roanoke amid much fanfare, the NBA could pull the plug on the financially struggling squad this spring.

The Roanoke Dazzle never has fulfilled its box-office expectations and always has bled red ink. The NBA's five-year lease with the Roanoke Civic Center expires at the end of May, and there isn't much reason for optimism that the NBA-owned Dazzle will stick around for Season 6.

"I'm just hoping to pull the rabbit out of the hat, I guess, in between now and April to make that future look a whole lot rosier," Dazzle president Dennis Robarge said this month. "In a perfect world, the league would certainly like to keep the Roanoke Dazzle here. But it's not a perfect world."

Roanoke averaged only 1,210 fans in its first seven home games this season, ranking last in the eight-team NBA Development League in average home attendance through Dec. 18. NBA commissioner David Stern said last July that he wanted Roanoke to improve on last season's average of 1,792.

Robarge is disappointed in the attendance. His marching order from the NBA was to make more money than last season. Roanoke lost "a couple hundred thousand dollars" last season, Robarge said, although the amount Roanoke lost has gone down each season. Robarge expects to finish in the red again this season.

"We've got to move the needle revenue-wise," he said. "By the end of the season, will we have generated more revenue than last year? Yes, I think we can still do that. Whether that's really compelling enough to keep us around, I don't really know."

The NBA will be watching.

"We'll look to see if ... ultimately this town is going to get to the point where it is supporting the Dazzle and the Dazzle can be a self-sufficient operation," NBA Development League president Phil Evans said last month. "It's an important year for Roanoke because we've been here four years. We've spent a lot of time and money and resources investing in this community.

"We'd certainly be disappointed if we don't grow attendance."

Banking on affiliation

The NBA Development League debuted in 2001 with eight teams that fizzled at the box office. Six of those teams have either been terminated or relocated. Roanoke and Fayetteville (N.C.) are the only original cities left, as well as the only teams still owned by the NBA.

This is the first season in which D-League squads are affiliated with NBA teams and can get players from them, a change the NBA hoped would generate fan interest. NBA teams have been slow to warm to the concept, though. There only are eight demoted players in the D-League.

The Washington Wizards, one of three NBA teams affiliated with Roanoke, did send two players to the Dazzle. But Peter John Ramos and Andray Blatche never played college basketball and aren't names most basketball fans have heard of.

While Roanoke is struggling, Fayetteville averaged 2,421 fans in its first two home games this year.

"This is an important year for them [Roanoke and Fayetteville] in terms of determining whether this affiliation concept takes hold in the communities and whether they get more excited about the product," Evans said. "If we see as a result of affiliation there's a big uptick in the interest and we start to see more people in the seats and we ultimately believe that sooner rather than later we'll be able to support ourselves in Roanoke or Fayetteville, the fact that the NBA owns the team is fine.

"It's not like we're looking to get out of the ownership business exactly."

The five teams that came aboard this season are privately owned, as is second-year member Florida. Stern has said he would prefer local ownership take over the Dazzle, but Robarge said the team's track record of red ink doesn't make that a realistic scenario. Robarge said the D-League teams that have private owners have a "better revenue stream" than Roanoke.

"We're not to a point where it makes a great deal of sense" for someone local to want to buy the Dazzle, Robarge said.

Stern has said he erred by opting for small-market cities when starting the league. The five newcomers are in bigger cities than Roanoke -- Albuquerque (N.M.), Austin (Texas), Fort Worth (Texas), Little Rock (Ark.) and Tulsa (Okla.). Roanoke and Florida, which is located in Fort Myers, are in the smallest markets in the league.

Evans said this season, which ends in April, will show the expansion-minded D-League whether Roanoke will be able to "keep pace" with the newer, larger-market teams.

Trying to lure fans

Roanoke's budget was slashed after each of the first two seasons but not after the past two. The team has had an annual budget of $1.1 to $1.3 million in recent years. The Dazzle has only six full-time employees in the front office, down from 15 the first year. Evans said the league has cut expenses in Roanoke as much as it can, so the focus is on "generating revenue."

The Dazzle hired a marketing firm to evaluate the organization. The firm conducted focus groups of high school students, parents, single people and Dazzle season-ticket holders last summer.

Robarge said even though the team has spent $500,000 on advertising over the past four years, the focus groups said they didn't know when the games were. So Roanoke printed more pocket schedules this year.

The focus groups also have led Roanoke to target a different audience. The team used to spend most of its time courting families, but parents with young kids said in the focus groups that they didn't have the time or desire to go to games.

So Roanoke is trying to woo people in their 20s with radio ads, figuring they have more free time and disposable income. The team also is seeking out high school and college students.

The Dazzle has hired college students to pass out flyers at Roanoke College, the City Market and the malls, and they will soon start doing that at Hollins University and Virginia Western Community College as well. The Dazzle also has tried to add glitz to its game atmosphere with music and pyrotechnics, and now has in-game contests geared toward adults, not just kids.

Robarge said ticket prices aren't the problem. Single-game tickets range from $16.50 to $10 for adults, with kids and seniors charged $7.50. Season tickets range from $640 to $220.

Roanoke usually trails most of its league rivals in annual season-ticket sales, so the league made it a priority this year for the Dazzle to increase the number of season-ticket holders.

The Dazzle had some extra money to spend last summer, so for the first time since prior to its inaugural year, it launched an advertising campaign to sell season tickets. It also had three cocktail parties to woo potential season-ticket buyers.

Roanoke sold 129 more season tickets this year, including 100 for the full 24-game package. But Roanoke still finished last in the league with about 300 season tickets sold, including about 40 partial packages. By comparison, Arkansas led the league with about 1,000 sold.

Roanoke had 337 season-ticket holders last year, but some of those people received them in trade with the Dazzle. Robarge said this year's total is "a much better cash number than we've probably ever had."

"Season ticket sales have always kind of been our Achilles' heel," Robarge said.

Corporate sales, which involve arena signs, game sponsors and the like, also has been completed for the season. It remains the best part of the Dazzle's business. Roanoke reaped about $200,000 -- a Dazzle record and about $30,000 better than last season. The team ranks fourth in the league in that department.

Roanoke now is focusing on attracting the single-game ticket buyer. The Dazzle (4-8) has nine home games this month, which doesn't please Robarge because it is a tough month to draw fans. The team drew just 464 fans Dec. 14.

Robarge said the Dazzle was so focused on selling season tickets in the fall that it didn't concentrate on selling single-game tickets as soon as it should have. One of those parties for potential season-ticket buyers took place just one day before the Nov. 18 opener.

Roanoke has averaged fewer than 1,900 fans a game each season. Robarge said he doesn't know what average would satisfy the NBA this season, only that attendance must improve.

"We can continue to cut expenses all we want, but until we start to be able to effectively walk people up to games, it doesn't matter," Robarge said. "We can have our rent be half of what it was in the beginning and unless we can get people to come to games, it doesn't matter.

"The burden's on us to either get people here or come to the conclusion that we've tried everything and it is what it is."

The last-place average of 1,210 fans doesn't include the crowd of 2,278 that turned out Friday for the team's eighth home game of the season. Fans that brought an item to donate to the Roanoke Rescue Mission were admitted free.

Costly investment

The city has been paying a $250,000 franchise fee to the D-League over the course of the five-year contract. As part of the deal, the city also has spent $3.5 million on a Dazzle office building and Dazzle-related capital improvements inside the Roanoke Civic Center.

If the Dazzle leaves, will the deal have been worth it?

"It was a good investment," City Manager Darlene Burcham said. "It was an investment that is retained in large part at the facility."

Roanoke has not been a good market for minor-league teams in recent years, other than the Salem Avalanche baseball team. Arenafootball2 pulled the plug on the Roanoke Steam after the 2002 season. The ECHL took similar action with the Roanoke Express hockey team in 2004. Hockey has returned this year with the Roanoke Valley Vipers, but they aren't a box-office hit, either.

Is Roanoke just too small and indifferent a market for minor-league basketball as well?

"Time will tell," Robarge said. "It used to be that time was over the next couple of years, and now that time is kind of over the next few months."