MAINEiacs team sold, disbanded
The MAINEiacs hockey team in Lewiston has been dissolved, only three days after majority owner Mark Just said he was seeking investors and other funding to keep the team afloat.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League said it will buy the MAINEiacs franchise and dissolve it. The league did not release terms of the deal in the release, but the Canadian newspaper Times & Transcripts reported the sale price as $3.5 million. The players will be dispersed throughout the league in a special draft. Just said he was "truly sad for MAINEiacs fans," and added that "mounting financial losses became too much to bear for our ownership group." On Sunday, Just issued a statement saying the team had recorded losses for the past eight seasons, and said the spread of rumors that the team would be dissolved "prohibits progress in attempts to gain the support required to operate" the team in Lewiston.
The league also announced the creation of an expansion team for the 2012-2013 season that will be based in the Canadian city of Sherbrooke and led by a group of investors. The MAINEiacs were once headquartered in Sherbrooke and moved to Lewiston's Androscoggin Bank Colisee following the 2002-2003 season, according to the Sun Journal.
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