The National Professional Soccer League shut down the ailing Edmonton Drillers indoor soccer franchise on Thursday, but still says it sees a future for the game in the city.

"It is a sad day but we had to get beyond this in order to get to the future," NPSL commissioner Steve Ryan said. " I believe there's real hope in terms of returning to Edmonton with a strong, aggressive, local ownership group."

Lyle Best, who organized a local group that looked at taking over the team, also talked of an expansion franchise that would be "unencumbered ... that's got no baggage" and could go into operation as early as next season.

There was no suggestion from either Ryan or Best of keeping the Drillers afloat for the rest of this season. The league's remaining 10 teams will take part in a disperal draft on Monday to choose players from the Drillers' roster.

Ryan admitted that getting new ownership in place "was a complex situation that wasn't going to be rectified quickly." The league had been using a $100,000 US line of credit from former owner Wojtek Wojcicki to operate the Drillers since Nov. 15.

Best had mixed feelings Thursday. On one hand, he felt "really bad we didn't get it done." On the other, he felt "pretty good that it's a solid business decision.

"The last thing you want to do is start any business, especially a sports franchise, off on a shaky road that has pretty marginal cash-flow," he said. "I'm glad that when we got right down to the serious brass tacks this past week, we came to a speedy conclusion because the players are human beings. They've got wives and families."

Best said several factors prevented his group from taking over the Drillers: "When Wojtek ... turned the franchise back to the league, that changed everything because there was no revenue sitting in the franchise, the season-ticket money was gone, whatever advertising revenues were in there was gone.

"... We would have essentially put a show on for free for all the season-ticket holders and then had to embark on a pretty ambitious season-ticket drive to offset expenses and we didn't see how that was possible in a short timeframe."

Best had estimated the cost of running the Drillers for the rest of the season at $1.4 million but now says that number was low. The new ownership group would have lost at least $700,000.

The Drillers were established in 1996 when Peter Pocklington bought the Chicago Power and moved the team to Edmonton. Wojcicki bought the team in August, 1998.