In a story that we first talked about on our Facebook Page, Ridiculous Upside's Scott Schroeder is reporting that the Utah Flash are closing up shop and will not be a part of the NBA D-League next season. As Schroeder points out, the Flash were pretty successful in terms of drawing fans.
This isn't good news by any means as the Flash seemed to be able to get a decent amount of fans to the arena every night (they were second in the D-League in reported attendance last season with 4,237.2 fans on average)
Operating the team had become a financial burden for Flash owner Brandt Anderson who was looking for an official partnership with the Utah Jazz who were unwilling.
What this really means for the Hawks is that they will be getting a new affiliation within the D-League. While Utah was a top flight organization in the D-League and Pape Sy's assignment there last season seemed to work well, there was location issues involved. An ideal situation would be to have Atlanta's affiliate located somewhere closer which would lesson the travel and make it easier for the Hawks club to oversee the development of anyone they assign to the D-League.
No matter what the outcome is, it is always sad to see a topflight organization close the doors. They were nothing but helpful in providing us with coverage of Pape Sy and the Flash this past season. I would like to personally thank Drew Sellers, head coach Kevin Young, and assistant coach Gene Cross for their help and wish them good luck in their future endeavors.