By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The scheduled board meeting for the Cincinnati Cyclones Fan Club will still occur today in U.S. Bank Arena. But it might be something of a wake.

Wednesday's official announcement that the team will suspend operations for the 2004-05 season appears an end to the franchise's 14-year tenure in Cincinnati.

"We've been through this so many times, but we always came back," fan club president Sherry Chapman said. "This time we didn't. That's a little hard to take."

Suspending operations, which enables owner Nederlander Co. LCC to retain rights to the franchise, is the way teams usually disappear: Cities that want hockey can buy existing, dormant franchises for less than the cost of an expansion team.

That's how the Cyclones stayed alive three years ago when the International Hockey League folded; the Miami Matadors were relocated here to play under this name.

U.S. Bank Arena general manager Matt Dunne said hockey could return to the arena. Among options are securing a team from a higher or lower league.

"We think hockey can work in this building," he said. "We strive to make that happen."

The so-called Ice Wars, a seven-year struggle for city supremacy, goes to the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks.

"There's no gloating," said Pete Robinson, the Ducks' president and CEO. "You have to have great respect and admiration for the fans of the Cyclones. It's a sad time for them."

Though the Cyclones began as an incredible success, leading all of minor-league hockey in attendance a couple of seasons, they suffered a gradual decline in attendance after moving from Cincinnati Gardens and splitting their fan base with the American Hockey League's Ducks.

The team changed leagues twice, was bought in a bankruptcy auction and was briefly evicted from its arena last March.

The team's announced attendance average of 2,204 this season ranked last in the 31-team ECHL - down from 3,642 last season - and is barely half the figure Nederlander had mandated last summer. The team finished 25-43-4, in last place in the Northern Division.

"They had a nice run," said Ducks media relations director Don Helbig, who held the same position with the Cyclones from 1990-96. "Those early years were a phenomenal experience. ... If you told people in 1990 it'd last 14 years, it would have surprised them."

The Cyclones' core fans remain loyal. Of the 110 members of the fan club, 43 accompanied the team in 2002 to Europe for training camp. Fifty-eight were on the team's recent road trip to Alaska.

Chapman said members must decide whether to keep the club intact in hopes the team returns. There's an annual August picnic, for instance, that she hopes will continue regardless of the team's fate.

Chapman expects fan club members to travel to other cities to support former Cyclones, many of whom they became friends with.

"These guys have always been so accessible and friendly," she said. "These guys will do anything for the fans they can do."

E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com