By Colleen Kane
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The United Soccer Leagues recently kicked off their seasons without two of Cincinnati's three professional soccer teams.

The Cincinnati Riverhawks, a men's team in the USL's A-League, and the TC Stars, a women's team in the USL's W-League based at Town and Country Sports and Entertainment Complex in Wilder, Ky., ceased operations for the 2004 season. Owners of the teams are uncertain if they will be back.

That leaves the Cincinnati Ladyhawks, another team in the W-League, as the main professional soccer team playing in the area. An American Indoor Soccer League team called the Excite is slated to begin play in December.

The Riverhawks came to Cincinnati in 1997 as part of the USL's Premier Development League. After a successful inaugural season, they moved up to the A-League under coach Nick Ranieri. The team remained marketable and financially successful for the first three years, Ranieri said, but then "went down, down, down."

Ranieri bought the team in 2001 and put the team up for sale in 2003.

"I personally don't have any more financial strength to keep the team running," Ranieri said. "I'm really just a coach. I can't be the financial bone of the team anymore."

Part of the problem was the Riverhawks weren't able to find a stable home in their seven-year run. They bounced from Mason, to Wilder, Ky., to the Hamilton County Fairgrounds and back. Ranieri said the constant motion might have kept fans away. The Riverhawks' 2002 average attendance was about 700 at $10 per adult ticket.

Fan support was the major reason for the collapse of the TC Stars, a 2-year-old team in a league that allows college players, many locals, and professionals to play together.

"We discovered soccer is alive and thriving in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, but in youth, high school and colleges - not so much professionally," Stars owner Kevin Molony said. "People are so consumed with youth soccer that there's no time to support professional soccer."

The Stars placed second in the W-League Midwest region and made the playoffs last year, but head coach J.T. Roberts said the average 2003 attendance was only about 300 at $6 per adult ticket. The team does not pay its players but pays other team expenses.

Molony, who owns the Town and Country complex, said finances were not the main issue in the team's collapse, but that the organization's money can be put to better use. He is planning to put more money into youth soccer programs and scholarships but would think about resurrecting the team if the community showed heightened interest.

"We were knocking our heads against the wall to put out a nice product that's very competitive, but we just did not have the fan support," Molony said. "When people tell you that it doesn't matter if you have a team or not, you begin to think, 'Maybe I'm being silly here.' "

The Riverhawks and TC Stars are one of several local team collapses this year. The Cyclones of the East Coast Hockey League and the Swarm of the arenafootball2 league folded earlier.