The basketball community rallied around the Nuggets and may have pulled off a last-minute buzzer-beater to save the beleaguered franchise.
Basketball Otago (BBO) yesterday announced it would not be entering a team in the 2009 National Basketball League.
But at a special meeting called to inform the public, an hour and a-half of animated, and sometimes heated, discussion ended with BBO resolving "to look at alternative options and a different model for the franchise".
Passion is one thing, cash is another.
During the meeting it was revealed only $100,000 had been committed to the franchise for next season.
The Nuggets had a budget of $350,000 in 2008, but were propped up by BBO which poured in $80,000-$100,000 to keep the team going.
Earlier in the day, BBO chairman John Gallaher told the Otago Daily Times the board was no longer prepared to jeopardise the rest of the organisation.
"We've got a huge number of things happening in the sport, of which the Nuggets are only one," he said.
"It comes down to the ability to fund a team to the extent it needs to be. We think [the franchise] is putting undue pressure on the whole organisation.
"Everyone has worked hard to build BBO over the past three years . . . But we are at the stage now where we don't believe we can continue to do it until we've had time to consolidate and rebuild."
If the Nuggets do not survive, they will be the second major sporting body to disappear from the city after the Otago Rebels wound up when the National Bank Cup was discontinued in 2007.
This would put pressure on the Edgar Centre, which had budgeted for seven Nuggets home games in 2009.
