By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

The Florida Flight pro basketball team has withdrawn from the World Basketball Association exposure league after a problem-plagued season, team president Mark King said.

King made the decision Wednesday when the league would not schedule a playoff game in Kissimmee. The Flight finished the regular season at 10-5, one-half game behind the Franklin, Tenn., Knights for second place in the seven-team league. That gave the Knights the right to host a playoff game, but King said other circumstances should have come into play.

“We beat Franklin twice during the season, once here and once at their place,” he said. “The reason we finished behind them in the standings is that we played and lost twice to Jacksonville, who was undefeated, while Franklin got two forfeits against Jacksonville after it went inactive.”

King said four of eight WBA regular season opponents either failed to show at the Kissimmee Civic Center or arrived late. Three teams - Tupelo, Birmingham and Jacksonville, disbanded during the season.

The Decatur Court Kings failed to show for the Flight’s regular-season finale Sunday at the Civic Center.

To make repeated playoff road trips would have cost the team several thousand dollars, King said. That after King had to pay rental to the Civic Center for three home games that didn’t take place.

King said it was a difficult decision to tell his players that the season, which started in early May, was over.

“I’ve been in conference calls with the league all week. My point was, with the way things developed, with the teams not showing up, frankly, it wasn’t fair to our fans or the community. That’s why I wanted a playoff game here, so that our fans would see one more quality opponent,” King said. “We try to do things the right way, to run our organization with class; that’s what our team is about. Unfortunately, the league officials didn’t see it that way, so, reluctantly, I decided that we had to withdraw.”

King said the team’s fans have been understanding.

“We offered refunds Sunday, but I don’t think we had one request. Our fans have been great. They understand what we’re trying to do, that we try to put on a good show,” King said.

“We’ve got a great venue, great fans, a great team. We’re a model franchise, and other leagues have noticed that. We’ve done Internet broadcasts for all of our games just so the other leagues could see the type of product we have here.”

King said he is in talks with other professional leagues and is confident that the Flight will have a winter and a spring season next year.

King said he will invite current Flight players back, although several may play overseas.

“For the guys who were deeper down on the bench, who didn’t get a lot of playing time, I would challenge them to step up their games this summer and fall so that they can get on the floor for us when we return,” King said.

King said he hopes Kissimmee civic and business leaders will support the team when it returns.

“The people from the city have been great to us, but we certainly would love to have more sponsors,” he said.