The Utah Starzz apparently are now the San Antonio Whatevers.
The Starzz called a press conference for 2 p.m. Thursday, reportedly to announce that the WNBA has taken the charter franchise from them and reassigned it to San Antonio, which recently met the league's 6,000 season-ticket sales quota to qualify.
Utah would become the third team this season to be separated from its original NBA operating team, following Orlando and Miami, as the WNBA restructures and moves toward individual team ownership rather than the operating agreement that was in place for its first six years. Orlando and Miami have not received their new city assignments.
The WNBA owned the teams and players, and NBA teams operated the franchises. Now, owners can be anyone, not necessarily NBA teams, and the franchises can be located in areas that don't have NBA teams, such as Tennessee and Connecticut.
Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller has been waiting since August for league approval to continue, but the league kept telling him its decision would come in two or three weeks.
He said Wednesday night that he was quite willing and planned to operate the Starzz under his ownership next season but was getting nervous the longer the WNBA decision took. It finally came Thursday.
The Starzz had made the WNBA Playoffs the past two seasons under coach Candi Harvey, and in August they defeated four-time league-champion Houston to advance to the second round, where they lost to eventual-champion Los Angeles. Utah was 20-12 in its last regular season and 87-99 in its six years in the league.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com