Players will have to relocate, but at least they still have jobs. Coaches have to reapply for their jobs, whose contracts expire with the new year.
Their lives are disrupted. But their concerns Thursday were for the 15 Starzz employees who are out of work and for the fans who mourn the loss of their WNBA team.
"My heart goes out to the people who worked so hard and sacrificed so much. It's not all for naught," said coach Candi Harvey, certain the team will prosper when it plays in San Antonio next summer. "I'm sad for the Salt Lake fans losing a quality team."
"I'm sad we're leaving our fans. They're very loyal. I personally will miss the fans," said Salt Lake native and Starzz forward Natalie Williams. "And the employees lost their jobs right before Christmas," she said. "It's a terrible time."
It reminded her of how the old American Basketball League folded in December 1998. "It's a shocker, but I've been through it once before," she said.
Williams, whose year-round home is in Salt Lake City, said she plans to play at least one more season before retiring, and she will go to San Antonio to hunt for an apartment or home to rent for the summer. "I'll have to re-think my whole perspective," she said.
She'll pack up her adopted twins and her cats and arrange for her mother to stay with her family in San Antonio. "They have to come," she said. Her mother is a Salt Laker who lives in Illinois with her husband but spent summers in Utah with her daughter and grandchildren.
She will retain her home in Salt Lake and just be in Texas for the season. "It's not like I have to move to San Antonio for the rest of my life," Williams said.
Williams was sure that Harvey will be re-signed by San Antonio. She coached at Texas A&M and is from southwestern Arkansas, so that area is home for her. That and her success in 1 1/2 seasons with the Starzz should assure Harvey of a contract, Williams said.
Harvey made phone calls to San Antonio Thursday and was waiting to hear back. "It's my hope to continue to do what we have done," she said, adding the Starzz upswing was "a total team effort" that included coaches, front-office staff and players.
"My peace of mind comes in that we did everything we needed to do," Harvey said of the players and coaches. "I think we exceeded a lot of expectations — but not ours. We controlled what we could control."
Like Williams, assistant coach Tammi Reiss will remain in Salt Lake City. Reiss owns a home here and the Manhattan Club downtown.
If Harvey gets the Texas coaching job and invites Reiss, she'll go to San Antonio "part-time (summers only)," she said. She wouldn't move there. "Not with the way the league is. I will not sacrifice my life for something so unstable."
Reiss sees the WNBA changes in the way teams and player contracts are owned as a worrisome thing. The WNBA used to own the teams and contracts and give players league-set salaries, but the players' union is negotiating for big changes that will give free agency and bigger paychecks, more like other professional sports leagues. The league has already decided teams will now be owned individually in the cities where they're located, and the teams will own their player contracts.
"All the things the ABL did. That's why the ABL folded," Reiss said.
In addition to owning the club. She's interviewing with ESPN to cover NCAA games.
Reiss, one of the first players to be assigned to Utah when the league began in 1997, played 1 1/2 seasons before being cut by former coach Frank Layden. Now, maybe, she's lost a Starzz job again. "The second time, it doesn't hurt so much. It's a business decision," she said. She had been expecting it because Utah's working agreement with the league kept getting delayed. "I knew it was coming. I've been prepared for a long time," Reiss said.
NOTES: To make up for the dates in the Delta Center, management will probably schedule a few more concerts. There is still time to book them. And Dennis Haslam, president of Larry H. Miller Sports and Entertainment, said the Rocky Mountain Revue venue may be re-evaluated. Last summer, all games were played at Salt Lake Community College.
E-MAIL: lham@desnews.com