LEWISTON – The die-hard fans don’t want them to leave.

Businesses? Most of them would rather see the Lewiston Maineiacs stick around, too.

But with the team already assured of its worst finish in six years, and with attendance at an all-time low, rumors are flying from Gatineau to Glace Bay that come April, when the Maineiacs’ sixth season is over, the team will be packing its bags and leaving town – for good.

“The Maineaics helped put Lewiston back on the map,” Eric Potvin, 29, of Lewiston, said. “It gave a reason for out-of-towners to make the drive here to catch a game, and most likely a bite to eat at one of our new restaurants. A chance to put aside the Lewiston stigma, and realize that there’s actually a whole lot of potential here. At the height of this team’s success, the Maineiacs where everywhere, signs on stores, banners, flags, and a true buzz in the air. That was unlike anything I’d ever seen here – it was great.”

Now, with signs that the team is struggling, fans and business owners are justifiably worried.

“It will definitely have an adverse effect on my business if they do leave,” East Coast Sign and Design’s Tim Lafrance, 48, said. “I’m torn between whether it’s going to hurt because we’re going to lose the money coming in from the business, or more that I’m going to lose the entertainment every weekend.”

Lafrance’s company provides most of the signage at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. That aside, Lafrance said, he’d be there for every game, anyway.

“I come to every game; I support them win or lose,” Lafrance said. “I complain when things go wring, and I’m happy when they go right, not to mention the friendships we’ve made with the staff, the players and all of the other fans that come here every night.”

The team’s struggles, Potvin said, are somewhat self-inflicted.

“Your product is only as good as your marketing, and to tell the truth, it seems I’ve seen little attempt to market the team since their President’s Cup year in 2006-2007,” Potvin said. “Even that year, when they had one hell of a product on the ice, I felt more could have been done to capitalize on what was truly an unbelievable season.”

Potvin isn’t the only person with that same frustration.

“(The Maineiacs) did nothing at the start to generate a buzz about the team, figuring that showing up would be enough,” wrote Rob Kennedy of Augusta. Kennedy used to call the Maineiacs’ games on television for Time Warner Cable.

“(The team) didn’t even have a radio broadcaster for road games, and in fact didn’t have one until the second year of the franchise. It didn’t have live broadcasted home games until the fourth season. It never hired a media relations guy until late in the game, and it also never had a bone-fide PR guy to generate excitement in the community until late in the game (and even then they never really focused on this) … The bottom line is that the amount of money spent is irrelevant – it’s looking at how money was spent, and what was done (or in this case not done) to gather fan support.”

Even with all of the cynicism and doubt, though, it appears people are still hoping the team sticks around.

“I don’t think all this talk is a done deal,” Lafrance said. “Whether it be scare tactics or whatever else, I don’t know. Maybe the community does need to be scared a little bit. I still hope this team is here next year, and if they are, I’ll be here.”

“I’ll be with the team until the last bus leaves town,” Potvin said. “And if they do leave, well, I think Mr. Just has made a terrible mistake. I still truly believe the area has the potential to support a team in this league. Lewiston’s potential in general has only begun to have been realized, and to give up now because he thinks he sees greener grass elsewhere, well, I have news for him. The grass is pretty brown everywhere right now. With a better approach to selling this product we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”