LEWISTON – If you walked into the Lewiston Maineiacs’ office this afternoon, the team would continue to encourage you to purchase season tickets for the 2009-10 season.

Despite continuing rumors to the contrary, team officials said this week that an overblown rumor on the Internet is just that, and that the team, at least for now, isn’t going anywhere.

“These rumors happen every year at this time,” team president and governor Matt McKnight said. “This kind of all blew up over this past weekend, and I don’t read (Internet postings) every day, and it’s impossible to keep tabs on that every day. But I am telling you right now, if someone wants to buy a season ticket for next year, I encourage them to do so. There’s nothing in play right now that would lead me to believe we’re not going to be here next year.”

As recently as last week, towns like St. Jerome, St. Hyacinthe, Trois Riviere, St. Jean and, most recently, Granby, surfaced in the rumor mill.

“Granby? Boy, they’re coming out of the woodwork,” Maineiacs’ owner Mark Just said. “It was Sherbrooke last week. No, we’re not moving to Granby. Where do people come up with this stuff? Where else are we going?”

McKnight also put the kibosh on Granby, as well as on a few other towns.

“All those towns you mentioned, they don’t even come close to measuring up to league standards,” McKnight said. “(The Colisee) is an old building, but it’s a great junior building. Sight lines are great, it’s got a low ceiling, it can be loud. It’s a great rink. I would never recommend going to a St.-Hyacinthe or a Trois Rivieres in some old barn. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

But four municipalities have contacted McKnight and Just. Both of them confirmed that number.

“People aren’t stupid,” Just said. “There are other cities who want the team. They see that we don’t draw well in Lewiston, and continually contacted me over the years to see if I had an interest in relocating the team. At this point, I don’t know if any of the four cities that have contacted me would be any better than where we’re at right now. We’re not going to move a team just to move a team. If I believe that a location is better than where we’re at, for many, many reasons, I would consider that.”

If the team is going to leave, a formal request must be submitted to the league by Jan. 31. From there, the board of governors and team owners must approve the move for it to become official, a process that may take up to two more weeks.

McKnight and Just are being cautious about making any sudden moves. They’ve cut two front-office positions, layoffs designed to help the team save money, and they’ve hired a community-oriented coach.

“There’s certainly a change in public perception right now, with the coaching change we’ve made, now it’s a positive, and we need to build on that,” McKnight said.

People around the region logged on to the Maineiacs’ Internet chat site as rumors spread about an impending move over the weekend, causing a stir in the building during the team’s 4-1 loss to Drummondville on Tuesday.

“The Internet is a wonderful tool. It allows for the free exchange of information,” McKnight said, “but at the same time, it’s not accurate. You have 90 percent of the people reading what 10 percent are writing. If those 10 percent are writing based on rumors – which is what they’re doing right now – then that’s where everything spreads. Unfortunately you can’t quell that.”

Neither McKnight nor Just would say with absolute certainty that the team will, in fact, operate in Lewiston in September.

But they also assured people that, as of Wednesday, nothing was in place to move the team, either.

“Anything is possible,” McKnight said. “Nothing is certain in life but death and taxes. There have been people calling, interested in this franchise. But (when) you know Mark as well as I do. This is what he loves, and the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. We’re looking at leveraging what we have now, with the recent changes, operating more efficiently in the front office, and we’ll see where that gets us.”