If there ever was a week to cheer the hometown team, this is it.

News the Lewiston Maineiacs are mulling a move to the Montreal suburbs shouldn’t surprise in this modern era of itinerant sports, when professional franchises often snub beloved homes for greener pastures, usually burning all their bridges in the process.

Look around. This coming Sunday’s Super Bowl features the Cardinals, who bounced from Chicago to St. Louis to Phoenix, to the whole of Arizona over the past five decades. The Colts left Baltimore. The Browns left Cleveland. The Rams and Raiders left Los Angeles.

Even stranger is that while teams are quick to leave, they closely align their identity with their geography. Sometimes, the outcome sounds weird, like a misnomer. The “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim,” for instance. In other occasions, a new team and its city sound just right.

The Lewiston Maineiacs, for example.

Team owner Mark Just has been frank with his comments about attendance, as the numbers do show. With game attendance falling below the 2,500-minimum that is required by the team’s contract, Just has rightly questioned the enthusiasm and interest in his product.

The criticism is, well, just. But while Just can question interest, he should not doubt the support this community has shown the team during its six seasons. Unlike most professional sports, Maineiacs players are part of life in Lewiston-Auburn. They live, study and play here.

Perhaps enthusiasm has waned this year because of a championship hangover; the team’s struggles are a polar opposite of previous years’ success. Or maybe it was personality; former coach Ed Harding was far from a fan favorite. Or maybe it’s the economy having an impact.

Most likely, it is a combination of the three.

But these factors haven’t disintegrated support for the team. L-A is proud of the Maineiacs; we’re not that far removed from having the best hockey team in the state – take that, Pirates and Black Bears – to suddenly forget what a wonderful thing it is to have this team in town.

Just is somewhat right, though. The deadline for the team to decide its relocation plans is Jan 31. There are two home games this weekend, Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, against Victoriaville.

If we as a community support this team, we should show it.

This is the week to do so.