PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Portland Fire provided "good, clean-spirited entertainment'' in a city with only one other major professional sports franchise, but its demise was a simple business decision, officials and observers said Tuesday.

The Trail Blazers -- which operated the women's team for two years -- announced Monday it would not buy the Fire for financial reasons and could not find a private owner for the team. As a result, the Fire will disband and its players will be allotted to the remaining WNBA teams in a dispersal draft.

The Blazers chose not to buy the Fire because the team lost money every year, said Erin Hubert, the Blazers' executive vice president. The Fire's losses have been estimated at about $1 million a year.

Until recently, the fledgling WNBA league collectively owned its 16 teams, but left the management to each team's NBA counterpart. In October, the NBA's Board of Governors approved a plan allowing the men's franchises the first rights to buy their sister WNBA teams -- or release them to private ownership or dissolution.

Fans and observers said while the Fire's failure in Portland is disappointing, it isn't surprising. Portland -- which only supports one other professional sports team -- probably wasn't the right city to experiment with a young franchise, they said.

The Fire, who were 16-16 in their best season, attracted an average of 8,000 fans per game. The Blazers routinely attract up to 20,000 fans.

"It's a business and apparently in this market it was more difficult to get something like that to fly,'' said Leah McMahon, founder of Network Girls Skill Development Series and a former Oregon State player.

The Fire's demise can also be attributed to the attitude of its NBA franchise, said Donna Lopiano, executive director for the nonprofit Women's Sports Foundation in East Meadow, N.Y.

The majority of WNBA franchises managed to survive the management transition, despite drawing less publicity than their NBA counterparts. Of the 16 WNBA teams that played last season, three have folded and one -- the Utah Starzz -- will move to San Antonio.

"What they didn't figure is that a successful franchise requires passion and if the men's franchise wasn't into it, it wasn't going to succeed,'' Lopiano said. "The NBA cities had first dibs (on WNBA teams) and those who took it and made a success out of it are going to keep the franchises.''

NBA teams took years to develop a following and brand-name recognition; the amount of energy -- and money -- required for the same success with a WNBA team might have been too much for the already struggling Blazers, Lopiano said.

"If they said, 'We gave it everything and the city wasn't responding,' in this day and age I can't believe that. Really good marketers create demand,'' she said. "(The Blazers) may be so heavily invested and losing money with the guys that they just can't take on a new project.''

Blazers owner Paul Allen is expected to lose more than $100 million on his team this season and closed down his Action Sports Cable Network earlier in the year.

Hubert, the Blazers' executive vice president, said the Blazers' financial losses didn't affect its decision about the Fire.

"The Blazers aren't making money right now, but will again in the near future,'' she said. "What's going on with the Blazers wasn't a factor, although focusing on our core business is more of a priority right now.''

Either way, Fire fans said they will miss their team and wish the WNBA success in other U.S. cities.

"All of us are really sad to see such a great team leave the Portland area,'' said McMahon, who took her young basketball players to Fire games whenever she could.

"They developed an extremely loyal fan base and they touched the women's basketball community in a very deep way,'' she said. "I can't say enough about what it was like to have WNBA team playing on our soil.''