Basketball: Horton pulls the plug on struggling Derby Storm

The Derby Storm owner, Mike Horton, has pulled his team out of the BBL Championship for the next season.

The millionaire businessman's team struggled through the last two campaigns in the dingy Thunderdome, and the new season will begin with 11 teams in the Championship on the first weekend of October.

"I know it will be a major disappointment to genuine supporters in Derby," Horton said, "but there is no financial sense in operating a franchise in the Derby area unless its facilities are TV friendly and the business makes commercial sense."

Horton's comment about TV also leaves other questions unanswered after the BBL yesterday announced they had tinkered with the format of the competitions, but did not reveal any new TV partner to replace the defunct ITV Digital.

The North and South Conference has been scrapped with the BBL reverting to a single national league in which the clubs will play each other twice home and away, with the top eight qualifying for the play-offs.

The BBL have also come under pressure to dispense with a single venue for the first round of the play-offs after attracting a lukewarm response to having four games played on a single day at the Coventry Skydome.

A home-and-away best-of-three format, where higher placed teams have the chance of two games at home is favoured.