Howard Dolgon had concluded one interview with a local TV reporter, and another one was waiting outside his office in the War Memorial minutes before Saturday's National Lacrosse League game featuring Dolgon's Syracuse Smash.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Dolgon said. "People would rather go to a funeral than a wedding."

Burial arrangements for the Smash began three years ago when high ticket prices and a struggling team kept fans away from the NLL's smallest market in droves. They were finalized Saturday when an announced crowd of only 2,617 watched Syracuse win its first game of the season following 10 consecutive losses, a 10-9 double-overtime victory over Pittsburgh.

Dolgon had laid down the gauntlet by saying that unless 5,000 paying customers attended the game he would move the team to another market or sell it. The challenge generated a lot of publicity but little response from the community.

"I thought I would rather be up-front with our fans," Dolgon said of his ultimatum. "Let them know that we tried and that we were the smallest market. We didn't ask to pack 6,300 people in every day. If I had broke even or lost a little money I would have kept it here. No question."

Instead, Dolgon said, the community has spoken. He said he has been in contact with three potential buyers and expects to talk to a fourth sometime this week. He doesn't expect to have an announcement any time soon, but the Smash's departure is inevitable.

"Life goes on," Dolgon said, "and life will go on in this market without this team. And you'll have a few people who will miss it and other people who will say that they wish they had a chance to see it."

Dolgon is president of the city's American Hockey League franchise, the Syracuse Crunch.

He is a partner in a Manhattan sports marketing firm. Never, he said, has he tried something that has failed as miserably as the Smash.

"No," he said, "nothing even close. But I'm a big boy, and I think I've proven I'm not afraid to take chances."

Dolgon took a chance three seasons ago when he explored the possibility of bringing a Major Indoor Lacrosse League team to Syracuse. Finding the MILL's terms unacceptable, he teamed with fellow AHL owners Steve Donner (Rochester Americans) and Frank DuRoss (Providence Bruins) to form the NLL, which battled briefly with the MILL before the leagues merged prior to the 1998 season.

DuRoss, a Utica businessman, was supposed to locate a franchise in Boston but never got it off the ground. Donner, who had run the MILL's successful Buffalo franchise before starting a franchise in Rochester, has a winner in the Knighthawks. Dolgon, whose team is 6-29 in franchise history entering Saturday's 8:00 PM season finale against Toronto in the War Memorial, is on the way out of Syracuse.

"It's sad for a number of reasons," Donner said. "We lose a great rival, and I lose a close friend from the start. We envisioned a great rivalry, competitive teams and full buildings, which makes the situation in Syracuse particularly painful."

The Smash's early problems, traced to high ticket prices, a mostly Canadian roster and a lousy record, have been well-documented. Given that rocky start, Dolgon said Saturday that he probably left the anchor down a year too long.

"I probably stayed one year too long," he said. "I did. It was my ego and emotions that kept it around for the third year."

Dolgon said the reason he did so was because the community never had the opportunity to reject a winning team. He was convinced that he had built one this year with a healthy Paul Gait surrounded by a beefed-up lineup that included two off-season all-star acquisitions in scorer Mark Millon and defenseman John Gagliardi and former Syracuse University star Charlie Lockwood.

Things started to unravel early, though, when a work conflict prevented Lockwood from suiting up and Gagliardi, a Long Island resident, refused to sign with the Smash. The team got clobbered 16-6 by Rochester in its home opener, sending a message to fans that it was again going to be bad, then lost its next four games by a total of five goals.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Dolgon traded Gait and Millon for cash and draft picks, and the Syracuse experiment was all but over. Saturday's final unanswered plea to the community made it official.

"I was convinced that the one thing we were missing was a winning product," he said. "And you know what? We could have been 4-1 after five games. But we weren't, and that's that."

So now, Dolgon is speaking of funerals and other grim subjects.

"It's like a car accident," he said of Saturday's media attention. "Everybody wants to stop and see a car accident. When there's no accident, there's nothing to see."

That was the community's message Saturday.