The Montreal Express today requested a one-year suspension of operations, French-language sports network RDS reported today.

The request, reportedly made by team president Brad Watters in a 22 July letter to National Lacrosse League commissioner Jim Jennings, was to have been voted on by the league's Board of Governors this afternoon, although no formal announcement of any such decision has been made.

Watters, whose decision on whether the Express would participate in the coming season was originally due on 1 June, had been granted several extensions in order to save the franchise from relocation or extinction.

A suspension of operations would give Watters a full year to find a buyer for the financially-troubled team. Earlier reports indicated that the Express' money problems stem from heavy distribution of complementary tickets, perhaps more than half of the entire crowd in some cases.

Long-term, Express ownership has three options -- sell to investors who would keep the team in Montreal, sell to outside interests who would move the team in time for the 2004 season, or discontinue operations.

While the Montreal franchise sorts out its future, head coach Terry Sanderson is likely headed to another Watters club, the Ottawa Rebel, to serve as managing director. Younger brother Lindsey, a former Express assistant coach, is the Rebel's head coach.

As for the players currently under contract to the team, they would be divided up by the twelve remaining franchises in a dispersal draft. Teams likely would select in the same order as in the upcoming entry draft -- Calgary, Ottawa, Columbus, New York, and New Jersey would make the first five picks, in that order, with league runner-up Albany selecting eleventh and champion Toronto going twelfth.

The RDS report also states that the NLL will not realign for the coming season, sticking with a three-division format which keeps the former Washington Power in the Eastern Division despite its recent move to Denver and keeps the four surviving members of the Central Division together.