The good news is that the Vancouver Ravens have accepted 2500 deposits for season tickets, satisfying one of the two conditions for the franchise to return to the National Lacrosse League.

The bad news is that, with only ten days left in the Ravens' window of opportunity, they still do not have an arena lease, and that's the other prerequisite to end the team's three-year absence from the league.

Worse yet, Pacific National Exhibition -- which runs Pacific Coliseum, the Ravens' preferred home arena -- has issued a statement indicating that it will not proceed.

Neither side has disclosed why negotiations broke down, although it has been reported that a current Pacific Coliseum tenant has a right-of-refusal clause in its own lease and is unwilling to share the building.

A spokeswoman for PNE suggested that there just wasn't enough time to get a deal done, but Ravens governor Tom Mayenknecht says that a preliminary lease term sheet was signed over a month ago and that the arena's board of directors was expected to consider it by 21 June.

This leaves General Motors Place, a newer facility which was the home arena of the Ravens in their first life, 2002 to 2004. It is also the home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks and formerly hosted the Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies of the NBA.

"[GM Place] could still be the ones who save this for the community," Mayenknecht told The (Vancouver) Province. "At least they're understanding the value to Vancouver and they're pushing the envelope trying."

There is, however, a reason Ravens ownership preferred Pacific Coliseum -- the rent would considerably cheaper, and for a club that teetered on the brink of bankrupcy its first time around, every dollar is important.

"We'll be assessing our options over the weekend and I'm not personally closing doors on anything," Mayenknecht said.

"But the only thing certain about this is without a suitable arena lease, we will not have a new NLL franchise in Vancouver."

Ten days left... Tick. Tick. Tick.