The Basingstoke Bison cannot find the sponsorship required to sustain Elite League ice hockey next season.

Director of hockey Harry Robinson said attendances at Basingstoke were too low for top-flight hockey to continue without a large sponsorship deal.

"I've drawn a blank on the kind of size of sponsorship we would need to sustain an Elite League team next season," Robinson told BBC Radio Berkshire.

Robinson said the club could yet stay in the Elite if a sponsor is found.

"I am out there looking for sponsors, but there's a credit crunch on," he said.

"The last thing they're going to do is splash big money on sporting sponsorship, [but] that's not to say we're not actively going out there looking for that big sponsor."

Basingstoke have suffered financial problems for the past two seasons, enduring several turbulent changes of ownership.

Basingstoke rink operators Planet Ice, fronted by Robinson, assumed control of the Bison earlier in the season and are battling to turn the Elite League minnows into a commercially viable venture.

Any time you can get a team of hockey players all happy with no moans, the Pope will become Prime Minister of England. It isn't going to happen Harry Robinson

"It's all sorted," said Robinson, speaking after Basingstoke's superb comeback to beat Nottingham Panthers 5-3 in the Challenge Cup.

"There are no evictions now," he added, referring to the threat of eviction hanging over some players in the last month.

"They were threatened with eviction, we found them alternative and good accommodation. We made one mistake with a house that proved to be unsuitable and within 12 hours we'd moved them into other premises.

"There's nobody complaining to me about the houses. [Some of the players'] cars had been repossessed, we've now replaced most of those and those are proving very popular."

Robinson dismissed the suggestion that players were still keen to leave. Though Matt Miller, Curtiss Patrick and Joe White have recently departed, Robinson said Planet Ice had been powerless to stop them.

"To be fair they were already looking before I walked across the threshold," he said.

"Other teams were approaching them and we can't match some of the money being offered.

"I don't think they were leaving because of us coming in, Planet Ice have been wonderful to the players, doing everything they can to make them happy.

"Any time you can get a team of hockey players all happy with no moans, the Pope will become Prime Minister of England. It isn't going to happen."

Though Robinson would not confirm that the Bison are planning to drop a tier into hockey's Premier League, he hinted that fans could not expect continued survival at the top level if circumstances remained the same.

"We would definitely want an Elite League team if it can be sustained, but people have to be realistic about their expectations. It costs a lot of money.

"Nottingham can spend a lot of money on their teams with attendances of two to three thousand. Tonight we got 910.

"The only way you can do it - if you want Elite hockey and you live in a place like Basingstoke, with a population of 150,000 - [is with] another 400-500 people here every single week, paying a higher admission charge."

Meanwhile, Robinson pronounced himself "delighted" with the team following their victory, and said the management would "not be rushed" into adding to the squad, despite a shortage of players.

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