Cash-strapped Bermuda Hogges are in danger of disbanding with club president Shaun Goater rating their survival chances at no greater than fifty-fifty.

The bottom of the table team have suffered a major financial hit this season in the backdrop of the global credit crunch, having had crucial sponsorship withdrawn by a number of their backers.

Attempts by Hogges' hierarchy to tighten their purse strings have proved fruitless and unless they are able to strike a far more cost effective travel deal with the United Soccer Leagues, as well as attract new sponsorship, then Goater admits they would have no choice but to fold.

With their future now hanging in the balance, the franchise's trio of owners will gather next month to discuss whether or not to bring down the shutters on the Hogges' project.

"Right now how confident am I of Hogges continuing? I'd have to say it's fifty-fifty," Goater told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

"At the moment it seems unlikely because we've taken such a big financial hit this season and can't afford to continue like this. But we will sit down at the end of the season and discuss where we go from here.

"Part of the problem is that we have to pay for the visiting teams' flights and accommodation when they come to Bermuda.

"We end up taking a far bigger hit than they do, as it's far cheaper for them when we travel to the US. If we do fold I think it will definitely be a major blow for Bermuda football."

Hogges were trumpeted as the saviour of local football when the Island's first semi-professional team was launched in 2006, but they have been unable to capture the imagination of the notoriously hard to please Bermudian footballing public, and for the most part have attracted paltry attendances.

Earlier this month head coach Kyle Lightbourne launched a passionate attack on local fans, labelling them couch potatoes who would rather watch games on TV than support Hogges.

"Bermudians love to say that we are a football-loving nation and yet I look up at the stands and I don't see many faces," said Lightbourne, who along with Goater and co-owner Paul Scope pumps his own cash into the club.

"We're thankful to those paying supporters who come week-in, week-out, but there aren't many of them." Goater agrees that the high proportion of empty seats at the National Sports Centre have not only further depleted Hogges' limited resources, but also failed to motivate their under performing players.

"Our results have not helped our cause at all," he said. "Supporters don't want to follow a team that's not winning but when the stands are empty players become less accountable."

n Shaun Goater and Bermuda Hogges would like to pass on their condolences to the family of Minister Nelson Bascome who died yesterday. Goater said Minister Bascome had regularly attended Hogges' home matches.