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ECLIPSE ON THE MOVE

Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum was the Eclipse's home for the first third of its first season photo courtesy ballparks.com

Updated Wednesday, January 30, 10:08pm ET

The Phoenix Eclipse will leave their home at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, at least for now, and begin playing home games at smaller venues in the Valley of the Sun, almostbasketball has learned.

ECLIPSE CROWDS Date Opponent Crowd 12/28 Detroit *5,126 1/4 Kansas City 1,020 1/5 Kansas City 600 1/11 So.California 1,850 1/20 So.California 1,100 1/25 Kentucky 700 1/27 Kentucky 1,012 *6th largest in league history

Friday night's game against the Kansas City Knights will be played at Scottsdale Community College, a suburban institution with 10,500 students.

"Right now, that's the only game that will be played here," confirmed SCC Athletic Director Art Becker when asked if his school could be a permanent home for the Eclipse.

Becker, coincidentally, is a former ABA player himself, having played for the Houston Mavericks, Denver Rockets, New York Nets, and Indiana Pacers, and won an ABA Championship ring with Indiana in 1970.

The Eclipse had hoped to play Saturday night's game against Indiana at Glendale Community College, but GCC's Athletic Director, Dave Grant, told almostbasketball today that his school didn't have time to pull everything together.

"We were unable to provide them with everything they need on such short notice," admitted Grant.

Saturday's game will instead be played at Central High School in Phoenix. The February 10 game against Southern California is to be played at Desert Vista High School, and the February 22nd game against Detroit will tip off at Greenway High School. The Eclipse has a game scheduled on February 21st against Detroit as well, but no venue for that game has been announced yet.

Through their first seven games at "The Madhouse on McDowell", as Memorial Coliseum is known, the Eclipse averaged 1,630 fans, second in the league, but that included an opening-night crowd of 5,126 (see chart at right) lured by $1 tickets.