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If owning a sports team is a rich man's folly, then the worsening economy and the crisis in the National Hockey League's Sunbelt cities seem destined to expose a wealthy fool or two.

While most of the alarm about the meltdown has focused on the plight of the Phoenix Coyotes, the more telling case may ultimately be the Tampa Bay Lightning, the onetime fair-haired child of the southern franchises.

Since an eight-member group of investors headed by Hollywood producer Oren Koules and real estate developer Len Barrie bought the team last year, many of the regime's decisions, including the dismissal of most of the executives and coaching staff, have raised eyebrows in the hockey world. Despite considerable expense and fanfare, the Lightning have endured a season only slightly less disastrous than last year's, when they finished dead last.

"Basically everyone who owns an NHL hockey team is a successful business guy, but just because you're good at something else doesn't necessarily mean you'll be good at this. They still have a lot to learn," an Eastern Conference NHL governor recently said of the Lightning's owners. Added a player agent who has had extensive dealings with the team: "These guys don't really seem to understand the business they're in."

When the new owners took over, the Lightning were a coveted sports property: They had won the Stanley Cup in 2004, had entrenched themselves in the community and, according to various sources, had annual revenues in the range of $85 million to $95 million (all currency in U.S. dollars except as noted).

Tampa also has perhaps the sweetest lease deal in the NHL, paying roughly $250,000 per year to Hillsborough County for the rink and adjoining parking lots, which it more than recoups in a generous $2-million annual subsidy paid from tourism taxes.

The Lightning also get to keep concession receipts and parking revenues, not just for hockey, but for other events as well. It's no small matter: The arena is one of the most profitable concert venues in the world.

Lately, dozens of rumours have wafted around the Lightning. By these accounts, the Lightning have variously been: bankrupt, looking for buyers, borrowing from distress lenders, and on the verge of trading their best player, Vincent Lecavalier, because they were in danger of defaulting on his $500,000 bonus. All the rumours have been privately—and, in Lecavalier's case, publicly—denied by team officials.

When the Lightning played the Montreal Canadiens last December, the buzz of the day was that the team had almost not covered their payroll. "Completely false. Anyone who knows anything about us knows that's not true," declared Koules, who doubles as Lightning CEO.

But two things are certain: The Lightning are losing money, and the clock is ticking for the ownership group to either pay off or refinance about half the purchase price.

For all their travails, there are recent indications the team's leadership is learning. On the March 4 trading deadline, they shipped various pieces of hockey flotsam and a fourth-round draft pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return for a middling prospect. It was a canny deal, wiping roughly $600,000 off the payroll in pro-rated salaries. And the Lightning stand to save hundreds of thousands more in bonuses that won't have to be paid to players like forward Gary Roberts, who retired in March.

One murmur had it that the deal took Tampa below the midpoint of the NHL salary cap range, making the team eligible for an extra payout from the more than $120 million in player salaries that is expected to be distributed among the league's 30 teams later this year. But the NHL denies the trade had any impact on Tampa's revenue-sharing position.

The Lightning don't discuss their financial details—Koules and Barrie, who's also president, declined interview requests. But Koules alluded to the team's finances recently on ESPN.com. "Are we making money? No. But are we bleeding like most people think we are? Of course not," Koules said. "It's hard, because the only thing you get from the fans is, 'You're an idiot.'"

Said fans should remember that the team's previous owner, Palace Sports and Entertainment, claims it lost more than $70 million in nine years of owning the team.

The losses will likely deepen thanks to this season's flagging attendance, which in turn owes something to the team's on-ice ineptitude—they were miles from the playoffs at mid-season and, thanks to splashing out for expensive free-agent flops, have had a league-high 49 different players in the lineup.

After 37 home games, the average attendance of 16,358 was down more than 2,300 seats from last year. The Lightning have tweaked ticket prices to ensure they receive their allotment under the league's revenue-sharing scheme (the sum could be as much as $15 million). So the attendance total includes about 2,000 free or deeply discounted tickets—enough to ensure the Lightning comfortably reaches the minimum average attendance of 14,000 that's required to qualify for revenue sharing. The season's-ticket base has fallen from 14,000 in 2003-2004, Tampa's Cup season, to about 10,000 now. Sources say team revenues have fallen in the order of 15%.

The Lightning have tried to stop the rot by offering discounts of up to 80% to season's ticket holders in hopes of bolstering renewals (the lowest-priced ducat is $239, one of the cheapest in all of pro sports).

"We continue to be very bullish about our future," Koules said in a statement accompanying the ticket renewals, adding that with the "difficult economic time facing our fans...we know the right thing to do is to decrease prices." So, like other southern teams, they have instituted promotions: $39 will get you two tickets, two hot dogs, two beers and a parking spot.

Meanwhile, at least some members of the ownership group are being battered in their original businesses by the wider economic downturn.

Koules, a successful producer of both television (Two and a Half Men) and film (the Saw horror franchise) is believed to have contributed roughly $40 million—split evenly with his production partner Mark Burg—of the $100 million that OK Hockey, as the ownership consortium is known, put into the team (the group also includes an investment banker, an orthopedic surgeon, a furniture baron and a strip-mall developer).

Since the Saw series has grossed $660 million worldwide, the producers' riches are seemingly recession-proof. The same can't be said of others, like former NHL journeyman Barrie, a resort developer who is reported to have put approximately $20 million into the team.

Barrie is reportedly in the process of selling Bear Mountain Resort, his luxe Vancouver Island golf and condo project. The rumoured price tag is $500 million (Canadian).

Of the remaining $105 million that was required to purchase the team, $70 million was floated on a three-year loan by former owner Bill Davidson, who died in March, and the rest by Galatioto Sports Partners, a private equity firm in New York City. A spokesman for Davidson told reporters in Detroit early in March that his passing won't affect the Lightning deal, which is with Palace Sports and Entertainment, not his estate.