"There's been a lot of contacts and things like that but nothing material yet," Wellman said.

"This was not what we expected."

Wellman did acknowledge there have been at least two meetings with potential investors.

The team first announced in July that it would be searching for more investors and that it was open to having a new majority owner.

Wellman has also said that if no new investors can be found, the team will continue as normal. The RailHawks are one of six current USSF D2 Pro League teams that meet the financial requirements the USSF announced in August that it would expect for all future Division 2 leagues.

"It's just another one of those signals in an economy like this; people aren't willing to make high-risk investments."

The RailHawks don't yet know what league they will play in next year, although Wellman said he expected his club and nine others to submit a bid for the North American Soccer League last week.

A refresher course: As recently as 2009, there was one Division 2 league - the United Soccer League. Near the end of the 2009 season, some USL teams - including the RailHawks - hoped to have an owners-controlled league and placed a bid to buy the USL, which was up for sale by Nike. They lost out on the bid.

The RailHawks and other teams formed the NASL and were ready to break away from the USL. But by the time teams finished switching sides, neither of the leagues had the minimum number of eight teams needed to be a sanctioned Division 2 league.

The USSF forced a compromise and said that it would govern the league for 2010. Although 12 teams play under the USSF D2 Pro League title, franchises are split on their allegiances to the USL and NASL.

Remember Gulati's quote: When the USL-NASL compromise was announced, USSF president Sunil Gulati made it clear that he did not want the USSF to run a league for more than one year.

But it appears unlikely that either league will have eight teams that meet all new USSF standards, which include having an owner who owns than 35 percent share of the team and is worth more than $20 million.

Only seven current USSF D2 teams fit all the new requirements - and that list includes Carolina.

If the USSF is open to one-year waivers, which would almost assuredly be needed for NASL-affiliated teams in St. Louis, Baltimore and Minnesota, or is still opposed to running a league under the USSF name, then the NASL appears to have a better chance than the USL in terms of getting sanctioning.

But if the USSF is no longer as opposed to running the league again in 2011 as it was in January, then year two of the USSF D2 Pro League would be a possibility.

Austin holds out: The Austin Aztex have spent most of the year by themselves atop the USSF D2 standings, but now they've separated from the pack for a different reason.

The Aztex are the only USSF D2 team not expected to be a part of NASL's bid for league sanctioning.

Team president Phil Rawlins told the Austin (Tex.) Chronicle that Austin is "not an NASL affiliated club and as such will not be participating in their proposal."

Rochester open to change: When the USL-NASL split was ongoing last winter, perhaps the biggest blow to the USL side was Rochester's defection to NASL.

The Rhinos have been playing Division 2 soccer for 15 years - an unheard of figure when considering an insideMNsoccer.com study said 75 percent of all Division 2 clubs have folded.

The team regularly draws crowds of 7,000 or more.

But Rochester may be flirting with the idea of going back to the USL, despite being part of the NASL bid.

Rhinos owner Rob Clark told insideMNsoccer.com that he was going to the USL owners meeting today, which would include owners of the USL-2 (Division 3) teams, any expansion franchises planning to join and Austin.

"I'm going to absorb all of the alternatives for the Rhinos should we choose not to participate in D2 next year," Clark told the site. "If the USL D3 league and its owners have their house in order and more importantly make decisions that 'make sense' consistently, then I will have a very hard decision to make this off season."