Editing Baltimore Claws (section)

==Continuing problems==
Due to mounting financial problems, the second loss to the Squires ended up being the Claws' final game. Cohan's group found it difficult to meet rudimentary team expenses. The players and coaches had not been paid, and the players were not even getting their per diem meal money.  The players were still wearing old red Sounds uniforms with a green patch saying "Claws" over the old "Sounds" name, along with unaltered red Sounds warmups. Their practice T-shirts also had rips under the arms. Only 300 season tickets had been sold, below even the number of fans in their last preseason game.

On October 16, 1975, ABA Commissioner DeBusschere got word that one of the Claws' banks had yanked its [[line of credit]]. DeBusschere responded with an ultimatum to Cohan and his partners: unless they posted a $500,000 "performance bond" with the league within four days to cover expenses, the league would cancel the franchise. The Claws got together half of the money, but could not raise the rest. Reportedly, the remaining money plus an additional $70,000 was being held in escrow by the city, to be released only if Cohan resigned as team president.

The Claws asked the league for more time to get the needed money for the bond. However, the ABA refused and expelled the Claws on October 20, 1975, less than a week before the regular season began.<ref name=adclws>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jnMsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-csEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7476%2C4060278 |newspaper=Spartanburg Herald |location=South Carolina |agency=Associated Press |title=ABA drops Claws; asks admission into NBA |date=October 21, 1975 |page=B3 }}</ref> The league issued a statement noting that it had been prepared to enter the 1975–76 season with "nine financially strong franchises." League officials added that the Claws' backers had been unable to get their affairs in order despite being given extra time to do so. The Claws' office at the [[Baltimore Civic Center]] was padlocked by arena management due to unpaid bills. (Incredibly, the Claws were just one of ''four'' different Baltimore "major league" franchises that vanished in 1975, the others being the [[Baltimore Banners]] of [[World Team Tennis]], who folded in February; the [[Michigan Stags|Baltimore Blades]] of the [[World Hockey Association]], who folded after their 1974–75 season concluded during their brief stay there; and finally the [[North American Soccer League (1968–1984)|North American Soccer League]]'s [[Baltimore Comets]], who shifted to San Diego just a few days before the Claws officially folded.)

The Claws threatened to seek an injunction delaying the start of the season until Baltimore were reinstated, citing a provision in the rules requiring a ten days notice before any team could be shuttered. However, after both the ABA and the city threatened to file their own legal actions, the Claws quietly folded operations entirely. The league felt the ten-day rule was trumped by a larger obligation to ensure that its franchises were being run in a professional manner (and later, for the league's survival in its final season of existence).