Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley is shopping for a new home.

Vancouver Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley made a stop in Anaheim, Calif., on Tuesday, the latest in his search for a new home for his money-guzzling NBA team.

With Las Vegas and St. Louis reportedly crossed off his list, Heisley began the day with Memphis, New Orleans, Louisville and Anaheim on his final list of four. Saturday, he said that he was "not leaning anywhere" to one particular city.

If Heisley wanted to move his Grizzlies for the 2001-02 season, he originally had to inform NBA commissioner David Stern of his choice by Thursday. However, a spokesman for the NBA said Monday that the March 1 deadline could be extended by "no more than four weeks." The Vancouver Province reported Tuesday that Stern recommended to the board of governors to vote by Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET on granting Heisley a 25-day extension.

Stern told Heisley he could explore a move from Vancouver on Feb. 12, after Heisley announced that he expected to lose at least $40 million this season – his most up-to-date number seems to be $46 million – in Vancouver. Heisley took control of the team last April for a reported $160 million.

Louisville attorney J. Bruce Miller reportedly met with Heisley in Chicago on Monday to talk about the city's positives, and if Heisley gets an extension he could possibly explore two New York cities -- Long Island and Buffalo. He can even keep the team in Vancouver, as a local group is scheduled to meet with Stern on March 16.

Anaheim apparently surfaced as the leading candidate on Monday, as the Los Angeles Times reported that Walt Disney Co., which owns the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and ESPN.com, and the city of Anaheim were "close to reaching an agreement on a revised Mighty Ducks' lease that could attract the Vancouver Grizzlies" to the Arrowhead Pond.

But a spokesman for the lessee, Anaheim Sports, Inc., a subsidiary of Walt Disney Co., which owns the Ducks and the Angels, told ESPN.com on Monday that the company can do little to make the lease more attractive.

"The negotiations going on right now are between the city of Anaheim, Ogden Facility Management Corp., which manages and operates the facility) and the Vancouver Grizzlies," said Tim Mead, vice president of communications for Anaheim Sports Inc. Mead said there were many issues to be ironed out, but he believes the Ducks' lease for the Pond with the city "is not a stumbling block in this process."

However, the Ducks' current lease at Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim – which is a 30-year lease with the city of Anaheim that runs through 2022 – has been seen as a problem, if Heisley wants to achieve profitability in the city. The lease does not permit any NBA team moving into the Pond to share in naming-rights revenues (a 10-year deal worth approximately $1.5 million a year through 2002-03 season). Anaheim Sports, Inc. also would make most of the advertising revenue in the arena, as well as money from luxury suites and club seats sold for NBA games.

If the current agreement is not restructured and the big revenue generators remain in the hands of Anaheim Sports, Inc., it's appears the Grizzlies would not gain much from leaving Vancouver. A team in Anaheim would have an operating loss of $16.4 million next year if it didn't receive any revenue from arena revenues, naming rights, luxury suites and club seats, according to estimates made by Hadrian Shaw, a sports analyst for Paul Kagan & Associates, a California-based media research firm. Shaw's estimates even include a more lucrative local television rights deal in Anaheim, worth approximately $4 million more per season than what the Grizzlies receive in Vancouver.

Staying in Vancouver for another season would cost the Grizzlies only $17.7 million, if the lease isn't restructured, according to Shaw. Shaw estimates the loss of those revenue streams in Anaheim would be approximately $9.5 million. That's compared with the $7.75 million that Shaw said Heisley could make for the 2001-2002 season in naming rights, advertising and luxury suite revenues if he kept the team in Vancouver.

"It's clear that if the lease doesn't do much changing, the move doesn't make much sense," said David Carter, principal in the Sports Business Group, a California-based sports consultancy firm. "Then three seasons from now they'll have to move again, so it will just compound the problem."

Several sports economists, like Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College, question the recent $40 million-plus deficit expected by Heisley. Zimbalist told ESPN.com that he believes the loss -- which Heisley said at the beginning of the season could be more than $25 million -- is in the $15 million to $20 million range.

And although the Grizzlies could fill the seats at the Pond for an additional 41 to 50 nights a year, Carter isn't so sure that Anaheim Sports, Inc. should hope for an NBA franchise as a co-tenant, if the lease deal is, indeed, restructured to attract Heisley's team.

"A new basketball team, if they are moderately successful, could cannibalize the corporate money for the Ducks," Carter said. "If no one is at the Ducks games and there's a basketball alternative in this fantastic facility, then there might be a fine line between giving the Grizzlies a good deal and (Disney) hurting themselves."

As of Tuesday, Anaheim was 18-33-8-5, good for last place in the Pacific Division in the Western Conference. Attendance through 32 home games was 13,037, down 7 percent from the 1999-2000 season. And although the Ducks filled the Pond to 95.9 percent of its capacity over the past seven seasons, the honeymoon period appears to be officially over, as the average currently represents only 76 percent of the total capacity of 17,174.

"You go to pull out your library card when you walk in the front door," Carter joked, referring to the relatively quiet arena.

Bill Miller, executive vice president for the Leib Group, a Wisconsin-based sports consultancy firm, said he believes as long as the lease at Arrowhead Pond remains as it is, New Orleans has to be considered the favorite.

"Sure, broadcast revenues would be worth more in Anaheim, but you could get almost as much selling the rights to the arena in New Orleans, plus you could make money on the suites and clubs seats, and the advertising," Miller said.

But the Anaheim deal might be a bit sweeter as the city could give Heisley a free plot of city-owned land near the Pond to build a training facility for the team, according to the Times' report.

Heisley would not have to pay a territorial rights fee to the Lakers and the Clippers, if the team moved to Anaheim. An NBA team in Anaheim would be the fifth men's professional sports franchise in the 30-mile trip from the Staples Center in Los Angeles to Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim – two NHL teams (the Kings and the Ducks) and three NBA teams (the Lakers, Clippers and Grizzlies).

Carter said the trip between the two arenas is about an hour drive, with little traffic, and that citizens of southern Orange and northern San Diego counties, extending about 60 miles south to Carlsbad, most likely would be where the new team would find the majority of its fans.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.