Wellington, Feb 17 NZPA - Financial problems have seen the Auckland Stars suspended from this year's National Basketball League (NBL) by the league's governing body.

On a day when the NBL announced a three-year naming rights sponsorship with Bartercard understood to be worth more than $500,000, league chairman Sam Rossiter-Stead had more sombre news.

"The board is not satisfied that Auckland Stars is a solvent organisation," he said at the announcement.

The Stars, regularly among the leading NBL sides, is owned by former Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin and had suffered recent financial problems.

The franchise reportedly owed money to key player Dillon Boucher and coach Kenny Stone.

Baldwin, currently coaching in Turkey, had been informed of the suspension but opted not to comment.

Rossiter-Stead said the Stars' financial woes were "significant", but was reluctant to comment further. In a later statement, he said the door was open for them to return in 2011.

"Throughout the world, organisations that participate in sports leagues often benefit from the opportunity to stand back for a period and to re-group and to re-enter the league reinvigorated," he said.

"The same pattern has been repeated in New Zealand with the NBL in the past with teams electing to step back from participation for a year or two and then re-enter into the league -- often with great success.

"Whilst there is a suspension, there is a clear recognition that Auckland Stars Limited is an organisation that is expected to field a team in the 2011 (and thereafter) NBL.

"The board will be working with the owners and management of Auckland Stars Limited to ensure it every success in its future participation in the league."

The Stars' absence reduces the NBL to a 10-team competition this year, with Otago and Southland both returning after a season away.