From Wire Services

A Senate subcommittee investigating antitrust implications of the proposed ABA-NBA merger was told yesterday that it is the ABA's failure to draw fans, not the bidding war with the rival NBA, that is the prime reason some ABA teams are in danger of folding.

Dr. Roger Noll and Dr. Benjamin Okner, economists on leave from the Brookings Institution, told the committee that while the leagues "implicitly are claiming that there is a strong public interest in preserving all 28 pro teams," poor attendance figures indicate that the endangered franchises are playing in cities in which there is "very little demand for professional basketball games."