More Bench America Rumors

There's been a fair amount of talk recently about Bench America. Most of it centering on whether the event will take place this year or on a format change for the event. Another discussion has appeared in the NASA forum. The original poster says:

I have heard that the Bench America program has been terminated and is no longer in existance. Can anyone verify or discredit this report or rumor? I have heard that they lost over $100,000.00 on the entire series and it is bankrupt now.

Jim Ray, who has offered his insight about BA before:

I talked with some guys involved with BA a couple of weeks ago and they didn't mention the dire straights you did, but they said (main sponsor) Jiffy Lube was disappointed with the low turnout and probably wouldn't sponsor them again. So, if they can't get a major sponsor, I'd tend to agree with you. I was told that they were also considering making BA4 raw. (That would be awesome, but who would sponsor it?)

More second hand news:

I have heard that it is dead meat. Raw won't sell and like you said, WHO would sponsor it? How in the hell did they get Jiffy Lube to sponsor that?

Matt McCase of the USPF:

It's dead meat... Pretty good opinion though.