Ed Lauterbach didn’t let go of his passion easily and certainly not quickly.

But after 10 years, he couldn’t ignore reality any longer.

Lauterbach put his W-League London Gryphons women’s soccer team on hiatus.

The W-League is one part of the voluminous United Soccer Leagues (USL). The Gryphons joined in 2004.

Lauterbach owns the team and he, along with his family, were the driving force behind the team’s operation. Aaron Lauterbach, Ed’s son, was the coach and general manager of the team for most of its years.

In December 2013 both the Lauterbachs were inducted into the USL Hall of Fame for their work with the W-League and the Gryphons.

But despite their dedication, they could not justify spending more than $70,000 a year to prop up a franchise that has had virtually no revenue.

Despite the financial drain, Ed Lauterbach said they still might have considered coming back for another year if several other teams in the Canadian division hadn’t pulled out.

“Toronto pulled out. Kitchener pulled out. Ottawa pulled out,” Ed Lauterbach said. “All they’ve got left in the Canadian division is Laval and Quebec City and they can play into the U.S. because they have teams that are close.

“For us, it would have been horrendous travel. Our closest team would have been Dayton, Ohio, then Tennessee. (The league) wanted us to play a game in Florida.

“So not only is the travel bad but it would have been hard attracting players when you are playing far away all the time.”

Lauterbach said the actual team foundation will remain in place.

“We are just going to let it sit,” he said. “It’s not costing us anything. It’s just sitting there. When you are running at that level and not drawing fans, not doing any advertising it’s all out of your pocket.”

Lauterbach estimates that he’s spent about $750,000 to run the team since he established it.

“You can have a passion for something, which we do, but reality is really a grim reminder of what you’ve got to do when you got to do it,” Lauterbach said. “It was time. If the league had gone on in Kitchener, Toronto and Ottawa we would have had really tough decisions to make.”

Lauterbach said if those teams had remained in the W-League he might have considered giving it another shot. But for now he’s going to wait and see what pans out in the future, if there is a future, with the W-League north of the border. He is also waiting to see whether plans for a high level women’s league in Ontario ever comes to fruition.

“I think it’s going to be very hard for it to happen but we’ll wait and see,” Lauterbach said.

When the Gryphons were formed the hope was it would provide a place to play for some of the best local women players. That part of the plan came true with players like Cristina Bonasia, Natalie D’Oria, Laura Roberts and Devon Romak coming through the system.

“We were almost breaking even financially the first three years of the W-league as the enthusiasm was there,” Lauterbach said. “We were marketing it the right way but then the enthusiasm fell off.”

The Gryphons continued to provide a place to play for good women soccer players and the development of these players was acknowledged when the Lauterbach’s were inducted into the USL Hall of Fame.

“We did promote young kids from within to play in the W-League,” Lauterbach said. “When we were inducted into the Hall of Fame they said, ‘they may not have won a trophy but they moved a lot of players into scholarship programs.’ That got us a standing ovation.”

No matter what the circumstances, seeing something that you created from nothing, come to an end after 10 years, is not an easy thing to go through.

“I love the sport but I have to be a realist,” Lauterbach said. “It’s extremely hard. It’s 10 years of your life and your passion. We didn’t do it for the glory . . . there’s not much glory. We did it because we had a passion.”