BLOOMINGTON -- The status quo ruled on Friday in the International Hockey League, a day after the league's meetings ended via teleconference with no announcement regarding a possible expansion team in the Quad Cities.

The Quad Cities has long been rumored to be an expansion candidate for the IHL, which recently added the Dayton (Ohio) Gems as its sixth franchise after seeing long-time member Kalamazoo leave for the ECHL. The Bloomington PrairieThunder is a member of the IHL.

Fort Wayne Komets president Michael Franke, the chairman of the IHL's board of directors, declined to comment specifically about any further expansion but he didn't rule out the possibility.

"There will not be any announcements probably until the beginning or middle of next week," Franke said. "There is some proprietary information that's going to be released next week and we have to wait until the given time to do so.

"We may have numerous announcements next week. We'll just have to sit back and wait and see. We can't talk about any markets that are out there that aren't already committed to the league."

The Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, has reported that a prospective team owner has been in negotiations with officials of the i wireless Center in Moline and the IHL and ECHL about fielding a team for the 2009-10 season. An announcement regarding a possible Quad Cities team will be made next week, according to the report.

Franke said the IHL will hold a scheduling meeting Wednesday followed later in the week by a dispersal draft of Kalamazoo's players and an expansion draft for Dayton and any other potential new franchises. He added that Kalamazoo players won't be eligible for the expansion draft.

"The expansion draft will include all of the teams that would be forthcoming for the 2009-10 season," Franke said.

Each team can protect 13 skaters and one goaltender in the expansion draft, losing a maximum of three players. When a team loses a player, it can then add another player to its protected list.