Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on May 26, 2008 under Premier Basketball League (PBL)
BASEBALL
⢠Golden Baseball League: The GBL is starting its fourth season with eight teams, which is the same number of teams the league had in its inaugural 2005 season. The GBL added the Calgary Vipers and Edmonton Cracker-Cats from last year's Northern League to its six returning teams. The league plans to add two more teams in British Columbia in 2009 and eventually add two more teams in the United States.
⢠Frontier League: A group of investors wanting to bring a Frontier League franchise to Normal (IL) has been approved by a committee planning a ballpark on the campus of Heartland Community College. Another Frontier League group and a Northern League group were also in the running.
⢠United League Baseball: The ULB and Golden Baseball League plan to hold a midseason All-Star game in San Angelo (TX) this season. The ULB plans to expand into a new ballpark in Brownsville (TX) in 2009 and plans to add another expansion team to give the league eight teams.
⢠Independent Professional Baseball Federation: The seven major independent baseball leagues-American Association, Atlantic Baseball League, Can-Am League, Frontier League, Golden Baseball League, Northern League and United League Baseball-have agreed to join the new IPBF for working together on universal rules for player movement and other issues.
BASKETBALL
⢠Premier Basketball League: The PBL has increased by three more teams this week with the addition of the Quebec Kebekwa (Kebs), Detroit Panthers and Montreal Sasquatch. Detroit and Quebec are joining the PBL from the American Basketball Association (ABA). The Detroit Panthers started play in the 2006-07 ABA season and basically sat out last season after playing only a couple of games. The Quebec Kebekwa had joined the ABA for its 2006-07 season. The Sasquatch is a PBL expansion team with no relation to the ABA's Montreal Royal team. Since the end of its inaugural 2008 season, the PBL has announced four expansion teams (Montreal, Buffalo, Toronto, Southeast Asia) and added four teams (Detroit, Quebec, Vermont and Manchester) from the ABA.
⢠American Basketball Association: After recently announcing plans for the Las Vegas Aces franchise in the 2008-09 ABA season, the league now apparently has a team called the Las Vegas Lights. The Lights were announced as a 2007-08 expansion team back in February 2007, changed its name to the PROLYMS in May 2007 and then disappeared from the league's expansion list. Neither Las Vegas team is listed on the league's current expansion list, but a Las Vegas area team called the Henderson All Starz is listed.
⢠National Basketball Association Development League: The new Erie (PA) expansion franchise in the NBA's D-League will be called the Erie BayHawks. Erie and a yet-to-be-named Reno (NV) team will join the league for its 2008-09 season. A group in Portland (ME) is moving forward in its attempt to obtain a D-League expansion franchise as part of a proposed Northeast cluster of teams for the 2009-10 season. Portland had teams called the Portland Mountain Cats (1996) and the Portland Wave (1997) in the spring/summer United States Basketball League.
⢠United Basketball League: The UBL has announced some changes that have taken place in its inaugural 2008 season. The league hoped to have eight teams start the season, but at the last minute decided not to include the Dallas (Mesquite) Outlaws and the North Missouri (Tarkio) Hawks. The San Marcos Knights team has come under new ownership and will move to Austin (TX). Early in the league's development, an Austin-based team called the Texas Capital Sounds was announced, but then moved to San Marcos as the Knights under new ownership. In addition to the San Marcos/Austin Knights, the UBL has teams called the San Antonio Soul, Texas (Dallas) Wranglers, Arkansas Warriors, Oklahoma City On Point Hoopsters and the Central Texas (Temple) Stars.
⢠Women's National Basketball Association: The WNBA has started its 12th season and has increased to 12 teams with the addition of the Atlanta Dream expansion franchise to the Eastern Conference. Atlanta had a professional women's team called the Atlanta Glory in the first two seasons (1996-98) of the now-defunct American Basketball League. A semi-pro team called the Atlanta Justice played in the first two seasons (2001-02) of the defunct National Women's Basketball League.
FOOTBALL
⢠American Professional Football League: The semi-pro APFL has consolidated from ten to seven teams with the elimination of three teams that have had problems this season-the Florida Knights/Scorpions, the Texas Regulators and the Wichita Falls Diablos/San Antonio Generals travel team. These three teams had been part of the league's South Division, which now included only the Beaumont Drillers and Conroe (TX) Storm. The Texas Regulators failed to show for a game against the Conroe Storm and an outdoor semi-pro team called the Port Arthur Hurricane played as a substitute. The Regulators have now appeared on the schedule for the Texas-based Independent Indoor Football Alliance.
⢠The Indoor Football Association: The TIFA has delayed the start of its inaugural season until next month. The league now plans to start with only four teams-the Indiana (PA) Wolverines, Indiana (Elkhart) Nightmare, Indianapolis Venom and the Lynwood (IL) Knights. Other teams called the Washington (PA) Steam, Lansing Steelkatz, Grand Rapids Thunder and Albert Lea (MN) Chill had been announced at various teams in the league's development.
HOCKEY
⢠Central Hockey League: The Corpus Christi Rayz franchise has suspended operations and will not play in the 2008-09 season. The franchise was put up for sale near the end of the season, but two prospective deals have fallen through. The Rayz started out as an expansion franchise called the Corpus Christi Ice Rays in the 1998-99 season of the Western Pro Hockey League (WPHL). The franchise became part of the CHL for the 2001-02 season when the two leagues merged. The franchise came under new ownership in December 2002 and was renamed the Corpus Christi Rayz. There has been speculation that the CHL's Austin Ice Bats franchise could move to Corpus Christi because an American Hockey League franchise is moving into the Austin market. The CHL is adding an expansion franchise called the Rapid City (SD) Rush for the 2008-09 season.
⢠ECHL: The Bakersfield Condors franchise has signed an affiliation agreement with the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League for the next two seasons. This is the Condors' first official affiliation agreement since entering the ECHL for the 2003-04 season. The Bakersfield franchise got its start as the Bakersfield Fog in the inaugural season of the West Coast Hockey League in 1995-96. The team was renamed the Condors for the 1998-99 season and joined the ECHL when the WCHL was merged into the ECHL for the 2003-04 season. Anaheim's previous ECHL affiliate was the Augusta Lynx.
⢠North American Hockey League: The new Wenatchee (WA) team in the Tier II Junior-A NAHL will be called the Wenatchee Wild. Although the Owatonna-based Southern Minnesota Express team moved to Detroit as the Motor City Machine for the 2008-09 season, the league has announced the addition of another Owatonna-based team for the 2008-09 season. This team will be a natural rival for the new Albert Lea (MN) Thunder, based about 30 miles south of Owatonna, which was previously announced as an expansion team. The Fargo-Moorhead Jets will sit out the 2008-09 season as the team looks to relocate. An expansion team called the Fargo (ND) Force will start play next season as part of the Junior-A Tier I United States Hockey League. The NAHL Fargo (ND)-Moorhead (MN) team started play back in the 2003-04 season.
SOCCER
⢠Premier Arena Soccer League: After a recent league meeting, the PASL Pro Division announced it plans to start play in October 2008 with teams playing a 16-game schedule that will end in March 2009. Each Pro Division team will be required to field an amateur team in the PASL Premier Division, which has been operating for ten years and has been the official developmental league for the Major Indoor Soccer League over the past few years. The Pro Division could have as many as 16 teams and the PASL will make that announcement next month. The Stockton Cougars, formerly the California Cougars of the MISL, will be one team. A Premier Division team called the Wenatchee (WA) Fire plans to operate a Pro Division team by the same name. Other possible markets include Dallas, Houston, Boulder (CO) and Fort Collins (CO).
⢠Major League Soccer: The Montreal Impact of the United Soccer Leagues First Division recently opened its new 13,000-seat soccer stadium. The team's ownership wants to move up to the MLS and already has plans to increase the stadium capacity to 20,000. The MLS has indicated that Montreal could be in the running for one of the league's next two expansion teams that could place the league at 18 teams by the 2012 season. Montreal would be under consideration with other interested groups in St. Louis, Vancouver, Atlanta, San Diego, Portland, Detroit and Miami.
OTHER
⢠Major Lacrosse League: The MLL plans to test potential new markets and has announced the rest of the neutral sites for the Philadelphia Barrage franchise, which does not have a home field this season. The Barrage played the Washington Bayhawks in Virginia Beach (VA) last weekend and will be the home team for upcoming games in Dallas, St. Louis, Cary (NC) and the Portland (OR) area.
⢠Western Lacrosse Association: The British Columbia-based WLA has started its 18-game Senior-A indoor lacrosse season with the same six teams as last season-the Burnaby Lakers, Coquitlam Adanacs, Langley Thunder, Maple Ridge Burrards, Nanaimo Timbermen, New Westminster Salmonbellies and Victoria Shamrocks.
⢠Major Series Lacrosse: The Ontario Lacrosse Association's MSL has started its 18-game Senior-A indoor lacrosse season with the same seven teams as last season-the Barrie Lakeshores, Brampton Excelsiors, Brooklin Redmen, Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks, Peterborough Lakers, Six Nations Chiefs and St. Regis Indians. The MSL champion meets the Western Lacrosse Association champion in a season-ending series for the Mann Cup.
Dan Krieger is the creator of "Leagues, Teams & Nicknames", which tracks the changes in league alignments, franchise movements and team nicknames in today's sports world. The latest version can be found at http://www.lulu.com/content/2533047. Dan can be contacted at dankrieger@leaguesteamsnicknames.com.
Premier Basketball League Stories from May 26, 2008
- Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
