Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on September 15, 2008 under Golden Baseball League (GBL)


BASEBALL

United League Baseball: The current operators of the ULB were apparently planning to transfer the Amarillo Dillas and San Angelo Colts franchises to the Golden Baseball League and shut down the remaining four teams in Laredo, Harlingen, Edinburg and Alexandria (LA). Two of the league's original founders, who resigned after the league's inaugural season in 2006 and arranged a settlement agreement with the current operators, have been granted an injunction to halt the proposed changes regarding ULB teams. One aspect of their settlement agreement included rights to a future ULB franchise in North Central Texas that would be affected by the dissolution of the league.

Canadian-American League: The owner of the Nashua (NH) Pride in the Can-Am League is reportedly close to selling the team to a group that wants to keep it in Nashua. The owner planned to dissolve the franchise if a new owner was not found. The league recently lost the North Shore Spirit in Lynn (MA) and the New Haven (CT) County Cutters after the 2007 season. The Can-Am League hopes to eventually add another Canadian team in Montreal to go with its Ottawa and Quebec teams.

International League: Construction on the new ballpark in Gwinnett County (GA) for the Gwinnett Braves, formerly the Richmond Braves, is proceeding and it will apparently open on time in April 2009.

BASKETBALL

Continental Basketball Association: After a fairly successful season-ticket drive, the Albany Patroons announced the team will be returning to the CBA for the 2008-09 season. The league currently has five of ten teams returning from last season-the Albany Patroons, East Kentucky Miners, Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry, Minot (SD) Skyrockets and Pittsburgh Xplosion.

American Basketball Association: The ABA confirmed that the Kansas City Spartans team will compete in the 2008-09 season. The city had a previous ABA team called the Kansas City Knights. The ABA has announced a second team in West Virginia for the 2008-09 season called the West Virginia Outlaws, based in Charleston (WV). The league previously announced that a team called the West Virginia Blazers, based in Bluefield (WV), would also start play in the 2008-09 season.

United Basketball League: The UBL recently held an owners' meeting and hopes to have 12 teams to start the 2009 season.

Americas Basketball International: The proposed ABI is a subsidiary league under the FIBA Americas governing body. One of the ABI's proposed teams was the Birmingham (AL) Gladiators. The ABI now lists several teams that are "coming soon"-Monarchs, Panthers, Wolfpack, Pirates, Cougars, Boilers and Reign.

Next Level Basketball Association: The NLBA is a semi-pro basketball league trying to start in April 2009 with conferences in Georgia and surrounding states. The league was originally planning to start in April 2008 with a Georgia Conference based in Macon and a South Carolina Conference based in Orangeburg.

Mississippi Basketball Exposure League: The MBEL first-season standings had teams playing 12-14 games in July and August. Nine teams were listed in the standings-Assault, Bulls, Jam, Knights, Legends, Raiders, Stallions A, Stallions B and Warriors.

FOOTBALL

Indoor Football League: The new 17-team IFL, which was created by the merger of United Indoor Football and the Intense Football League, plans to add four existing teams and one new franchise for its 2009 season. Four teams from the 2008 Continental Indoor Football League season-the Lehigh Valley Outlawz, Muskegon Thunder, Rochester Raiders and Saginaw Sting-will join the IFL. The fifth team will be the IFL's first expansion team called the Maryland Maniacs and based in Upper Marlboro (MD). The CIFL had a team called the Chesapeake Tide in Upper Marlboro during the 2008 season. That franchise came under new ownership and was originally thought to be returning to the CIFL. The Rochester Raiders left the CIFL at the end of the 2008 season and had planned to join the American Indoor Football Association. The CIFL plays seven-on-seven football, while the IFL plays with eight aside. There has been talk of teams from other leagues switching to the IFL and possible IFL expansion into the Northwest with the Washington cities of Kent, Everett and Wenatchee being mentioned.

United States Football League: The proposed springtime USFL, which plans to start in 2010, has announced 9 of its proposed 12 team locations. The Northwest Division will include Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Portland, San Antonio and San Jose. The one open spot could go to Houston, Dallas or Salt Lake City. The South-East Division includes Orlando, Little Rock, New York (West Point) and Baton Rouge. The remaining two spots could be filled by Cincinnati, Memphis, Mississippi, New Jersey or Alabama.

National Football League: An investor trying to build a new football stadium in Los Angeles for a relocated NFL franchise has received an environmental impact report for a proposed site in the City of Industry. The report ranked the site above other possible stadium sites that had been considered like the Rose Bowl, the Coliseum and a parking lot next to Angel Stadium. The San Diego Chargers have been considered one of the candidates for a move to Los Angeles.

HOCKEY

International Hockey League: The IHL's Muskegon Fury franchise has come under new ownership and the team has been renamed the Muskegon Lumberjacks. A team called the Muskegon Lumberjacks (1984-1992) was part of a previous league called the IHL (1946-2001), but that team moved to Cleveland. The Muskegon Fury franchise has been around since 1992 when it joined the Colonial Hockey League, which became the United Hockey League in 1997 and morphed into the current version of the IHL last season.

Major League Roller Hockey: The MLRH has announced the creation of a new made-for-TV roller hockey league called the Slamm Hockey League that will debut in January 2009. Games in the new co-ed league will feature alternating lines of male and female players in full-contact roller hockey. The league is expected to have six teams playing between January and April 2009. The MLRH also plans to televise games for its new MLRH Pro Tour, which is a precursor to the development of a full professional roller hockey league. The MLRH Pro Tour is also expected to start in January 2009 with six to eight teams playing weekend games in current MLRH cities and other neutral sites. It will feature a four-team championship series in April.

American Inline Hockey League: The newly formed AIHL currently has 30 potential teams listed for its Major Division in 2008-09. Many of these clubs left the Professional Inline Hockey Association after its 2007-08 season. Several new team names have appeared on the AIHL team listing, such as the Garden State Savage Wolves, Georgia Syndicate, Maryland Crusaders, Massachusetts Rolling Mulissha, New Jersey Surge, New Jersey Nightmare, Northern California Riot, Oakland Good Life, Philadelphia Fallen Angels, South Hampton Cyclones, Steel City Phantoms, Suffolk Sharks, Team Richmond and Virginia Generals.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: The owner of the Ottawa Senators in the National Hockey League is expected to announce plans for a soccer-specific stadium in Ottawa that could become home to an MLS expansion franchise. Major League Baseball's New York Mets are reportedly interested in an MLS expansion franchise for New York City. The MLS currently has 14 teams and wants to expand by four teams in the next three years. Two of these teams in Philadelphia and Seattle have been announced. Other groups in Vancouver, Montreal, St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami, Portland and Las Vegas are interested in an MLS expansion team.

Women's Professional Soccer: When the WPS was in its initial planning stages, a group of investors was trying to develop a San Diego franchise as the league's eighth team. Apparently, these plans have fallen through and no one currently owns the rights to the San Diego market. The San Diego Spirit played in all three seasons (2001-03) of the former version of the women's pro soccer league known as the Women's United Soccer Association. The New York/New Jersey WPS team announced its official team name will be Sky Blue FC. The team will play games on the campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway (NJ) when the league starts play in April 2009.

National Indoor Soccer League: The new five-team NISL has been formed with four clubs from last season's Major Indoor Soccer League-the Baltimore Blast, Monterrey (Mexico) La Raza, Orlando Sharks and Philadelphia Kixx. The fifth team is the Rockford Rampage, which was champion of the 2007-08 semi-pro American Indoor Soccer League. The NISL will not operate under the single-entity model like the former MISL. This completes the break-up of the nine-team 2007-08 MISL. Four other MISL teams-the New Jersey Ironmen, Detroit Ignition, Chicago Storm and Milwaukee Wave-have formed the new Xtreme Soccer League that features a single-entity ownership model. The MISL's ninth club, the Stockton-based California Cougars, has joined the new Professional Arena Soccer League. The new NISL will be affiliated with the outdoor United Soccer Leagues organization.

American Indoor Soccer League: The semi-pro AISL has lost the Rockford Rampage to the new National Indoor Soccer League and now the league's Cincinnati Excite team has decided to go dormant for the upcoming 2008-09 season. The three other AISL clubs from last season were the Tulsa Revolution, Northern Illinois Rebels and Massachusetts Twisters. Rockford had joined the AISL as the Thunder in 2006-07 and became the Rampage last season. Cincinnati has been in the league since the 2004-05 season.

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.

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Golden Baseball League Stories from September 15, 2008


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.


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