Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on June 15, 2009 under Continental Basketball Association 1 (CBA 1)

BASEBALL

Atlantic Baseball League: A group has proposed renovation plans for the baseball stadium in Richmond (VA) for either an affiliated or independent team. Since one member of the group has ties to the ABL, there has been speculation that an independent ABL franchise will be established in Richmond. Minor League Baseball has stated that an affiliated Double-A Eastern League club will eventually call Richmond home next season, even though a proposed sale of the affiliated Connecticut Defenders recently fell through. With plans to build a new ballpark in Loudoun County (VA) for an ABL franchise in 2011, there has been speculation a current ABL franchise could be moved or the dormant Atlantic City Surf franchise could be reactivated and relocated.

Arizona Rookie League: The AzL has increased to 11 teams for its 2009 season that starts this month with the addition of the Dodgers and the Indians organizations, both of which had rookie-level clubs in the 2008 Gulf Coast League. The AzL will be split into two divisions in 2009. The East includes the Angels, Athletics, Brewers, Cubs and Giants. The West has the Dodgers, Indians, Mariners, Padres, Rangers and Royals.

BASKETBALL

Continental Basketball Association: It does not appear that the CBA will be playing a 2009-10 season. When the league cancelled the last month of its 2008-09 season, there were four remaining teams. Since that time two of the teams, the Minot (SD) Skyrockets and East Kentucky Miners, have disbanded. Another team, the Lawton-Fort Sill (OK) Cavalry, plans to join the Premier Basketball League. The PBL and the American Basketball Association appear to be the only options for the last remaining CBA team, the Albany Patroons, but a decision has yet to be made for the 2009-10 season.

America Basketball Association: The new Columbus (GA) ABA franchise will be called the Columbus Life when it starts play in the 2009-10 season as part of the Southeast Division. The ABA has also added a new franchise called the Orlando Tropics to the Southeast Division for the 2009-10 season. An ABA team called the Orlando Aces, originally called the Orlando Orange Men, played in the 2006-07 season and one game in the 2007-08 season before the franchise was moved to Las Vegas. The league had a team called the Miami Tropics that played in the 2006-07 season and a proposed team for the 2007-08 season called the Flint Tropics.

FOOTBALL

Continental Indoor Football League: The league's Fort Wayne Freedom franchise will need financial assistance in order to play an upcoming playoff game. The Freedom went into receivership earlier this season and has had to rely on outside financial support to pay players and expenses.

Southern Indoor Football League: The Texas Crunch from the Independent Indoor Football Alliance has played two of its four scheduled games against teams from the SIFL. The Crunch was added as a fill-in team for the SIFL's departed Florida Kings franchise.

American Professional Football League: The indoor semi-pro APFL has scheduled games against teams from the outdoor eight-man Central Plains Football League during the 2009 season. Some of the six APFL teams have played "non-conference" games against the CPFL's Mid-Missouri Outlaws (Sedalia), Junction City (KS) Tigers and Missouri Mustangs (Liberty).

Arena Football League: Since there have been no recent announcements on the proposed return of the AFL in 2010, doubts are being raised as to whether the league will actually return as planned and it might have to wait until the 2011 season.

Women's Football Alliance: The first-year WFA, which was created from several teams of the former National Women's Football Association, originally had 36 teams aligned into 9 regional divisions. The league removed the Oklahoma City Lightning and West Virginia WildKats from the alignment, combined a couple of its former three-team divisions, and has 34 teams aligned into a three-division National Conference and a four-division American Conference. Some of the teams like the Connecticut Cyclones, Marana (AZ) She-Devils and East Texas Saberkats (Lodi) have had to forfeit most of the games on their 2009 schedules. The WFA has several proposed 2010 teams listed: the West Virginia Bruisers, Bay Area Bandits, Oklahoma Lighting, Empire State Roar and Kentucky Valkyries.

HOCKEY

International Hockey League: The IHL has officially added the Dayton Gems expansion franchise as its sixth team for the upcoming 2009-10 season. Dayton replaces the Kalamazoo Wings franchise that withdrew from the two-year-old IHL after the 2008-09 season. The Dayton market became available when the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL decided to sit out the 2009-10 season. The team name comes from a previous Dayton Gems (1960-84) team that was part of the original IHL that operated from 1946 to 2001.

ECHL: The ECHL has approved the expansion application of the Kalamazoo (MI) Wings franchise, which had been part of the International Hockey League (2007-09). The Wings will be part of the ECHL's American Conference North Division. The Kalamazoo Wings started as a 1974-75 expansion franchise in the original IHL, became the Michigan K-Wings in 1995 and left the IHL after the 1999-2000 season. A Kalamazoo Wings team entered the United Hockey League the following 2000-01 season when the Madison (WI) Kodiaks moved to Kalamazoo. The Wings played in the UHL through the 2006-07 season until that league was reorganized as the current version of the IHL for the 2007-08 season. The owner of the dormant Dayton Bombers franchise is still making plans to return to the ECHL for the 2010-11 season despite the announcement of the new Dayton Gems IHL franchise for 2009-10.

Central Hockey League: The CHL recently completed its annual summer meeting. Although the league will add two new teams in Allen (TX) and Independence (MO) for the 2009-10 season, there is still uncertainty about the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs and the Rocky Mountain Rage (Broomfield, CO) for the upcoming season. The Mudbugs owner has been trying to sell the franchise and reportedly has an offer that will need league approval.

Southern Professional Hockey League: The SPHL held a dispersal draft of players from its Richmond Renegades and Twin City Cyclones (Winston-Salem) franchises that dropped out after the 2008-09 season. Players were assigned to the league's three new teams planned for 2009-10 in Lafayette (LA), Biloxi (MI) and Pensacola (FL).

SOCCER

Regional Indoor Soccer League: The new professional RISL, based in Portland (OR), plans to start play in November 2010 with teams split into at least four regions to minimize travel costs. The league plans to sponsor some exhibition games to create interest and test various markets. The current list of 20 proposed RISL franchises includes: Albuquerque Storm, Atlanta Phantoms, Chicago Challengers, Columbus Rage, Denver Fever, Detroit Racers, D.C. Mavericks, Houston Spirit, Miami Quicksilver, Minneapolis Strikers, Nashville Blaze, New England Brigade, Orlando Toros, Phoenix Stars, Portland Force, Sacramento Express, St. Louis Sting, Salt Lake City Avalanche, San Jose Flames and Seattle Wings.

Professional Arena Soccer League: The Pikes Peak FK Cavalry, which is based in Monument (CO) and a member of the PASL Premier summer season, plans to operate a PASL Pro league franchise when that league's second season starts in November 2009. The Pikes Peak FK club started play in the 2008-09 winter season of the PASL Premier league.

OTHER

World TeamTennis: The New York Sportimes franchise, which has been based out of the town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County since 2003, will be moving to a new 2,000-seat facility on Randalls Island in New York City for its 2009 WTT season. This franchise evolved from the former New York Hamptons team that was based on eastern Long Island for three seasons (2000-02).

National Lacrosse League: The NLL has reportedly extended its deadline for relocation applications until June 15. The Portland LumberJax, New York Titans and San Jose Stealth are considered as relocation candidates. The LumberJax was the only team that officially announced it would not return to Portland next season.

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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 2008-09 version can be found at http://www.lulu.com/content/6218580. Dan can be contacted at dankrieger@leaguesteamsnicknames.com.

Continental Basketball Association 1 Stories from June 15, 2009

• 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.