G League NBA G League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on November 22, 2010 under NBA G League (G League)


BASEBALL

Pacific Coast League: The Omaha Royals of the Triple-A PCL have changed their name to the Omaha Storm Chasers, as the team moves into its new Sarpy County ballpark in 2011.

North American League: The Golden Baseball League, the Northern League, and United League Baseball have combined to form the new North American League for the upcoming 2011 season. Each of the three leagues will keep their names and cover their respective geographic regions. Teams will play most of their games within their own region. The NAL plans to have 16 to 20 teams throughout the United States and Canada with specifics to be announced after a league meeting early next month. City officials in Joliet (IL), which controls the ballpark lease for the Northern League's Joliet JackHammers, are pushing for club to join the Frontier League and will attend the Frontier League's meeting next week. The JackHammers are currently in the process of being sold.

Atlantic Baseball League: Nassau County (NY) wants to break ground on a new ballpark by the spring of 2012 and was in talks with the ABL about a second team on Long Island. The ABL currently has the Long Island Ducks in nearby Suffolk County. Plans for a Nassau County ballpark and a possible ABL team had been talked about back in 2006-07.

American Association: The city of Topeka has extended an arrangement with Ventura Sports Group, which owns the El Paso Diablos and Grand Prairie (TX) AirHogs of the AA, to work on bringing a new ballpark and baseball team to the city, most likely in the AA. The group has been working on other ballpark projects in Montgomery County (TX), Laredo (TX), and Brighton (CO).

New York Collegiate Baseball League: After recently losing seven teams to the new Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League in 2011, the NYCBL has announced the addition of five teams-the Utica Brewers, Sherrill Silversmiths, Syracuse Salt Cats, and Rome Thunderbolts from the Eastern Collegiate Baseball League, along with another team called the Syracuse Junior Chiefs. These five teams will join the league's Oneonta Outlaws to create the 2011 East Division. Six other returning NYCBL teams will comprise the 2011 West Division.

Far West League: The Pacific West Baseball League and the West Coast League (Tri-State) will merge for the upcoming 2011 summer collegiate baseball season into the new 11-team Far West League. Four teams from each league, plus three new teams, are expected to participate in the league's first season .

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association Development League: The NBA D-League has started its 2010-11 season with a seven-team Eastern Conference and a nine-team Western Conference. The only changes from last season were in the Western Conference. The new Frisco-based Texas Legends replaced the Los Angeles D-Fenders team, which decided to sit out the 2010-11 season. The Legends franchise is the former Colorado 14ers (Broomfield) franchise that last played in 2008-09 before moving to Frisco and sitting out last season. Also in the Western Conference, the Albuquerque Thunderbirds became the New Mexico Thunderbirds for 2010-11.

International Basketball League: The IBL has started its first Midwest Winter Season with four teams-the Battle Creek (MI) Knights, Great Lakes All Stars, Kankakee (IL) Soldiers, and the South Shore Splash (Gary, IN). The IBL will continue to play its spring/summer season that has been around since 2005. Kankakee is the only team that will play full schedules in both the winter and spring/summer seasons.

American Basketball Association: New 2011-12 ABA teams in Rockford (IL) and Memphis will be called the Rockford Riverdawgs and the Bluff City Reign, respectively. Another new ABA team called the Missouri Rhythm (Kansas City) will play a few games in the 2010-11 season, but will start a full schedule in the 2011-12 season. The ABA plans to add a team in Colorado Springs for its 2011-12 season as part of a proposed Rocky Mountain Division that would include the league's Denver-based Colorado Kings. The ABA had a team called the Colorado Springs Storm planned for its 2004-05 season, but the team moved to Denver before the season and became the Colorado Storm.

FOOTBALL

Southern Indoor Football League: The SIFL has announced the 2011 schedule for its 16 teams that will be aligned into five divisions. The Eastern Conference features the Northeast with the still-to-be-named Erie team, the Harrisburg Stampede, and the Trenton Steel; the Mid-Atlantic with the Carolina Speed, Fayetteville Guard, and Richmond Raiders; and the South with the Alabama Hammers (Huntsville), Albany Panthers, and Columbus Lions. The Western Conference features the Gulf with the Lafayette Wildcatters, Louisiana Swashbucklers (Lake Charles), and Mobile Bay Tarpons; and the Southwest with the Texas-based Abilene Ruff Riders, Corpus Christi Hammerheads, Houston Stallions, and Rio Grande Valley Magic (Hildago). The 12-game regular season runs from mid-March to mid-June 2011.

American Indoor Football Association West: The AIFA West plans to start its 2011 season with four teams-the Reno (NV) Barons, Yakima Valley (WA) Warriors, Stockton (CA) Wolves, and a yet-to-be-named team in Oregon. Last season's San Jose Wolves moved to Stockton and the team is finalizing an arena lease. The specifics about the new Oregon team will be announced in the next two weeks. The Tucson ThunderKats were to be a fifth AIFA West team, but ownership issues have forced the team to sit out the 2011 season and possibly try again in 2012.

HOCKEY

All American Hockey League: The AAHL announced that it has assumed control of the Wooster (OH) Korn Kings franchise and has shut down the club's operations. The league standings had the Korn Kings with a 2-3 record. The Korn Kings were put together at the last minute when the league's proposed expansion franchise called the Madison (WI) Ice Muskies failed to get of the ground and was moved to Wooster at the start of the 2010-11 season.

American Hockey League: When the Hartford Wolf Pack returns home on November 27 after a current road trip, the franchise will officially be introduced as the Connecticut Whale. The name change is part of a shift in business operations for the franchise. The new name pays homage to the city's former National Hockey League franchise called the Hartford Whalers.

Major League Roller Hockey: The MLRH Midwest Pro Division has started its 2010-11 season and has four teams listed-the Chicago Roller Snakes, Chi-Town Shamrocks, Grand Rapids Villains, and Great Lakes Wave. The Pacific Pro Division now has seven teams with the addition of the Revision Vanquish. The Atlantic Pro Division started play this weekend and has five teams listed-the DC Filibusters, Maryland Crush, New Jersey Rockers, Pennsylvania Blackout, and Virginia Wings.

SOCCER

United Soccer Leagues PRO: The USL PRO league has announced the addition of the FC New York team for its inaugural 2011 season. The team is based in Garden City (NY) and will play on the campus of Hofstra University. The league plans to have 16 teams in 2011 with additional teams to be announced in the next few weeks.

United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League: The Real Maryland FC Monarchs soccer club has announced it will move down a level and play in the PDL for the 2011 season. The Monarchs had been part of the USL Second Division for the past three seasons (2008-10), but the USL combined its First Division and Second Division leagues to create the USL PRO league for 2011. The USL also announced that a team in Louisville (KY) called the River City Rovers will start play in the 2011 PDL. After two seasons (2009-10) in the PDL, the Rochester (MN) Thunder will not return for the 2011 season.

Major League Soccer: The Kansas City Wizards of the MLS have changed their name to Sporting Kansas City to coincide with its move to a new stadium next year. The team was called the Kansas City Wiz during the league's inaugural 1996 season, but changed to the Wizards the following season. The MLS plans to restart its Reserve Division for the 2011 season. The league's previous Reserve Division operated for four seasons (2005-08). Each MLS team is expected to field a team in the Reserve Division, which will serve as a developmental league and allow younger players to practice with the top-level MLS team. The new Reserve Division team will feature three regions of six teams with each team playing the other five in its group twice for a total of ten games. The MLS is considering the addition of a second New York City area team, which could be called the New York Cosmos, as its 20th franchise for the 2013 season. Montreal will join the MLS in 2012 as the league's 19th team. The league is also talking to a group in Atlanta and there has been interest for an MLS team in other cities like Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and San Diego. The league is considering the elimination of its conferences and switching to a European-style alignment with all teams in a single-table format for its standings.

Women's Professional Soccer: The Bay Area-based FC Gold Pride, which won the WPS championship in 2010, has folded after two seasons because the club was unable to find investors for the 2011 season. The WPS announced that six teams-the Atlanta Beat, Boston Breakers, Philadelphia Independence, Sky Blue FC (New Jersey), Washington (DC) Freedom, and the expansion team in Western New York-have all met league requirements for the 2011 season. The league granted an extension to the Chicago Red Stars until December 15 to secure funding for the 2011 season. The Bay Area had the Bay Area CyberRays (2001) and San Jose CyberRays (2002-03) in the previous women's pro soccer league known as the Women's United Soccer Association, which folded after three seasons.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Leagueology™ almanac known as "Leagues, Teams & Nicknames", which tracks the changes in league alignments, franchise movements and team nicknames in today's sports world. The latest 2009-10 edition is available at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/leagues-teams-nicknames-2009-10/6534940. Dan can be contacted at dankrieger@leaguesteamsnicknames.com.

Check out the NBA G League Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



NBA G League Stories from November 22, 2010


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.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central