Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
August 3, 2015 - American Indoor Football (AIF)

BASEBALL

Arizona Fall League: The AzFL, which is owned and operated by Major League Baseball, announced its 2015 schedule that will again feature six teams playing in October and November. The East Division features the Mesa Solar Sox, Salt River Rafters and Scottsdale Scorpions, while the West Division includes the Glendale Desert Dogs, Peoria Javelinas and Surprise Saguaros. Each of the six teams will feature prospects from five different MLB teams.

Frontier League: The Washington (PA) Wild Things of the independent Frontier League have filed a suit against the owner of the Kokomo (IN) Jackrabbits team in the summer-collegiate Prospect League. Back in early 2014, the Frontier League had been looking at Kokomo as a possible home to an expansion team that could replace its owner-subsidized Frontier Greys travel team. The lawsuit claims certain individuals associated with the Frontier League at the time were responsible for Kokomo eventually selecting the Prospect League, so the Frontier League lost out on an expansion market and the expansion fees.

North Country Baseball League: The Newburgh (NY) Newts of the four-team independent NCBL, which was formed after the East Coast Baseball League (ECBL) failed to get off the ground this season, became a travel-only team in June after only about three weeks of the season. The Newts played nine home games in Newburgh and were suffering from poor attendance. After the ECBL folded, the owner of the Watertown (NY) Bucks created and financed the NCBL along with the Newburgh Newts, Old Orchard Beach (ME) Surge and a Watertown-based travel team called the Road City Explorers. The new Newburgh Newts travel team is now also based out of Watertown for the remainder of the season. The city of Newburgh has had two other recent independent baseball teams. The Newburgh Nighthawks played two seasons (1995-95) in the former Northeast League and the Newburgh Black Diamonds played the 1998 season in the Atlantic League.

Ozark Pro Baseball League: It looks as though the new independent OPBL will not restart play in its inaugural season. The OPBL suspended play as of July 21, 2015 when the league organizer stated it would not continue until new financing was obtained.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): Reports surfaced this week that the National Basketball Association's Indiana Pacers are considering the purchase of the NBA D-League's Fort Wayne Mad Ants team, which would then become the Pacers' single D-League affiliate. Of the 19 current D-League teams, only the Mad Ants do not have a single affiliation with an NBA team. If an affiliation is worked out between the Mad Ants and Pacers, it is uncertain if it will be for 2015-16 or 2016-17. The NBA will also have to work out how its other 11 teams will place developing players in the D-League.

Women's National Basketball Association: Although the WNBA announced it will form a committee to study the possible addition of new teams, any expansion would be at least two years away.

American Basketball Association: The ABA announced an expansion team called the New York Court Kings, based in Queens, will be part of the 2015-16 season. Another new team called the Central Florida Marvel, based in the Orlando area, will be part of the league's 2015-16 Florida Division that will also include the returning Jacksonville Giants, Miami Midnites, Southcoast Fire (Orange Park), South Florida Gold (Coral Springs), along with the new Florida Allstars (Gainesville) and a new team known as the Native Pride.

FOOTBALL

American Indoor Football: A new indoor football team called the Triangle Torch, based in Raleigh (NC), plans to join the AIF for the 2015 season.

Arena Football Federation: The AFF is a new indoor football league trying to get off the ground in early 2016 with ten markets - Austin, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Atlanta, Little Rock, Tampa, New Orleans, Denver and Las Vegas. The Austin team is known as the Austin Armadillos.

HOCKEY

Federal Hockey League: The FHL's new team in Dayton for the 2015-16 season will be called the Dayton Demolition and it is a relocation of the Berkshire Battalion (North Adams, MA), which was a 2014-15 expansion team. The Demolition replaces the league's Dayton Demonz franchise, whose owner stopped operating the team after three seasons in the league and became involved with the expansion Port Huron Prowlers team that acquired the protected player list of the Demonz. The FHL plans to again have six teams for the 2015-16 season, but only the Danville (IL) Dashers remain unchanged. Of the remaining five other teams that finished the 2014-15 season, the Watertown (NY) Wolves dropped out for 2015-16 due to arena renovations; the Danbury (CT) Whalers withdrew due to problems obtaining a suitable arena lease; the Steel City Warriors (Belle Vernon, PA) folded; the Berkshire Battalion moved to Dayton; and the Dayton Demonz ceased operations with many of its players moving to the expansion Port Huron Prowlers. In addition to the new Port Huron team, the league added the Berlin (NH) RiverDrivers, Danbury Titans and Brewster (NY) Bulldogs, which were originally called the Stateline Warriors, for the 2015-16 season.

ECHL: The ECHL league owners voted unanimously for its 28 teams to have only single affiliations for the 2015-16 season to allow more of their teams to have affiliations. Of the 28 teams in the 2014-15 season, six teams had dual affiliations with National Hockey League and American Hockey League teams while four teams operated as independents with no affiliations. The ECHL would like to eventually grow to 30 teams to match the number of teams in the NHL and AHL.

Western Hockey League: A developer wants to build a new 5,000-seat arena in the city of Nanaimo (British Columbia) on Vancouver Island with hopes of relocating a current major-junior WHL team to the city. The 22-team league is not planning on expansion in the near future so a team would need to come through relocation. The league's Cranbrook-based Kootenay Ice team has been mentioned as a possible relocation candidate. The city has a current Junior-A British Columbia Hockey League team called the Nanaimo Clippers that is up for sale. A new WHL team in Nanaimo would be a natural rival for the league's Victoria Royals team that is also located on Vancouver Island.

SOCCER

United Soccer League: The Reno Aces baseball team in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League is looking to obtain a USL franchise that could start playing at the Aces' baseball stadium for the USL's 2017 season.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Leagues, Teams & Nicknames 2013-14: "The Leagueology Almanac" , which tracks the changes in league alignments, franchise movements and team nicknames in today's sports world. The publication is currently available at www.amazon.com.

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