Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
August 24, 2015 - Champions Indoor Football (CIF)
BASEBALL
International League: A proposed stadium in Providence (RI) that is hoped to become the new home for the Pawtucket (RI) Red Sox of the Triple-A International League will most likely be delayed. Lawmakers are not expected to discuss a revised stadium proposal until January 2016.
Ozarks Professional Baseball League: A new ownership group has purchased the Price Cutter Park baseball stadium in Ozark (MO) where organizers of the independent OPBL had hoped to have its six teams based this season. The OPBL, which had been in negotiations to purchase the stadium, ended up playing some games in July at other locations before shutting down for the season. Another league called the Heartland of America Baseball League, which never started play in 2015, had also been in negotiations with the owner of Price Cutter Park to have it become home for a proposed ten teams. It is uncertain as to whether the stadium will be used for professional, semi-pro or amateur baseball next season.
Great West League: The new Lodi (CA) team in the summer-collegiate GWL will be called the Lodi Crushers when the league starts its inaugural season in 2016. The league plans to have teams in Oregon and California with previous teams called the Portland Pickles and Chico (CA) Heat already announced.
Upper Midwest Summer Collegiate League: A group in Columbus (NE) is trying to form a team that would be part of a yet-to-be-named proposed summer collegiate baseball league with teams in Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming.
BASKETBALL
National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The D-League's Mississauga-based Raptors 905 team, the new D-League affiliate of the NBA's Toronto Raptors, held its expansion draft this week. The Raptors 905 will be the league's 19th team when it starts play in the 2015-16 season.
East Coast Basketball League: The ECBL has announced the addition of two teams for its 2016 season. The Petersburg (VA) Revolution is now listed as part of the league's Northern Division, while the South Carolina Upstate Redhawks (Greenville) are listed in the Southern Division. The Redhawks have played exhibition games against teams from the ECBL and other leagues. The ECBL completed its inaugural springtime season in 2015 with ten teams located throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
American Basketball Association: The ABA announced a couple more new teams called Puro Money, based in Crystal City (TX), and the Buckeye Show, based in Columbus (OH), will be part of the 2015-16 season. After playing three seasons as a travel team, the league's Dallas-based Metroplex Lightning team will become a full ABA member for the 2015-16 season. The ABA also announced it will operate the ABA Summer Pro Basketball League in 2016.
Central Basketball Development League: The CBDL reports that a team to be based in Nashville (TN) has expressed interest in the league for the 2016 season.
FOOTBALL
Champions Indoor Football: The Bloomington (IL) Edge, which played the 2015 season as part of X-League Indoor Football, is moving to the CIF for the 2016 season. The Bloomington Edge started its history as the Bloomington Extreme playing three seasons (2006-08) in the United Indoor Football (UIF). After the UIF merged with the Intense Football League to form the Indoor Football League, Bloomington was part of the IFL for the next four seasons (2009-12) with a nickname change to the Edge for the 2012 season. The Bloomington Edge played the next two seasons (2013-14) as part of the Champions Professional Indoor Football League before moving to the X-League.
Indoor Football League: The Bemidji (MN) Axemen franchise will be entering its third season as part of the IFL in 2016 and new team management is considering a name change to the Minnesota Axemen. The IFL's expansion board has apparently approved the Spokane Shock as a 2016 expansion team, if Spokane ownership decides to leave the Arena Football League.
HOCKEY
North American Hockey League: The Tier-II junior-level NAHL is reported to be talking with potential ownership groups about establishing a future expansion team in Eau Claire (WI). The NAHL's 2015-16 Midwest Division currently has two Wisconsin-based teams in Janesville and Onalaska.
United States Premier Hockey League "" Midwest Division: The Ironwood (MI) Fighting Yoopers team has dropped out of the new USPHL Tier-III Midwest Division. The Yoopers joined the Tier-III Minnesota Junior Hockey League (MnJHL) as a new team for the 2014-15 and had planned to be part of the USPHL's new Midwest Division, which was a merger of the MnJHL and the Midwest Junior Hockey League for the 2015-16 season.
Northern Pacific Hockey League: A new team called the Seattle Ravens, based in Kent (WA), will be the seventh team in the Tier-III junior-level NPHL for the 2015-16 season. The NPHL operated with six teams last season - five in Washington and one in Oregon. A team called the Seattle Totems last played in the league for the 2011-12 season.
Junior Women's Hockey League: The JWHL is growing to 11 teams for the 2015-16 season with the addition of a team from the Canadian International Hockey Academy in Ottawa (Ontario). The CIHA team will join the four U.S.-based teams in Boston, Denver, Washington (DC) and Stowe (VT) for a five-team division. The six other teams are located in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.
National Hockey League: Las Vegas and Quebec City have moved to the third stage in the NHL expansion process and after that stage it would then be up to the board of governors to award franchises. The league is not expected to expand until at least the 2017-18 season.
SOCCER
Professional Futsal League: The proposed PFL plans to start an exhibition season in 2016 with a Premier Division for teams in larger markets and a Championship Division for teams in mid-sized markets. The inaugural PFL season will start play with both divisions in 2017. All franchise owners accepted by November 1, 2015 will host a PFL event in the 2016 exhibition season and participate in the 2017 season.
Major League Futsal USA: The new MLF USA started this summer with over 20 professional futsal teams from the United States, Canada and Mexico playing in various Central, Eastern and Western regional weekend events from late May through late September. All teams are considered at the Second Division tier for this season and will move up to the First Division as the league competes with two divisions in 2016. The league plans to eventually have a 20-team First Division and 24-team Second and Third divisions with relegation and promotion among the divisions after each season. An MLF Women's Professional League plans to start play in 2016. The MLF USA is affiliated with the U.S Futsal Pro division and U.S. Soccer and plays under international FIFA Futsal rules. Eventual plans are for both a men's and women's MLF Super-Liga with a unified professional league representing North, South and Central American Conferences.
Liga Mexicana de Futbol Rapido: Mexico's professional indoor soccer league known as the LMFR started its 2015 season late last month with ten teams aligned into two conferences - the Conferencia Norte (North) with a five-team Zona Noreste (Northeastern) and the Conferencia Sur (South) with a five-team Zona Occidente (West). The Zona Noreste teams play a ten-game season through September and the Zona Occidente teams play an eight-game season through September.
OTHER
Arena Lacrosse League: The proposed summertime ALL cancelled its 2015 Showcase Tour that was to involve ten cities across the United States this summer. The ALL plans to become a developmental league for elite-level players to include current collegiate players, along with some college graduates and non-collegiate players. The league wanted to start with a Showcase Tour in 2015 with its inaugural season starting in 2016. The ALL hoped to use minor league hockey arenas in the United States.
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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Champions Indoor Football Stories from August 24, 2015
- Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger
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