Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
May 4, 2015 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)

BASEBALL

Eastern League: The ownership of the Wilmington (DE) Blue Rocks in the high Class-A Carolina League thought they had an agreement with the Binghamton (NY) Mets of the Double-A Eastern League to purchase the Double-A team, which would then be moved to Wilmington. The courts have gotten involved and the Binghamton Mets can continue to negotiate with other prospective buyers, but are prohibited from selling the Double-A franchise until the Blue Rocks' breach of contract dispute is ruled upon. The Binghamton Mets claim they have another buyer willing to keep the team in Binghamton. Once the sale of the Binghamton Mets to the Wilmington Blue Rocks ownership went through, the Blue Rocks planned to sell its Carolina League franchise to Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers, who planned to move the franchise to Kinston (NC). Kinston previously had the long-time Kinston Indians team in the Carolina League, but that team moved to Zebulon (NC) to become the Carolina Mudcats for the 2012 season.

South Atlantic League (SALLY): The owner of the Hagerstown (MD) Suns in the low Class-A SALLY backed out of deal last year with a developer to build a ballpark in Fredericksburg (VA) and relocate the team. The Suns' owner has now expressed interest in moving to just outside Fredericksburg in Spotsylvania County, where officials are considering plans to build a new ballpark for the Suns. The SALLY started its 2015 season last month with the same 14 teams aligned into 7-team Northern and Southern divisions. Its low Class-A counterpart, the 16-team Midwest League, also started its 2015 season last month with 8-team Eastern and Western divisions. The Midwest League's South Bend Silver Hawks became an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs in the off-season and were renamed the South Bend Cubs for 2015.

Heartland of America Independent Baseball League: The new Heartland of America league plans to start play in June 2015 with ten teams playing out of Price Cutter Park in Ozark (MO), just south of Springfield. The ballpark was previously home to Springfield/Ozark Mountain Ducks independent teams that were part of the Texas-Louisiana League, Central Baseball League and Frontier League. Teams in the Heartland of America league will represent six Missouri cities (Ozark, Nixa, Springfield, Branson, Joplin/Carthage and Lebanon) and four Arkansas cities (Bentonville, Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers). The league will play 90 games over 100 days with doubleheaders involving four teams. The other six teams not involved in the doubleheaders will barnstorm to play at other college and high school ballparks in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Heartland of America players will be under the age of 26 and the league plans to hold name-the-team contests for its teams.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association plan to purchase its own NBA D-League team that could start in the 2015-16 or 2016-17 season. It is uncertain if the team would be based in Canada or in nearby New York State.

Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional-Femenil: Mexico's LNBP-Femenil, which is affiliated with the country's top men's basketball league called the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional, started its second season last month with ten teams. The league had ten teams last season, but lost six teams and added six other teams for the 2015 season that runs from mid-April to late June.

Liga Premier de Baloncesto: The LPB, which is a new developmental basketball league for Mexico's top professional Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP), started its inaugural 2015 season that runs from late February through May 2015. The league has a total of seven teams - six based in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and one in the Mexican state of Zacatecas.

American Basketball Association: The ABA announced new expansion teams called the Colorado Cougars (Loveland), Tucson Buckets and West Virginia Wildcatz (Fairmont/Morgantown) have been added to the league.

Women's Blue Chip Basketball League: The WBCBL, which is billed as the premier professional development league for women, started its 11th spring-summer season. For 2015, the league has 43 teams, including 4 travel teams, aligned into 8 regional divisions across the United States and Canada. The WBCBL season runs from mid-April to late July.

FOOTBALL

National Pro-Indoor Football: The new NPIF, which is part of the organization called North American Indoor Football, announced the addition of the Mile High Menace (Denver) team to the league for the 2016 season.

Women's Spring Football League: The 11-player full-contact WSFL and its 8-player counterpart called the Women's Eights Football League (W8FL) started their 2015 seasons last month. Since its start in 2010, the WSFL has had various teams come and go during the season. The WSFL started 2015 with a seven-team Northern Division and a six-team Southern Division, while the W8FL division has five teams.

HOCKEY

Federal Hockey League: The Watertown Wolves of the FHL might be without a home arena for next season due to renovations that might not be completed until January 2016. The team's owner stated it would be hard to move the team for a season. The team will make a decision on next season once it receives an official completion date on the renovations.

North American Hockey League: The Tier-II junior-level NAHL announced a Pennsylvania-based team called the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights has been granted membership for the 2015-16 season. The Knights organization has operated a Tier-III team the past few seasons as part of the Tier-III Eastern Hockey League. The NAHL Knights are expected to purchase the NAHL's dormant Dawson Creek Rage (British Columbia) franchise. The Dawson Creek Rage played two seasons (2010-12) in the NAHL and went dormant after failing in an attempt to join Canada's Junior-A Alberta Junior Hockey League.

United States Premier Hockey League: The USPHL, which operated three separate Tier-III junior-level leagues called the USPHL Premier Division, USPHL Elite Division and USPHL Empire Division for the 2014-15 season, announced a new team called the Charlotte (NC) Rush will operate teams in the USPHL Elite Division and the USPHL 3 (previously the Empire Division) for the 2015-16 season.

SOCCER

North American Soccer League: The commissioner of the Division-II NASL stated that a prospective ownership group from Hartford (CT) has expressed interest in the league. The 11-team NASL would like to expand to 18 or 20 teams and currently has only one team, the New York Cosmos, based in the Northeast. A pro soccer team called the Hartford Bicentennials played two seasons (1975-76) as part of the former top professional soccer league also known as the NASL. That team moved to New Haven and became the Connecticut Bicentennials for the 1977 season.

American Soccer League: The developmental professional ASL, which played the fall portion of its 2014-15 season from late August to early November 2014 with eight teams based in the Northeast, started the spring portion of the 2014-15 season early last month. The Newark-based Ironbound Soul was dropped by the league for the spring season, but all of the other seven teams from the fall season have returned. The league states it has additional future Northeast teams secured for Connecticut, Long Island (NY) and Lancaster (PA) and plans to add teams in the Southeast. The league is trying to start an ASL2 and a women's league in the summer of 2015.

OTHER

National Rugby Football League: The proposed new NRFL, which is a professional rugby union fifteens league trying to get off the ground in the United States in the spring of 2016 with at least six teams, announced an inaugural international showcase match called the Independence Cup will be held in August 2015. The match will feature England's Leicester Tigers team versus a league-sponsored team called the NRFL Roughriders, the first professional rugby team in the United States. The NRFL plans to play an April-to-July schedule and hopes to use National Football League stadiums during the NFL's off-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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