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 Champions Indoor Football

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
December 28, 2015 - Champions Indoor Football (CIF)


BASEBALL

California Winter League: The CWL, which is the official winter league of the independent Frontier League, has announced the schedule for the 12 teams that will participate in the league's seventh season in 2016. The league had ten teams last season, but the Palm Desert Coyotes team is gone and three new teams called the Toronto Rush, Manitoba North Stars and New York Colonials have been added. The CWL is an instructional showcase league that allows various independent leagues the opportunity to evaluate and sign players for the upcoming summer season. The league plays a three-week schedule from late January to mid-February with all games played in Palm Springs.

Carolina Professional Winter League: The new independent CPWL, based in Myrtle Beach (SC), plans to operate its inaugural short winter season from mid-January to mid-February 2016. The league currently lists six potential teams called the VooDoo, Chill, Galaxy, Sonic, Kings and Stingers.

Pecos League: The independent Pecos League played with eight teams last season and announced a new team called the Tucson Saguaros will be added for the 2016 season. The Saguaros will play their Sunday regular season games in Bisbee (AZ). A team called the Salina (KS) Stockade was once listed as a possible tenth team for 2016 and other teams called the Woodward (OK) Westerners, San Angelo (TX) Conchos and Wichita Falls (TX) Spudders have been under consideration at one time or another. The league's Las Vegas (NM) Train Robbers team was moved to become the Topeka (KS) Train Robbers for 2016.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball League of Canada: The NBL-Canada started its fifth season this weekend with a four-team Atlantic Division and a four-team Ontario-based Central Division. The league had eight teams last season, but each division lost a team as the Mississauga Power and Halifax Rainmen (Nova Scotia) did not return. The new Niagara River Lions were added to the Central Division and the new Halifax Hurricanes were added to the Atlantic Division. Also, the league's Brampton A's were renamed the Orangeville A's for the 2015-16 season. Another new team called the Cape Breton Highlanders (Sydney, Nova Scotia) was announced as a 2016-17 expansion team.

Midwest Professional Basketball Association: The MPBA has begun investigating legal action against a team called the Windy City Groove that was recently announced as a member of the American Basketball Association. Last month the MPBA took control of its two Chicago teams called the Chicago Force and Windy City Groove, along with rights to the team names. The MPBA changed the Chicago Force to the Chicago Blues, while the Windy City Groove would keep its name for the 2016 MPBA season starting next month. The former owners of the MPBA's Chicago Force decided to form a new team also called the Windy City Groove and earlier this month it joined the ABA for the remainder of the 2015-16 season.

Midwest Basketball League: The proposed MBL, which plans to start play in April 2016 with a spring-summer season running through July, has added some more teams and now lists a five-team East division and a six-team West division. The East includes the Anderson-based Central Indiana Crusaders, Hamilton (OH) Heroes, Indiana Dream (Muncie), Ohio Flash (Dayton) and Ohio Kings (Columbus). The West has the Cedar Valley Courtkings (Waterloo, IA), Chicago Fury, Minnesota Broncos (St. Paul), Minnesota Rangers (Minneapolis), Sioux City (IA) Hornets and Wisconsin Storm (Wauwatosa/Milwaukee). The Ohio Flash was part of the 2014-15 Universal Basketball Association and the Chicago Fury is part of the 2015-16 American Basketball Association. The Wisconsin Storm was originally called the Panthers. Previously listed teams called the Anderson (IN) Wild and Waukesha (WI) Wires have disappeared.

East Coast Basketball League: The ECBL announced the addition of the Raleigh-Durham (NC) United Raptors that will bring the number of teams to 12 for the league's second season starting in March 2016. The league states it has completed its lineup for 2016 that will feature six-team Northern and Southern divisions. The league had ten teams last season, but lost three teams and added five new teams. The Carolina Gladiators (Lumberton, NC), Gastonia (NC) Crowns and Queen City Express (Charlotte, NC) did not return, but the Carolina Mpact (Anson County, NC), Petersburg (VA) Revolution, Raleigh-Durham (NC) United Raptors, Winston-Salem (NC) Certified and South Carolina Upstate Redhawks (Greenville) have been added for 2016.

FOOTBALL

American Spring Football League: The proposed new professional ASFL, which has been trying to get off the ground over the past couple of years, recently announced ownership groups for teams to be located in the states of Virginia and Ohio. Exact locations for the teams and the start of league play were not announced. Earlier this year, the league announced six states (Alabama, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Arkansas and Oklahoma) that would each become home to an ASFL team for a proposed 2016 season.

Champions Indoor Football: The 2016 CIF expansion team called the Illiana Eagles has changed its name to the Chicago Eagles. The Eagles will play home games at the Pavilion on the campus of the University of Illinois-Chicago. The previous Illiana name was from the term used to describe the area around the borders of Illinois and Indiana. The Illiana Eagles evolved from a proposed Northwest Indiana team called the Southshore and Gary Dawgs that never started play for the CIF's first season in 2015. One of the owners of the Gary Dawgs backed out, so the team was reorganized as the Illiana Eagles.

American Indoor Football: The AIF has added the South Carolina Ravens (Charleston) to its list of teams that now numbers 24. The Ravens' ownership previously attempted to place a team called the Charleston Ravens in the league known as North American Indoor Football.

The League: A proposed new football league referred to as The League was trying to organize over the past year or two with teams to be concentrated in the eastern half of the United States (Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, the South and Florida). Original plans were to have 12 to 16 teams with each team having an upper and lower level minor league team within close proximity. Each team would also have an affiliation with developmental leagues to be organized in Eastern Europe, South Asia and Africa. Six southern teams were to be located in Memphis, Mobile, Miami, Orlando, Charleston (SC) and the Tidewater area. The League then decided to start in Florida with only minor league teams for its first season in 2016. One of the teams was to be called the Florida Black Bears and based in Ocala. There had been no updates on The League over the past few months.

HOCKEY

ECHL: A potential owner of a franchise in the AA-level ECHL has signed a five-year lease agreement at the DCU Center in Worcester (MA) that could bring a hockey team to the city for the 2017-18 season. The league will meet in February 2016 to decide on the proposal. Worcester had been home to AAA-level teams in the American Hockey League in the past and its most recent AHL team called the Worcester Sharks moved to San Jose to become the San Jose Barracuda after the 2014-15 season. Due to Worcester's proximity to Boston, a new ECHL team could try to develop an affiliation with the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins.

Federal Hockey League: The six-team FHL is suffering from attendance issues this season. The expansion Port Huron Prowlers team has made a plea for more fan support, while the Dayton Demolition recently cancelled a scheduled home game and there has been talk that some players have not been paid.

National Women's Hockey League: The new professional four-team NWHL is looking to expand after its inaugural 2015-16 season and appears to be interested in a team called the Minnesota Whitecaps from the Minneapolis area. The Minnesota Whitecaps have played some pre-season and other exhibition games this season against some NWHL teams. The Whitecaps were a member of the elite-level Western Women's Hockey League for several seasons, but have been playing an exhibition schedule the past couple of seasons after the WWHL disbanded.

SOCCER

United Soccer League: San Antonio will become home to a Division-III USL franchise in the 2016 season and it will displace the San Antonio Scorpions of the Division-II North American Soccer League at the city's Toyota Field, which was recently sold to the city of San Antonio and Bexar County. Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E), which also owns the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association, signed a 20-year lease to run all operations at Toyota Field and plans to operate the USL team in 2016 while pursuing an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer. The name of the new San Antonio USL team will be announced in the near future. The USL previously announced five other teams in Cincinnati, Kansas City, Lehigh Valley (Bethlehem, PA), Orlando and Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg, TX) will be added for the 2016 season.

North American Soccer League: With a new San Antonio team in the United Soccer League taking over Toyota Field for the 2016 season, it appears that the four-season run of the San Antonio Scorpions in the Division-II NASL might be over. The Scorpions' owner recently sold Toyota Field to the city of San Antonio and Bexar County and a new group will run the USL team. The San Antonio Scorpions joined the NASL as an expansion team for the 2012 season. The NASL stated it will continue to grow next season and plans to add three teams called Miami FC, Puerto Rico FC and Rayo OKC (Oklahoma City).

National Premier Soccer League: The Tampa Bay Rowdies of the Division-II North American Soccer League (NASL) announced they will place a developmental team called the Tampa Bay Rowdies 2 in the elite-level NPSL for the 2016 season. Two other NASL teams - the Indy Eleven and Fort Lauderdale Strikers - recently announced plans for NPSL teams in 2016. The NPSL had four NASL affiliated teams in the 2015 season: the New York Cosmos B, Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves, Carolina RailHawks U-23 and the Minnesota United FC Reserves.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Leagues, Teams & Nicknames 2014-15: "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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