NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, CFL stats



Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
January 7, 2008 - Premier Basketball League (PBL)


BASEBALL

- Atlantic Baseball League: The ABL has realigned its franchises for the upcoming 2008 season. The North and South divisions have been replaced by the Freedom Division consisting of the Lancaster Barnstormers, Newark Bears, Somerset Patriots and York Revolution, and the Liberty Division consisting of the Bridgeport Bluefish, Camden Riversharks, Long Island Ducks and the new Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. With the addition of Southern Maryland, the ABL eliminated its Road Warriors travel team for the 2008 season.

- Frontier League: The designs for a new 3,500-seat ballpark in Avon (OH) are moving forward with the plans of Frontier League franchise starting play in 2009.

BASKETBALL

- National Basketball Association: The NBA's New Jersey Nets will continue to play at the Meadowlands at least through the 2009-10 season, while the team waits for its new arena to be built in Brooklyn. Oklahoma City will vote in March on whether to add a sales tax to pay for renovations to the city's Ford Center as a way of luring an NBA franchise. The proposed move of the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City is on hold, as the courts will decide whether the team can get out of its lease before it expires at the end of the 2009-10 season.

- National Basketball Association Developmental League (D-League): Along with Youngstown (OH), the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers are apparently looking at the arena in Erie (PA) as a possible home for an affiliated NBA D-League franchise. The city's last pro basketball team was the Erie Wave of the World Basketball League (1990-92).

- Premier Basketball League: The PBL started its inaugural 2008 season with ten teams. The proposed Chicago Aztecas franchise has been replaced by the Chicago Throwbacks franchise, which left the American Basketball Association after playing only a few games in the ABA's 2007-08 season. Eight of the ten PBL teams are former ABA teams or planned ABA expansion teams.

- International Basketball League: The IBL's new Shanxi Kylins team from the Chinese Basketball Association is part of the league's new Asian Expansion Department that expects to add six other Asian teams from China, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines by 2009. The Kylins will play its entire 2008 IBL schedule on the road against the league's northwest cluster of teams.

- Women's Blue Chip Basketball League: The WBCBL has two new teams for 2008 called the Miami Rain and the Gulf Coast Tropics, based in Mobile (AL).

FOOTBALL

- American Indoor Football Association: The AIFA announced the New Mexico Wildcats, based in suburban Albuquerque, as the final expansion team in its new Western Division for 2008. The four-team Western Division will feature New Mexico, the Arizona Adrenaline, Utah Saints and Wyoming Cavalry. The league's Pittsburgh RiverRats are reportedly close to signing a deal to move the team to Erie (PA) for the 2008 season. The RiverRats were unable to gain much corporate support last season and lost money. The Erie Freeze franchise played in the league for the past three seasons, but the owner decided to suspended operations for 2008 while trying to restructure the ownership.

- American Professional Football League: The indoor APFL has added the Beaumont Drillers, formerly of the National Indoor Football League (2003-2007), for its upcoming 2008 season. The Drillers started as the Alexandria-based Louisiana Rangers in the NIFL for two seasons (2001-02) before moving to Beaumont. The APFL plans to expand to 11 teams for 2008 with the addition of the Beaumont Drillers, Springfield (IL) Shield, Wichita Falls Diablos and Florida Knights (Bradenton).

- Independent Indoor Football Alliance: The proposed Texas-based IIFA has added the Stephenville (TX) Sting and the Texas Blackout, based in the Pasadena area of Houston. The Wichita Falls Kings are no longer listed. The IIFA plans to have ten teams competing in its inaugural 2008 season.

HOCKEY

- Central Hockey League: On January 16, 2008, the Yuma (AZ) city council will vote on whether or not to support a proposed 6,000-seat arena, which would eventually become home to a CHL franchise.

SOCCER

- United Soccer Leagues W-League: The W-League's Boston Renegades have entered into a partnership with the Boston Breakers of the new women's professional soccer league that is expected to start play in 2009.

- Canadian Premier Futsal League: The CPFL again operated a seven-week futsal season from November 2007 to January 2008. The CPFL includes players that were part of the outdoor Canadian Soccer League. The 2007-08 CPFL included teams called the Boca Juniors, Canadian Futsal FC, Cruz Azul, Portugal, Red Lions, Serbian White Eagles, Shooters and Toronto Twisters.

- Quebec Calcetto Soccer League: The QCSL World Cup Soccer is an indoor soccer league created in 1994 to provide the highest level of competition in a "World Cup" theme and atmosphere. The QCSL games are played on weekends in Laval (Quebec), near Montreal. The 18-week 2007-08 season runs from October 2007 through February 2008 and includes 19 teams named after various countries.

Dan Krieger is the creator of "Leagues, Teams & Nicknames", which tracks the changes in league alignments, franchise movements and team nicknames in today's sports world. The latest version can be found at http://www.lulu.com/content/1375144. Dan can be contacted at dankrieger@leaguesteamsnicknames.com.

• Discuss this story on the Premier Basketball League message board...

Premier Basketball League Stories from January 7, 2008


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