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Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
February 4, 2008 - NBA G League (G League)


BASEBALL

- Golden Baseball League: A group of investors is looking at the Victoria (British Columbia) market for a possible GBL expansion team by the 2009 season. The league added the Canadian markets of Calgary and Edmonton from the Northern League during the off-season. A team called the Victoria Capitals played in the short-lived Canadian Baseball League in 2003.

- Atlantic Baseball League: The owner of the proposed ABL expansion franchise called the Bergen County Cliff Hawks was trying to force a developer to build a new ballpark that had been part of the original 2003 plans approved for the Xanadu retail and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands. A judge recently threw out the owner's lawsuit because a 2005 agreement allowed the developers the right to drop the ballpark. The new developers still hope to eventually build the ballpark.

- New York State League: The independent New York State League plans to return for a second season and will play its 2008 season in New York City. Last year, the league had four teams called the Herkimer Trailbusters, Oneida Barge Bucs, Rome Coppers and Utica Brewmasters all scheduled to play a 50-game schedule at Utica's Donovan Stadium in July and August. The league shut down about two weeks into the season.

BASKETBALL

- National Basketball Association Developmental League: The NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers recently made a presentation to the city of Youngstown (OH) to operate its Chevrolet Centre and possibly bring an NBADL franchise to the arena. A final decision is expected in the next two months. League officials recently visited Portland (ME) to check out arenas for a possible NBADL franchise. The league is interested in expansion into New England and has also mentioned a possible NBADL franchise in Harlem (NY).

- American Basketball Association: The owner of the Gwinnett Gwizzlies plans to add new ABA teams next season in Augusta (GA) and Villa Rica (GA), which is west of Atlanta.

- International Basketball League: The Washington Raptors franchise, which was called the Lewis County (WA) Raptors last season, apparently will not play in 2008 and is now listed by the IBL as a 2009 team.

- Premier Basketball League: The PBL announced it will add a franchise based in Buffalo (NY) for the 2009 season. The team's ownership was involved with the Buffalo Silverbacks franchise, which last played in the 2006-07 season of the American Basketball Association (ABA). Many of the ABA's franchises based in the Northeast were reportedly interested in switching to the PBL for next season.

- National Professional Basketball League: Some of the NPBL teams have posted their 2008 regular-season schedules that run from early March to early June. Base on these schedules, it looks like the league will have six teams-Alexandria Avengers (replaced the Virginia Vipers), Elmira Bulldogs, Hudson Valley Hawks, Maryland BayRaiders, New York StrikeForce and Westchester Monarchs.

- Global Basketball Alliance: The GBA has announced a new team called the Jax Crox, based in Jacksonville (FL), which will be part of the league when its starts in May 2008. The GBA is the spring/summer affiliate league of the American Basketball Association. The GBA also plans to start the spring/summer Women's Global Basketball Alliance in May 2008.

- XBW (Xtreme Basketball World): The XBW, which evolved from the proposed 4-Man Basketball Association, is planning to start a semi-pro four-man basketball league in 2009. The league wants to start with four to six teams from cities in Western North Carolina, Upstate South Carolina, Eastern Tennessee and Northeast Georgia.

FOOTBALL

- United Football League: The UFL plans to start play in August and reportedly the eight locations under consideration are Birmingham, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, New York, Orlando, Sacramento and San Antonio. There is a possibility the league could start with only six teams in its inaugural season. - All American Football League: The AAFL is said to be interested in having a future team playing at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, possibly by 2009. The first springtime season will have six teams playing in Birmingham (Alabama), Detroit (Michigan), Gainesville/Jacksonville/Tampa (Florida), Houston (Texas), Knoxville (Tennessee) and Little Rock (Arkansas).

- Continental Indoor Football League: The owner of the new Fort Wayne Freedom franchise officially signed an arena lease that will allow the team to play as part of the CIFL in 2008.

- Intense Football League: The IFL will play its fourth season in 2008 with nine teams after adding its second Alaskan team called the Fairbanks Grizzlies. The league also has six teams from the state of Texas and one from Louisiana. The IFL started play in 2004 with six Texas-based teams, but the league disbanded when five of those teams left for other indoor football leagues prior to the 2005 season. Some of those same IFL teams then got back together to restart the IFL for the 2006 season.

HOCKEY

- American Hockey League: The AHL is apparently interested in the Glens Falls (NY) market, but an ownership group would have to come forward with a franchise willing to relocate to the market. Glens Falls has been without an AHL team since the Adirondack Red Wings left after the 1998-99 season. The city of Austin (TX) is expected to have a franchise for the 2009-10 season as an affiliate of the Dallas Stars, but no other teams appear ready to relocate.

- North Eastern Hockey League: The league organizer and owner of the Norfolk (Ontario) IceCats has apparently suspended operations and cancelled the remainder of the season for the four-team NEHL. The IceCats were recently locked out of its home arena, which was a similar fate for the league's Kensington Valley Pounders franchise a few weeks ago. The league has not played a scheduled game since the first week of January.

SOCCER

- Women's Professional Soccer: The FC Indiana club of the United Soccer Leagues W-League has joined forces with the Chicago group planning to operate a WPS franchise. FC Indiana will serve as the official W-League affiliate of the Chicago WPS franchise and assist in selection of players for the professional team that is expected to start play in 2009.

- Major League Soccer: Pennsylvania announced a state funding package that will help in the construction of a soccer stadium in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester. With this announcement, Philadelphia most likely moved to the top of the MLS expansion list ahead of St. Louis for the league's 16th franchise. The league is apparently planning one more round of expansion to 18 teams. St. Louis would be in the running for one of the next two franchises, possibly in 2010. Miami is working on a stadium plan for an MLS franchise and a second franchise in New York has also been mentioned.

- American Indoor Soccer League: The AISL is working to bring an expansion team to the Bloomington-Normal (IL) area for the 2008-09 season. The league currently has Illinois-based teams in Rockford (Rockford Rampage) and Waukegan (Northern Illinois Rebels).

OTHER LEAGUES

- Rugby Canada Super League: The RCSL plans to expand its under-21 league that was started as an experiment in 2007. For the 2008 season, the under-21 league will switch to an under-20 league and increase in size from 9 to 13 teams. The RCSL senior division will again have the same number of teams in 2008, seven in the Eastern Conference - New Brunswick Black Spruce, Newfoundland Rock, Niagara Thunder, Nova Scotia Keltics, Ottawa Harlequins, Quebec Caribou and Toronto Xtreme - and five in the Western Conference - Calgary Mavericks, Edmonton Gold, Saskatchewan Prairie Fire, Vancouver Island Crimson Tide and Vancouver Wave.

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.

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