ECHL ECHL

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
June 30, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)


BASEBALL

Hawaii Winter Baseball: The HWB recently announced the schedule for its 40-game 2008 season that will run from late September to late November. The league will feature the same four teams as last season with the North Shore Honu and West Oahu CaneFires in the West and the Waikiki BeachBoys and Honolulu Sharks in the East. This season the league will play all games on Oahu. Last season, the league had played six games on Hawaii and six games on Maui and would eventually like to return to the other islands.

Appalachian League: After playing with only nine teams in 2007, the Advanced Rookie-Level Appalachian League recently started its 2008 season with ten teams. The Pulaski (VA) Mariners, an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, were added to the league's Eastern Division for 2008. Prior to the 2007 season, the Toronto Blue Jays pulled its Pulaski Blue Jays affiliate and the league was forced to play with only nine teams last season.

Pioneer League: The Advanced Rookie-Level Pioneer League recently started its 2008 season with the same eight affiliates, but with one new team nickname. The Great Falls (MT) White Sox were renamed the Great Falls Voyagers during the off-season, but the team is still an affiliate of the White Sox. The nickname has a local theme, since a famous UFO sighting that took place at the stadium and was one of the first UFO reports captured on film.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The ABA announced it will place a team in Bowling Green (KY) for its upcoming 2008-09 season. The team will reportedly be called the Kentucky Mavericks. The league's new Winston-Salem (NC) expansion team will be called the Winston-Salem Storm.

Premier Basketball League: The Halifax (Nova Scotia) Rainmen team has joined the PBL for its upcoming 2008-09 season. The Rainmen played as part of the American Basketball Association last season and had been trying to join the National Basketball Association Development League (D-League). The Rainmen could still be accepted into the D-League in the future.

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The new Erie BayHawks are most likely to be placed in the league's Central Division with the Dakota Wizards, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Iowa Energy and Fort Wayne Mad Ants. This could change when the league adds some proposed northeastern markets in the future. It is expected that the new Reno (NV) team will be added to the Western Division, which will be the only six-team division, and the Southwest Division will remain the same with five teams.

International Basketball League: The Washington Raptors team, which played as the Lewis County Raptors in 2007 and sat out the 2008 season, is no longer listed as a potential 2009 team.

Continental Basketball Association: The CBA's Albany Patroons have a deadline of next week for season ticket purchases to determine whether the team will play in the 2008-09 season. As of now, the league has lost four of its ten teams from last season-Great Falls Explorers, Butte Daredevils, Yakama Sun Kings and the Atlanta Krunk Wolverines-and is down to only six teams. The CBA announced that the 2008-09 season has been reduced from 48 to 36 games.

Texas Professional Basketball League: The Houston P.T.S. (Play to Score) team, which played a partial schedule the past two seasons, plans to join the TPBL as a full-schedule team in 2009.

FOOTBALL

United National Gridiron League: The United National Football League has been renamed the United National Gridiron League. The UNGL intends to be a developmental league for several leagues like the National Football League, Arena Football League and Canadian Football League. The UNGL plans to start its inaugural season in January 2009 with 8 teams and eventually plans to grow to 22 teams.

American Indoor Football Association: The Rochester Raiders, formerly of the Continental Indoor Football League, played its first AIFA game as an exhibition against the Erie RiverRats. The Raiders left the CIFL, which uses seven-man teams, after the 2008 season and will be a 2009 member of the AIFA.

American Professional Football League: The Beaumont (TX) Drillers of the semi-pro APFL have canceled another home game and the team could be out as a league member. After the Conroe (TX) Storm announced the team would not return next season, the APFL could be left with only the five teams in the North Division. The South Division started the 2008 season with Beaumont, Conroe, the Texas Regulators, Wichita Falls Diablos (travel team), and the Florida Knights, which were reorganized as the Florida Scorpions (road team) during the season.

HOCKEY

ECHL: The ECHL membership of the Pensacola Ice Pilots has been terminated because the franchise owner did not intend to play in the 2008-09 season or beyond. Prior to the 2007-08 season, the Ice Pilots' owner had asked to suspend operations, but then decided to continue playing. The league's South Division is down to six teams with the loss of Pensacola, the Columbia (SC) Inferno and Texas Wildcatters. The Texas ownership switched to the league's new Ontario (CA) Reign franchise, while Columbia hopes to find a new arena and eventually return. The league has plans for future teams in Greenville (SC), Greensboro (NC), Myrtle Beach (SC) and Reno (NV). The Toledo Walleye, formerly the Toledo Storm franchise, plans to join for the 2009-10 season. The Pensacola Ice Pilots joined the ECHL for the 1996-97 season when the Nashville Knights, a member since the ECHL's second season of 1989-90, moved to Pensacola.

Central Hockey League: The CHL's Corpus Christi Rayz franchise, which came under new ownership after previously announcing the team would not play in 2008-09, will return for the 2008-09 season as the Corpus Christi IceRays. The team was previously called the IceRays when it started play as a member of the Western Professional Hockey League in 1998 and then joined the CHL in a merger prior to the 2001-02 season. The franchise came under new ownership in December 2002 and changed to the Rayz nickname.

American Inline Hockey League: The new AIHL, which was recently created by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and will start play in the fall of 2008, held an organizational meeting last week. Several teams that participated in the 2007-08 season of the Professional Inline Hockey Association have committed to the new league: the Phoenix Dragons, Philadelphia Growl, Pittsburgh Bandits, Maryland Knights, Richmond Robins, Feasterville Fury, Aston Demolition, New Jersey Stampede and Northeast Philadelphia Revolution.

American Roller Hockey Association: With the creation of the new American Inline Hockey League, the proposed ARHA has decided to cease operations. The ARHA was announced a short time ago and wanted to bring a true professional mindset to inline hockey. The ARHA planned to have 20 professional franchises in 4 different divisions for an inaugural 2010-11 season.

Roller Hockey Quebec Elite League: The proposed semi-pro RHQ Elite League plans to start play in 2009 with senior (22+ years old), junior (18 to 21) and midget (17 and under) divisions.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: The owner of the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons is interested in bringing an MLS expansion franchise to Atlanta and is reportedly looking for locations to build a soccer-specific stadium. The possibility of a Miami expansion franchise is on hold because a potential owner has not come forward to help build a soccer stadium on the site of the old Orange Bowl.

OTHER

Rugby Canada Super League: The RCSL, Canada's top senior-level rugby league, is nearing completion of its 2008 season. The Toronto Xtreme did not return for 2008, so the Eastern Conference consisted of only six teams-New Brunswick Black Spruce, Newfoundland Rock, Niagara Thunder, Nova Scotia Keltics, Ottawa Harlequins and the Quebec Caribou. The five-team Western Conference remained the same with the Calgary Mavericks, Edmonton Gold, Saskatchewan Prairie Fire, Vancouver Island Crimson Tide and the 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/2533047. Dan can be contacted at dankrieger@leaguesteamsnicknames.com.

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