Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on August 4, 2008 under Indoor Football League (IFL)

BASEBALL

Atlantic Baseball League: The owner of several ABL franchises is interested in placing an independent ABL franchise in Richmond (VA), which is losing its affiliated Triple-A team in the International League. Minor League Baseball plans to place a relocated Double-A or Class-A team in the Richmond market.

Frontier League: The future of the Chillicothe Paints franchise in the independent Frontier League is uncertain beyond this season. The team is ranked last in attendance and plays in the league's smallest market. The Paints are the only team left from the inaugural 1993 season when the league started with several other small markets in Ohio (Lancaster, Zanesville, and Portsmouth), Kentucky (Pikeville and Ashland), and West Virginia (Huntington and Parkersburg).

American Association: The independent American Association has been the league most interested in the Topeka (KS) market, but efforts to build a new ballpark have stalled. The city would like to have a team start playing by 2010, but it appears that some private ballpark funding will have to be part of the deal. The Northern League has also expressed an interest in the Topeka market. BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The ABA's new Savannah (GA) franchise hopes to start play this December and the team will be called the Savannah Pride. The city has had the Savannah Spirits (1986-88) in the Continental Basketball Association and the short-lived Savannah Ragin' Rebels (2002) in the Global Basketball Alliance. A team called the Savannah Seahawks is listed as part of the United States Basketball Association, which plans to start play in April 2009. After running into trouble finding a home venue in Bowling Green, the Kentucky Mavericks announced the team's home venue has been moved to Owensboro (KY) for the 2008-09 season. The Jersey Express has moved back to Newark for the 2008-09 season after spending the 2007-08 ABA season in Morristown. The franchise played as the Newark Express for two seasons (2005-07), but the team apparently will continue to be called the Jersey Express. The ABA announced that the Cleveland Rockers will be part of the 2008-09 season. The Cleveland area had an ABA team called the Lake Erie Rockers for part of the 2005-06 season.

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The new Reno franchise in the NBA D-League will be called the Reno Bighorns. Two previous Reno-based minor league basketball teams in the Western Basketball Association (1978-79) and the Continental Basketball Association (1982-83) used the Reno Bighorns name. Reno and the Erie BayHawks are expansion teams for the 2008-09 season. The Oklahoma City NBA team, formerly the Seattle SuperSonics, announced it has purchased the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA D-League. This is the third NBA team to purchase an NBA D-League affiliate. The Los Angeles Lakers own the Los Angeles D-Fenders and the San Antonio Spurs own the Austin Toros.

United States Basketball League: The USBL, which sat out the 2008 spring/summer season, plans to start a marketing initiative to add expansion teams for a 2009 season. Although the league has focused on its divisions in the Midwest and Northeast regions for 2009, the league states that there is enough interest to consider a third division next season. The league currently has five teams listed: the Brooklyn Kings, Dodge City Legend, Kansas Cagerz, Long Island Primetime and Oklahoma Storm. The USBL recently announced plans to work with the Korean Basketball League for possible exhibition games in the future.

Continental Basketball Association: Although the Great Falls Explorers suspended operations during the 2007-08 CBA season, the league and the team owner are apparently working on a deal to have the Explorers return for 2008-09.

Premier Basketball League: The PBL announced that the Battle Creek Knights of the International Basketball League will play in the upcoming 2008-09 PBL season. Battle Creek was a charter member of the spring/summer International Basketball League in 2005 and had just completed its fourth season in the league.

FOOTBALL

Indoor Football League: The merger of the eight-team United Indoor Football and the nine-team Intense Football League has created an alliance called the Indoor Football League. Each league recently completed its fourth season. The new 17-team league plans to expand to at least 20 teams for the 2009 season. When the Intense Football League was formed in 2005 it chose the Indoor Football League as its name, but quickly changed to the Intense Football League. At that time, the arenafootball2 owned the rights to the Indoor Football League name after taking over a league by the same name that had operated in the 1999 and 2000 seasons. For now, the new Indoor Football League has two teams with the same nickname, the UIF's Wichita Wild and the IFL's Alaska Wild.

American Indoor Football Association: The AIFA's Augusta (GA) Colts have not made progress on an arena lease for next season and the team's owner is considering a move of the team to another city. No progress has been made on a proposed new AIFA franchise in Wenatchee (WA) for 2009. A new arena is set to open this fall, but an ownership group has not come forward. The AIFA has awarded an expansion franchise to Richmond (VA) for the 2009 season. Richmond had previous indoor football teams called the Richmond Speed in the arenafootball2 (2000-03) and the Richmond Bandits in the Atlantic Indoor Football League (2005) and American Indoor Football League (2006).

American Professional Football League: The owner of the Conroe (TX) Storm in the semi-pro APFL shut down the franchise just prior to the league championship game. The Storm was replaced by the Beaumont (TX) Drillers in the game against the Topeka-based Kansas Koyotes.

Arena Football League: The owner of the Louisville Fire of the arenafootball2 wants to be the first af2 franchise to move up to the AFL when a new 22,000-seat arena is finished in 2010. The AFL is looking to expand in 2009 or 2010 with Pittsburgh, Boston, South Florida and possibly Seattle under consideration.

Independent Women's Football League: The IWFL announced that the Philadelphia Firebirds, formerly the Philadelphia Phoenix of the National Women's Football Association (NWFA), have been awarded a full membership for the 2009 season. The Philadelphia Phoenix had been part of the NWFA since the 2003 season. Ironically, the NWFA Philadelphia Phoenix team was formed after a team called the Philadelphia Liberty Belles left the NWFA for the IWFL in 2003. The IWFL version of the Liberty Belles lasted only one season.

HOCKEY

Eastern Professional Hockey League: The EPHL will play its inaugural season with five teams: the Brooklyn Aces, Danbury (CT) Mad Hatters, Jersey Rockhoppers (West Orange), New Hampshire Freeze (Exeter) and Rome (NY) Copper City Chiefs. The teams will be listed in one table and each will play a 50-game schedule.

ECHL: The Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League announced they have signed an affiliation agreement with the Fresno Falcons of the ECHL. The Falcons had been affiliated with the San Jose Sharks since the 2003-04 season.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: The MLS officially announced it plans to add two more clubs by the 2011 season and increase to 18 teams. Applications will be accepted until October 15, 2008 and the two franchises will be announced in late 2008 or early 2009. Markets in Canada and the United States will be considered. The league's 15th team in Seattle will join in 2009 and the 16th team in Philadelphia will join in 2010.

United Soccer Leagues W-League: The USL W-League has announced a new team called the Buffalo Flash has been added for the 2009 season.

American Indoor Soccer League: The AISL announced it will start its sixth season in December 2008. The AISL hopes to develop a relationship with teams from the reorganized Major Indoor Soccer League once that league finalizes its new business model and league alignment. This could include potential inter-league play.

Premier Arena Soccer League (Pro Division): The PASL Pro Division is finalizing the teams for its inaugural 2008-09 season and hopes to have ten teams in the United States competing with six teams each from Canada and Mexico. The league has received deposits from eight teams in the U.S. and plans to announce the Western Conference teams shortly. The eight U.S. teams listed are: 1790 Cincinnati, Colorado Lightning, Dallas, Detroit Waza, New York, Southern Colorado, Stockton Cougars and Wenatchee Fire.

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.

Indoor Football League Stories from August 4, 2008

• National Indoor Bowl Championship Game Review - IFL
• Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger

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.