Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on September 8, 2008 under Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL)


BASEBALL

South Atlantic League (SALLY): The new Bowling Green team, which will be the relocated Columbus (GA) Catfish franchise next season, will play in the SALLY for 2009 and then switch to the Midwest League in 2010, along with the SALLY's Lake County Captains. The 30 low Class-A teams will then be split into a 14-team SALLY and a 16-team Midwest League. The move should provide better geographic alignment and help reduce travel costs for some teams. Both leagues may undergo realignment prior to the 2010 season.

Golden Baseball League: A former owner of the Tucson Sidewinders in the Pacific Coast League has officially announced that a franchise called the Tucson Toros will join the GBL as an expansion franchise for the 2009 season. It does not appear that the GBL's Reno Silver Sox will be part of the 2009 season, as the PCL's Tucson Sidewinders plan to move to Reno for the 2009 season. Without Reno, the GBL will have eight teams, but could add other expansion teams prior to the start of the 2009 season.

Frontier League: The owner of the league's Chillicothe Paints is reportedly planning to leave the Frontier League and establish a summer-collegiate baseball league with a team by the same name. The Paints are the last of the original Frontier League teams from the 1993 inaugural season.

International League: The territory of the Triple-A Richmond (VA) Braves, who plan to move to Gwinnett (GA) for the 2009 International League season, may soon be released by Minor League Baseball so discussions can start about a replacement team in Richmond. The Double-A Eastern League appears to be the first choice for a new Richmond team, possibly the relocated Connecticut Defenders. Another group that has ties to the independent Atlantic Baseball League wants to place a team in Richmond next season. The group wants to build a new ballpark that could be used for an ABL franchise or possibly another Triple-A team if one becomes available in the future.

Florida State League: The high Class-A FSL will probably not have a team in Vero Beach next season, as the Vero Beach Devil Rays will relocate to Charlotte County next season. The Baltimore Orioles have expressed an interest in establishing a FSL team, possibly in Vero Beach, but those efforts appear to be on hold for now.

BASKETBALL

Premier Basketball League: The PBL's Quad City Riverhawks franchise will sit out the upcoming 2009 season, which will be the league's second season of operation. The Riverhawks will continue with its marketing efforts and the league plans to have the team return in 2010. The owner of the Riverhawks had also shut down the Rockford Fury franchise a few months ago because the PBL no longer allowed ownership of more than one franchise. The PBL operated with 10 teams last season and is up to 14 teams after expansion for the 2009 season. As of now, only 5 of the 14 teams participated in the 2008 season.

Eastern Basketball Alliance: The Elmira (NY) Bulldogs of the National Professional Basketball League will join the EBA for its 2009 winter basketball season, which generally runs from January through March. The team could still consider playing in the springtime season of the NPBL. The EBA's Delaware Destroyers and Alexandria Avengers participated in both the EBA and NPBL seasons in 2008. The Elmira Bulldogs started as the Corning Bulldogs in the 2007-08 season of the American Basketball Association, but left the ABA after about six games and were renamed the Elmira Bulldogs for the 2008 NPBL season. The men's division of the EBA now has 11 teams listed for the 2009 season. National Basketball Association: The Seattle SuperSonics franchise, which moved to Oklahoma City for the upcoming 2008-09 season, has been renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder. The weather-related nickname was selected for its connotation of power and energy.

American Basketball Association: The ABA's Owensboro (KY) team is now called the Kentucky Bisons. This was originally the Kentucky Warriors franchise that moved its home court from Bowling Green (KY) to Owensboro and recently came under new ownership. Another potential Bowling Green team is currently listed by the ABA. A proposed Beaumont-based Southeast Texas Mustangs team is not currently listed as a 2008-09 ABA team.

Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP): Mexico's top basketball league, the LNBP, has started its 48-game 2008-09 season that runs from early September 2008 to late January 2009. The league again features 24 teams split into a 12-team north division (Zona Norte) and a 12-team south division (Zona Sur). The league has three new teams this season called the Loros de Colima, Potros Itson de Ciudad Obregon and Estrellas Indebasquet del Distrito Federal (Mexico City).

FOOTBALL

Arenafootball2: The Albany-based South Georgia Wildcats have secured a lease for one more year and will be part of the 2009 af2 season. There had been rumors of the team folding or relocating, possibly to Tallahassee (FL). The group that operates the af2's Texas Copperheads and Peoria Pirates is reportedly interested in transferring the Houston-based Copperheads franchise to the owner of the Indoor Football League's Bloomington (IL) Extreme. Bloomington would then become part of the af2 and serve as a rival for the Pirates. At one time there at been talk of the Copperheads moving to Jacksonville.

HOCKEY

Midwest Hockey League: The Louisville Chill of the new semi-pro MWHL has been sold and will relocate to St. Louis under a new nickname. Other MWHL teams currently listed for the league's first season include the Chicago Bulldogs, Evansville IceMen and Indianapolis Trax.

American Hockey League: The owners of the Phildelphia Phantoms are looking at a site in Camden County (NJ) for a possible replacement arena because the team's current arena will be torn down in 2009. A proposed facility in Lehigh Valley and a current arena in Atlantic City have also been mentioned as a possible home for the AHL franchise.

United States Hockey League: The sale of a land parcel for a new arena in the Wausau (WI) area has been approved and it could become the future home of a new Tier-1 Junior-A hockey team in the USHL.

Premier Development Hockey League: The Maryland-based PDHL plans to operate a second season in 2008-09 and has four teams currently listed-the Annapolis Wort Hogs, Baltimore Clippers, Piney Pirates and Washington Lions.

Western Women's Hockey League: The WWHL plans to start its fifth season in 2008-09 and will have the same five teams as last season-the B.C. Breakers (British Columbia), Calgary Oval X-Treme, Edmonton Chimos, Minnesota Whitecaps and Strathmore (Alberta) Rockies.

SOCCER

United Soccer Leagues: The USL First Division has the Austin Aztex listed as a 2009 expansion team, while the USL Premier Development League has the Real Colorado Foxes and Victoria (British Columbia) Highlanders listed as 2009 expansion teams.

Major League Soccer: The owner of the Portland Beavers, a Triple-A baseball team in the Pacific Coast League, is still trying to obtain an MLS expansion team for the city of Portland. He wants to convert the team's current home into a soccer-specific stadium and build a new ballpark for the Beavers. A Queens-based organization wants to bring a second MLS franchise to the New York City area. One possibility would be converting the soon-to-be vacant Shea Stadium from baseball to soccer. The league's New York Red Bulls will be moving to a new soccer-specific stadium in Harrison (NJ) in 2009.

Women's Professional Soccer: The WPS has granted an expansion franchise to a group in the Bay Area for its inaugural 2009 season. The Bay Area team will replace the proposed Dallas team, which has been referred to as the Sting. Dallas has been pushed back a year due to the lack of a suitable home facility. The WPS still plans to start with seven teams in 2009. Along with Dallas, teams in Philadelphia and Atlanta are expected to start in 2010. The Bay Area CyberRays (2001) and San Jose CyberRays (2002-03) played in the former version of the women's pro soccer league known as the Women's United Soccer Association.

Professional Arena Soccer League: The Premier Arena Soccer League-Pro Division is now the Professional Arena Soccer League. The PASL has announced that each of the league's 8 United States teams and 4 Canadian teams will play a 16-game schedule starting on October 25, 2008 and ending on March 8, 2009. Potential expansion teams in Springfield and Charleston will play four league games and the 2009 San Diego expansion team will play one exhibition game during the 2008-09 season. The league's three Mexican teams will not be part of inter-league play, but will participate in a championship tournament at the end of the season. The new St. Louis PASL team is now listed as the St. Louis Illusion.

Major Indoor Soccer League: The remaining clubs from the MISL, namely the Baltimore Blast, Philadelphia KiXX and Orlando Sharks plan to make an announcement next week about a shortened 2008-09 season. Of the other teams from the 2007-08 MISL season, the Chicago Storm, Detroit Ignition, Milwaukee Wave and New Jersey Ironmen joined the newly formed Xtreme Soccer League, while the California Cougars joined the Professional Arena Soccer League as the Stockton Cougars. The future of the MISL's Monterrey La Raza is uncertain.

American Indoor Soccer League: The lower-level AISL wants to develop a relationship with teams in the former MISL and plans to wait until those teams finalize its business model and alignment before announcing the 2008-09 AISL schedule.

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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Professional Arena Soccer League Stories from September 8, 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.


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