Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on March 23, 2009 under International Basketball League (IBL)
BASEBALL
Continental Baseball League: Now that a potential alliance with four United League Baseball teams has fallen through for 2009, the CBL has issued a revised schedule for six teams, one of which will be a travel team. The CBL has now added the Alpine (TX)-based Big Bend Blue Sox and the travel team to four previously announced teams-the new Dallas Aviators, the new Alexandria Aces, and the returning Bay Area Toros and Texarkana Gunslingers.
Golden Baseball League: The Edmonton Cracker-Cats franchise in the GBL has been renamed the Edmonton Capitals for the 2009 season. The franchise came under new ownership last month. The Cracker-Cats were a 2005 expansion team in the Northern League, but left that league for the GBL last season. Edmonton is the provincial capital of Alberta.
Eastern League: The city of Norwich (CT) has approved the transfer of the city's stadium lease to the new ownership group from Richmond (VA). The Eastern League's Connecticut Defenders are likely to move to Richmond after the 2009 season. Norwich will apparently obtain the relocated Jamestown (NY) Jammers of the short-season Class-A New York Penn League when the Defenders depart.
Super Independent Baseball: The proposed new SIB has announced that Marion County (FL) will host one of the franchises when the league starts play in 2011. Ocala is the largest city in the county and could be the team's actual home city.
California League: With the collapse of a deal to shift two high Class-A California League teams (High Desert and Bakersfield) to the Class-A Carolina League, the Adelanto-based High Desert Mavericks could be on the move to a new city after its lease expires in 2010. The team's current stadium needs considerable improvements that the city has not been able to fund.
BASKETBALL
International Basketball League: The IBL now has the Las Vegas Pride, a 2009 partial-schedule team, listed as the Henderson-based Nevada Pride. The Portland Oregon Waves, sometimes listed as the Oregon Wave, is now listed as the Oregon Waves for 2009.
World Basketball Association Exposure League: The WBA Exposure League has announced tryouts for its upcoming 2009 season and confirmed the seven participating teams-Buford (GA) Majic, Cartersville (GA) Baseline Warriors, Decatur (AL) Court Kings, Memphis Blues, Palm Coast (FL) Waves, Rome (GA) Rage and Tupelo (MS) Rock-N-Rollers.
Women's Blue Chip Basketball League: The WBCBL has over 60 teams and markets listed in 10 divisions for its upcoming 2009 season. The divisions include the East Coast, Gulf South, Mid South, Mid West, North East, Pacific Northwest, South, Suncoast, West and West Coast. Last season the league had about 30 participating teams.
FOOTBALL
Arena Football League: The AFL has reached a new labor agreement and is moving forward to a return in 2010, possibly under a single entity ownership model. The league could return with all 16 teams, plus a couple of other possible new markets.
Arenafootball2 (af2): The af2 has started its 2009 season with 25 teams, down from the 29 teams that participated in the 2008 season. The league lost the Austin Wranglers, Lubbock Renegades, Texas (Katy) Copperheads, Daytona Beach ThunderBirds and Louisville Fire, but added the new Milwaukee Iron franchise. The Albany Conquest franchise was renamed the Firebirds and the Lexington Horsemen became the Kentucky Horsemen for 2009. The league continues to be aligned into two conferences (National and American) with three divisions per conference.
United States Indoor Football League: The proposed USIFL has announced a fifth team for its inaugural 2009 season called the Pennsylvania Stillers, reportedly to be based in the Pittsburgh area. The league could still add some other teams before the 2009 season starts next month. The USIFL wants to eventually have 16 teams by 2012 with each team owning its own facility.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The new owners of the Philadelphia Phantoms are considering a temporary move to Glens Falls (NY) for the next two seasons while they wait for a possible new arena to be built in Allentown (PA). The team's current home arena will be torn down after this season. The Portland Pirates affiliation with the Edmonton Oilers ends after the 2009-10 season and rumors have again surfaced about the Oilers activating its dormant AHL Road Runners franchise and moving its AHL affiliate to Oklahoma City in 2010-11. The Oklahoma City Blazers team is a current member of the Central Hockey League. The dormant Edmonton franchise could come into play next season, as the Dallas Stars look for an AHL affiliate for its proposed Texas Stars franchise, which is expected to play in a new arena in the Austin area.
International Hockey League: The IHL announced that a Chicago Hounds franchise will not be playing in the 2009-10 season because the team does not have a home venue. The Hounds were part of the former United Hockey League, which evolved into the IHL for the 2008-09 season, but could not obtain a suitable arena lease and did not switch to the IHL for its inaugural season. The team has been dormant.
Southern Professional Hockey League: A previous owner of the former ECHL Pensacola Ice Pilots franchise, which folded after the 2007-08 season, wants to develop a Pensacola-based franchise in the SPHL.
Central States Hockey League: The Pittsburgh Junior Penguins organization has purchased the former Michigan Ice Dogs franchise in the Tier III Junior-A CSHL. The Ice Dogs left the CSHL after the 2007-08 season. Along with its new Junior-A level club in the 2009-10 CSHL, the Junior Penguins will continue to operate Junior-B teams in the Empire Junior-B Hockey League and the Continental Hockey Association.
United Junior Hockey League: The UJHL was a new independent junior hockey league in the 2008-09 season. In the past few weeks the league lost the four Canadian teams that had joined as UJHL affiliates when their former league disbanded in August 2008. The owner of three of the five remaining UJHL clubs-the Findlay Grrrowl, Penn Enforcers and Jamestown Jets-has pulled the teams out of the league. The UJHL plans to add several new teams next season, some of which are the Albany Americans, Lehigh Valley Miners, Johnstown Junior Chiefs and Springfield (MA) Indians.
Major League Roller Hockey: The MLRH Pro Tour and the co-ed Slamm Hockey League will hold its next live event in Detroit on April 4-5, 2009.
SOCCER
Women's Professional Soccer: The WPS has officially announced that Philadelphia will be home to its eighth franchise that will start play in the league's second season of 2010. The WPS will start its inaugural season next month with seven teams. The league has also targeted Atlanta and Dallas for expansion teams.
Major League Soccer: The MLS has awarded expansion franchises to Vancouver (British Columbia) and Portland (OR) as the league's 17th and 18th franchises, respectively. Both teams will be added in the 2011 season and will take the names of their current First Division teams in the United Soccer League-the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers. These were also the nicknames of the cities' franchises in the former North American Soccer League. The league MLS has also indicated it would consider the addition of two other expansion franchises, possibly in 2012. Expansion groups in St. Louis and Ottawa, which were in the running for the 2011 expansion, would be considered again in 2012 along with other possible expansion markets like Montreal, Atlanta and New York. The league added its 15th team in Seattle for 2009 and will add its 16th team in Philadelphia in 2010.
United Soccer Leagues (First Division): The Miami FC Blues of the USL First Division announced the club will participate in the league's 2009 season. The club's ownership was apparently satisfied with the fan support shown in a season-ticket drive over the past couple of months. The USL had prepared an alternate 2009 schedule if Miami had folded. With the announcement of new Major League Soccer franchises for Portland and Vancouver in 2011, the USL First Division will eventually lose its current Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps clubs. The league has stated a Tampa Bay Rowdies team will be added in 2010, along with at least one other franchise to be announced with the next 30 days.
OTHER
Rugby Super League: The RSL has started its 2009 season with 16 teams split into an eight-team Blue Conference and an eight-team Red Conference. From the 18 participating clubs in 2008, the Philadelphia-Whitemarsh Rugby Football Club, the Washington (DC) Rugby Club and St. Louis Bombers did not return in 2009. The league added the Atlanta-based Life University Running Eagles club for 2009.
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 2008-09 version can be found at http://www.lulu.com/content/6218580. Dan can be contacted at dankrieger@leaguesteamsnicknames.com.
International Basketball League Stories from March 23, 2009
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- 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.
