Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on October 19, 2009 under Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL)

BASEBALL

Eastern League: The new Double-A Richmond franchise, which was formerly the Norwich-based Connecticut Defenders, has selected the Richmond Flying Squirrels as its name when it starts play in the 2010 Eastern League season. Other nickname finalists included the Flatheads, Hambones, Rhinos, and Rock Hoppers.

New York-Penn League: The Short-Season Class-A New York-Penn League has yet to comment on which team, if any, would relocate to the Norwich (CT) market, which recently lost its Double-A Eastern League team to Richmond (VA).

Frontier League: The Frontier League's expansion franchise in the Bloomington-Normal (IL) market known as the Normal (IL) CornBelters has announced its inaugural 2010 season schedule. The CornBelters will be added to the West Division, replacing the Rockford RiverHawks team that switched to the Northern League.

Northwoods League: The summer-collegiate Northwoods League has officially announced a new expansion team in Willmar (MN) for its upcoming 2010 season. During its 2009 season, the league had 14 teams located throughout Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Coastal Plain League: The summer-collegiate Coastal Plain League has added the Moorhead City Marlins as its 15th team for the upcoming 2010 season. The league operated with 14 teams split into 3 divisions in 2009.

BASKETBALL

Premier Basketball League: The Detroit Panthers have officially announced the team will sit out the upcoming 2010 PBL season, as the team waits for completion of its home facility. The Panthers joined the PBL last season after playing off and on for two seasons (2006-08) in the American Basketball Association. The league's new Maryland-based franchise for 2010 is reportedly a new franchise and not the dormant Maryland Knighthawks team that was part of the inaugural 2008 PBL season.

Women's National Basketball Association: The investors trying to bring a WNBA franchise to Tulsa (OK) are now expected to apply for the purchase of an existing franchise and move it to Tulsa. Speculation has the Indiana Fever, Atlanta Dream, and Detroit Shock as possible relocation candidates. The Indiana Fever web site has indicated the franchise will return for the 2010 season.

American Basketball Association: The ownership for eight of the nine proposed teams in the ABA's 2009-10 Pacific Northwest Division has announced tryouts will be held next week for all eight teams. These include seven Washington-based teams called the Yakima Hoppers, Washington Raptors (Tacoma), Everett Longshoremen, Seattle Zhen Gan, Spokane Sunz, Walla Walla Aggies, and Vancouver Explorers, along with the Portland (OR) Stumpers. The ninth team in the division is expected to be the Seattle Mountaineers franchise, which was part of the 2009 International Basketball League.

Eastern Basketball Alliance: The EBA has announced the Stamford-based Connecticut Stallions have been added as an expansion team for the 2009-10 season. The Hampton Roads Cardinals will play a full 12-game schedule in the upcoming season after playing only limited road games last season.

FOOTBALL

Arena Football 1: In addition to the original 16 markets and teams announced by the new AF1 last month, the league reportedly has received several other applications. The league had set October 17 as a deadline for additional teams to join for its inaugural 2010 season, so an announcement on the final membership is expected soon.

Arenafootball2: With the disbanding of the af2 after its 2009 season, some former league members that did not yet join the new Arena Football 1 league have been in the news. The Corpus Christi Sharks franchise has ceased operations, as ownership had been unable to find local owners for the team over the past year. The Sharks played in the af2 for three seasons (2007-09). The operators of the Rio Grande Valley Dorados, based in Hidalgo (TX), will not moving forward with a team in the new AF1, but there is speculation the market could have a 2011 team in the Indoor Football League. A sale of the Green Bay Blizzard has reportedly been completed and the new owner is considering membership in either the new AF1 or the IFL. The owner of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers is still trying to sell the team and stated the Pioneers are being sought by both the IFL and the American Indoor Football Association. The owners of the Albany-based South Georgia Wildcats recently lost out on its arena lease and the city is expected to sign with a team that would be part of the Southern Indoor Football League.

Indoor Football League: The owners of the Saginaw (MI) Sting have stated the IFL franchise will suspend operations for the upcoming 2010 season due to financial problems. The Sting started play in the 2008 Continental Indoor Football League before switching to the IFL last season. The owners of the River City Rage (St. Charles, MO) and the Omaha Beef will reportedly shut down the River City Rage franchise to concentrate on the Omaha Beef. The Rage evolved from the St. Louis/RiverCity Renegades franchise that joined the defunct Indoor Professional Football League for its last season in 2001. The Renegades moved to the defunct National Indoor Football League in 2002. The team was sold late in the 2002 season and played as the Show Me Believers for two seasons (2003-04) and then as the RiverCity Rage (2005-06). The Rage joined United Indoor Football for two seasons (2007-08) before switching to the IFL in 2009.

Southern Indoor Football League: The SIFL's Texas Hurricanes will not return to College Station in 2010 and the team is looking for a new home. The Hurricanes started the 2009 season as the Houston-based Texas Pirates, but the team was sold midway through the season and moved to College Station as the Hurricanes. The league announced that a proposed SIFL franchise for Albany (GA) has signed a letter of intent with the city to negotiate a lease to play in 2010. The owner of the SIFL's new Carolina Force (Greenville, SC) franchise, which operated as the South Carolina Force in last season's American Indoor Football Association, will head the Albany team. A new Tampa-based team called the Florida Cobras reports that it is a member of the SIFL, although this has not been officially announced.

United Indoor Alliance: The new UIA is forming and has the Port City Sharks of Savannah (GA) as one of its first teams. The UIA has also granted a team located in Tyler (TX).

Canadian Football League: The CFL's Toronto Argonauts will reportedly play one of its 2010 regular-season games in Moncton (New Brunswick). The Maritimes region, or Atlantic Canada, has been trying to obtain a CFL franchise for the past several years. The Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats played a 2005 exhibition game in Halifax (Nova Scotia) to gauge interest in possible expansion. A 2006 exhibition game was cancelled when one of the proposed participants, the Ottawa Renegades, folded. The CFL is trying to return to Ottawa with a ninth franchise and the Maritimes would like to be considered for a tenth franchise. The CFL has wanted to add a Maritimes team, but a suitable home stadium has been an issue. The league granted an expansion franchise to Halifax in 1984 for a team to be called the Atlantic Schooners, but stadium financing could not be arranged.

Women's Spring Football League: The Ventura (CA) Black Widows have been announced as the first member on the WSFL's Southwest Division when the new league starts play in 2010.

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: The Pennsylvania state budget now includes a funding plan that could pave the way for a proposed new arena in Allentown that would be home to the former Philadelphia Phantoms, now temporarily playing as the Adirondack Phantoms in Glens Falls (NY). The Phantoms' home arena in Philadelphia is scheduled for demolition and the team's owners planned to play in Glens Falls until a new arena could be built for the team. If the Allentown project moves forward, the arena could be ready by 2012 or 2013.

Western States Hockey League: The Fresno (CA) Monsters in the Tier-III junior-level WSHL have started the application process for a higher level franchise in the Tier-II North American Hockey League.

MLRH: The MLRH has started to add teams for its three leagues-the MLRH2 full-contact league, the MLRH-AAA non-contact league, and the entry-level MLRH-AA non-contact league. Recent new additions include the Cincinnati Smoke and a group from Pottstown (PA), both of which plan to operate teams in all three leagues. The new D.C. FiliBusters plan to have teams in the AAA and AA leagues. The MLRH2 and MLRH-AAA will play a November 2009 to March 2010 schedule. The MLRH Pro league, which operated this past summer, will return in the summer of 2010. The co-ed SLAMM Hockey made-for-TV league will return in the spring of 2010.

SOCCER

National Indoor Soccer League: The NISL will have only five teams for its 2009-10 season, the same number it had in its inaugural 2008-09 season. The Milwaukee Wave from last season's Xtreme Soccer League, which dissolved after only one season, will join the Baltimore Blast, Philadelphia Kixx, Monterrey La RaZa, and Rockford Rampage. The Springfield-based Massachusetts Twisters team, which joined the NISL from the American Indoor Soccer League last season, will not return. The NISL had several expansion cities under consideration, most notably Harrisburg (PA), but nothing materialized for 2009-10.

Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League: The CMISL plans to have five teams when its starts its fourth season in 2010. Last year's three teams-the Calgary United (Alberta), Edmonton Drillers (Alberta), and Saskatoon Accelerators (Saskatchewan)-will be joined by the new Prince George FC (British Columbia) and the previously dormant Winnipeg Alliance (Manitoba), which has come under new ownership. Winnipeg had been part of the CMISL in 2007 and 2008, but sat out last year. The CMISL is reportedly looking into expansion opportunities in Ottawa (Ontario) and Victoria (British Columbia). CMISL teams will play inter-league games in 2010 against teams from the Professional Arena Soccer League.

Major League Soccer: The MLS is giving consideration to changing its current March-October schedule to an August-May schedule used by European soccer leagues. The state of Kansas has made a financial incentive package for a development in the western edge of Kansas City (KS) that would also feature an 18,500-seat soccer-specific stadium for the Kansas City Wizards. Efforts to bring the Portland MLS expansion franchise to the city by 2011 hinge on converting the Portland Beavers' Triple-A baseball stadium to a soccer-only facility, while building a new ballpark for the Beavers. The owner of the Beavers has had difficulty finding a new ballpark site in Portland and is negotiating with suburban Beaverton for possible ballpark sites.

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.

Major Indoor Soccer League Stories from October 19, 2009

• 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.