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Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
April 5, 2010 - International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2)


BASEBALL

Golden Baseball League: The GBL has expressed interest in the Kamloops (British Columbia) market for the past couple of years and plans to hold a pair of exhibition games in the city next month. A team called the Kamloops Critters was proposed for the 2002 start of the Canadian Baseball League, but after the CBL delayed its start until 2003, Kamloops was no longer part of the league.

Major League Baseball: Although a committee is still evaluating the stadium situation with the Oakland A's, some reports claim that the final decision will be to recommend the American League club move its home to San Jose, which has been working on a stadium development plan.

Atlantic Baseball League: The ABL is seriously considering Sugar Land (TX), near Houston, as the site for its first franchise outside its current northeastern marketing area. Travel costs could be an issue, but the league has found a limited number of locations for independent league expansion in the Northeast. The league could increase to ten teams if it adds a Loudon County (VA) team in 2011 and Sugar Land in 2012.

New England Collegiate Baseball League: The newspapers in the Bristol (CT) area held its own name-the-team contest and plan to call the city's NECBL team the Bristol Legends for the 2010 season. The team's ownership tried to use the Bristol Nine as a nickname, but ran into intellectual property problems and decided to rename the team the Bristol Collegiate Baseball Club.

Liga Norte de Mexico: The Northern League of Mexico has moved its Azules de Mexicali team to Tijuana as the Truenos de Tijuana for 2010, while the Membrilleros de Magdalena team has moved to become the Cerveceros de Tecate. The league is also considering a 2011 team for Nogales. The proposed independent Southwestern Baseball League is scouting locations for its 2011 start and was considering Tecate, Tijuana, and Nogales for possible teams.

BASKETBALL

Premier Basketball League: As the 2010 PBL season comes to an end, the league has expelled the Puerto Rico Capitanes franchise for violations of league rules and the team has been removed from the standings. The Capitanes team is also a member of the springtime Puerto Rican basketball league called Baloncesto Superior Nacional and was getting ready to start its 2010 BSN schedule. The team is called the Capitanes de Arecibo as part of the BSN.

Universal Basketball Association: The proposed 2010-11 UBA team listing has the Fort Worth Fresh replacing the Irving Assault in the Western Conference, while a team called the Orlando Blue Spiders has been added to the Eastern Conference.

Continental Basketball League: The new five-team CBL has announced its inaugural season schedule that will run from April 30 to June 20, 2010. The league consists of teams called the Birmingham (AL) Steel, Carolina Cougarz (Fayetteville, NC), Georgia Gwizzlies (Powder Springs), Savannah Wildcats, and Wilmington (NC) Sea Dawgs. Each team will play a 16-game schedule.

World Basketball Association Exposure League: The WBA announced its draft selections and confirmed the seven teams that will play in the 2010 season. These include the Decatur (GA) Court Kings, Florida Flight, Franklin (TN) Knights, Gwinnett (GA) Majic, Jacksonville Bluewave, Marietta Storm, and Tupelo (MS) Rock-n-Rollers.

Global Professional Basketball League-2: The New Mexico Play2Win RimRockers, which played some games as part of the 2009-10 American Basketball Association schedule, have reportedly become the Texas RimRockers and will be part of the new GPBL-2 spring schedule. The GPBL-2 previously announced a South Division that included the Knoxville-based River City Red Wasps and three Texas-based teams called the Austin Flame, Houston Asteroids, and San Antonio Airmen. The Texas RimRockers still plan to be part of the 2010-11 ABA in the fall.

Basketball Federation of America: The owner of the Bluegrass Stallions, which played its first season in 2009-10 as part of the American Basketball Association, has decided to leave the ABA to form the BFA. The BFA plans to develop and promote mid-market professional basketball throughout the United States.

Atlantic Coast Professional Basketball League: The new ACPBL is reportedly being organized for cities up and down the Atlantic Coast and plans to start play with ten teams in early December 2010.

FOOTBALL

United Football League: The UFL plans to expand to Salt Lake City and either San Antonio or Omaha for its second season this fall. The Austin (TX) market was apparently no longer under consideration for 2010. The city of San Antonio was not too enthusiastic about the UFL and did not want to commit to the UFL for more than a year. The University of Texas-San Antonio is starting its football program in 2011 and the UFL was viewed by some as possible competition.

Regional Indoor Football League: The proposed semi-pro RIFL has broken ties with an owner who planned to operate some of the league's teams called the Texas Regulators and Tarrant County Diablos. The RIFL is undergoing a restructuring and currently has only four teams listed: the Sarasota Scorpions, Denver Titans, Palm Beach Waves and the new Cleveland-based Lake Erie Buzz. The RIFL has also terminated its 2010 agreement with the Augusta Mavericks, a proposed 2011 Southern Indoor Football League franchise, because the RIFL was apparently unaware of the Mavericks' agreement with the SIFL.

HOCKEY

National Hockey League: The NHL is still trying to find new ownership for the Phoenix Coyotes that would keep the franchise in Phoenix. The league said there was no backup plan at this time to sell to another group that would move the franchise back to Winnipeg (Manitoba). The Winnipeg Jets franchise moved to Phoenix for the 1996-97 NHL season.

North American Hockey League: Two ownership groups in the Tier II junior-level NAHL are reportedly negotiating with the arena in Flint (MI) to put an NAHL team in the city in time for the 2010-11 season. This most likely would be a relocation of a current NAHL team. The Flint arena is home to the Flint Generals of the professional International Hockey League, which has basically been running the franchise while trying to find new owners.

International Hockey League: The IHL has already lost its Muskegon market for next season to the Tier I junior-level United States Hockey League and could end up losing its Flint market if the Generals are replaced by a Tier II junior-level North American Hockey League team. This would leave the league with an odd number of five teams. The league played with seven teams this season and does not want to play with an odd number again next season. An approved Evansville team could join next season, but an approved Chicago team apparently will not be ready for next season. The owner of the IHL's Quad City Mallards planned to sit out next season and consider joining another league if the IHL had only five teams.

ECHL: With the Johnstown Chiefs franchise moving to Greenville (SC) next season, the Wheeling Nailers plan to play ten regular-season games in Johnstown next season.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: The MLS has started its 2010 season and now has two eight-team conferences with the addition of the Philadelphia Union expansion team to the Eastern Conference. The league's 17th and 18th teams in Vancouver and Portland will be added for 2011.

Canadian Soccer League: The Montreal Impact Academy team will be the 2010 Quebec-based CSL team that replaces the Trois-Rivieres Attak as the reserve team of the Montreal Impact. The parent Impact team has been part of the United Soccer Leagues First Division for the past several years and will play as part of the United States Soccer Federation Division II League in 2010. Trois-Rivieres has requested a one-year hiatus from the CSL and plans to return in 2011. The CSL has also added three other first division teams for 2010 - the Hamilton Croatia, Brantford Galaxy, and the Milton-based Milltown FC. The Italia Shooters have been renamed the York Region Shooters for 2010.

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 Hockey League 2 Stories from April 5, 2010


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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