Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on August 30, 2010 under Indoor Football League (IFL)

BASEBALL

Can-Am League: The nicknames of "Ice" and "Sliders" have been dropped from the list of possible names for the Can-Am franchise to be based in Ramapo (NY). The original ten-name list is down to two possible names-the Rockland Boulders or Rockland Palisaders. This past week voters in Ramapo defeated a plan for the town to guarantee funding for the ballpark, so the development group will now have to seek private funding. The team hopes to start play in 2012.

Pecos League: The proposed independent Pecos League now has five teams listed as accepted for its inaugural 2011 season. These include the Alpine 06 Cowboys, El Paso Dragons, Las Cruces Vaqueros, Roswell (NM) Invaders, and White Sands Pupfish (Alamogordo, NM). The Alpine (TX) team is not related to the Alpine-based Big Bend Cowboys that were part of the now-defunct Continental Baseball League. The White Sands team will be a travel team, but will play 10-20 games in Alamogordo. This club was a travel team based out of El Paso this past season as the Coastal Kingfish in the CBL. Other proposed Pecos League teams include the Bisbee Copperkings, Del Rio Gunslingers, Artesia (NM) NuMexers, Desert Valley Mountain Lions, and Lubbock (TX) Hubbers.

Peach State League: The new Peach State League completed its inaugural 2010 season earlier this month. All games were played in Macon (GA), home of the Macon Pinetoppers. The league's three other teams were named after other Georgia cities and included the Robins (GA) Aviators, Milledgeville (GA) Capitals, and Albany (GA).

American Association: The Pensacola Pelicans of the independent AA have hired a sports group to find a Major League Baseball affiliation for the team when it moves into a new ballpark planned for 2012.

Australian Baseball League: The new Australian Baseball League, which will have 75 percent of its funding from Major League Baseball, plans to start a 40-game season from November 2010 to January 2011. The fall league will have six teams: the Adelaide Bite, Brisbane Bandits, Canberra Cavalry, Melbourne Aces, Perth Heat, and Sydney Blue Sox.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The ABA has added a team from Dayton (OH) for the upcoming 2010-11 season. The ABA now lists several teams and markets that are consider as "2011 Expansion". These include the Tampa Sharks, Florida Thundercats, Norfolk Sharks, Flint Fire, Lynchburg (VA), Roanoke (VA), Sarasota/Bradenton (FL), Conway (AR), Little Rock (AR), El Paso (TX), Minneapolis (MN), and Lima (OH).

Eastern Basketball Alliance: The EBA has announced that a team called the Portsmouth (VA) Cavaliers will be part of the upcoming 2010-11 season.

Premier Basketball League: The PBL has added the Lexington-based Kentucky Bluegrass Stallions franchise for the upcoming 2011 season. The Stallions were part of the American Basketball Association in 2009-10. The PBL is reportedly considering additional expansion with Dayton (OH) and Nashville (TN) mentioned as possible markets.

United Basketball League: The UBL now has Houston listed as a new team in its Southern Division. The UBL has also added Crockett (TX), Monroe (LA), and the Irving (TX) Mustangs to its six teams from last season.

Texas Professional Basketball League: The TPBL reports that the San Antonio Airmen will be joining the league for its upcoming 2011 season. The San Antonio Airmen team was originally listed as part of a proposed Texas-based South Division in the 2010 Global Professional Basketball League2, but the South Division was dropped prior to the inaugural season of the GPBL2.

FOOTBALL

Indoor Football League: The IFL has announced that the Lehigh Valley expansion team based in Bethlehem (PA) will be called the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks when it starts play in the 2011 season. Blast, Vipers, Ironmen, and Gamblers were the other nicknames considered. The IFL previously announced another 2011 expansion team called the Tucson Thunder Kats.

Arena Football League: Reports that the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz of the AFL will be relocating to Seattle have been denied. The Huntsville-based Alabama Vipers have confirmed that the franchise will move to the Atlanta area in 2011 as the Georgia Force. The franchise was the previous Tennessee Valley Vipers that played four seasons (2006-09) in Huntsville as part of arenafootball2 and was renamed the Alabama Vipers as part of the revamped AFL in 2010. Another Huntsville-based Tennessee Valley Vipers team had played five seasons (2000-04) in the af2 before switching to United Indoor Football in 2005.

Canadian Football League: City officials in Oshawa (Ontario) have decided not to discuss the prospect of building a new stadium that would become home to the Hamilton (Ontario) Tiger-Cats of the CFL. The Tiger-Cats have not had any success finding support for a new stadium location in Hamilton. Oshawa is about 60 miles northeast of Hamilton and just east of the Toronto metro area.

Lingerie Football League: The women's indoor LFL has started its 2010-11 season with ten teams. Of the ten teams from the league's inaugural 2009-10 season, the New York Majesty and Denver Dream did not return. The league added the new Baltimore Charm and Orlando Fantasy to the Eastern Conference and moved the Chicago Bliss from the Eastern to the Western Conference. Each team is scheduled to play four games from late August 2010 to late January 2011.

HOCKEY

All American Hockey League: The AAHL has announced it has accepted the membership application for a 2010-11 expansion franchise based in Lapeer (MI), just outside of Flint. The league had a proposed team called the Lapeer Thunder that was announced prior to the 2009-10 season, but that team was sold and moved to Fraser (MI) as Detroit Hitmen.

ECHL: An ownership group has announced plans to try and bring an ECHL franchise to Thunder Bay (Ontario), but it is uncertain when the team will start play. Back in June, the league granted an expansion franchise to Chicago for the 2011-12 season. The league's Bakersfield Condors announced the team has become the ECHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild from the National Hockey League. The Trenton (NJ) Devils team, which is the ECHL affiliate of the NHL's New Jersey Devils, plans to play a regular-season game in Atlantic City during the 2010-11 season. This has led to speculation the ECHL might try to return to Atlantic City in the future. The Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies played four seasons (2001-05) in the ECHL before moving to Stockton (CA). The Devils' American League affiliate, the Albany Devils, also plans to play four games in Atlantic City in 2010-11.

American Hockey League: An ownership group is trying to take over the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack franchise and plans to rename the team the Connecticut Whalers. The Hartford Whalers were a former National Hockey League franchise that moved to Raleigh (NC) to become the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997.

SOCCER

Major Indoor Soccer League: The new MISL team based in Omaha for the upcoming 2010-11 season will be called the Omaha Vipers. As of now, all five teams from last season are planning to return along with Omaha and a new Independence-based team called the Missouri Comets.

Professional Arena Soccer League: The Cincinnati 1790 Express team in the PASL-Pro league has changed its name to the Cincinnati Kings for the upcoming 2010-11 indoor season. The PASL indoor team and the Cincinnati Kings outdoor team from the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League have merged under one name. The 1790 Express has been part of the PASL since the league's start in 2008-09. The outdoor Kings played three seasons (2005-07) in the USL Division-2 before moving down a level to the PDL in 2008.

Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League: The Prince George (British Columbia) Fury will not return for its second season in the 2010-11 CMISL. Over the past two seasons, CMISL teams played select inter-league games with teams of the Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL-Pro).

United Soccer League I-League: The city of Utica (NY) is under consideration for an indoor soccer franchise in the new USL I-League that plans to start in 2011. Utica could be part of a regional division that could include other New York cities like Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.

United States Soccer Federation Division-2 Pro League: The USSF has announced new tougher standards for Division-2 leagues and participating teams next season. The Miami FC Blues, a member of the 2010 USSF Division-2 Pro League and the North American Soccer League, plans to return to Divison-2 soccer next season. The team intends to change its name to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Leagueology™ almanac known as "Leagues, Teams & Nicknames", which tracks the changes in league alignments, franchise movements and team nicknames in today's sports world. The latest 2009-10 edition is available at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/leagues-teams-nicknames-2009-10/6534940. Dan can be contacted at dankrieger@leaguesteamsnicknames.com.

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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.