Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on March 28, 2011 under Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL)

BASEBALL

Can-Am League: Construction in Ramapo (NY) on a new ballpark for the expansion Rockland Boulders of the Can-Am League was apparently unaffected by a stop-work order issued a couple of weeks ago. The city is trying to complete the 4,500-seat ballpark in time for the Boulders to start play in the 2011 season.

North American League: The owner of the Schaumburg (IL) Flyers, which recently lost its ballpark lease in Schaumburg, has been trying to move the team to another city or possibly operate the Flyers as a travel team as part of the 2011 NAL season.

Liga Norte de Mexico: The LNM, or Northern Mexico League, will again have eight teams when it starts its 2011 season on April 14. The Cerveceros de Tecate did not return from last season and were replaced by the Tiburones de Puerto Penasco. The seven other teams from last season all returned for 2011. These include the Algononeros de San Luis, Marineros de Ensenada, Ostioneros de Guaymas, Rieleros de Empalme, Rojos de Caborca, Truenos de Tijuana, and Vaqueros de Agua Prieta. The LNM is a Class-A league affiliated with the Triple-A Mexican Baseball League and was formerly the Liga de Norte Sonora.

BASKETBALL

International Basketball League: The IBL has announced it will again operate a winter season starting in November 2011 and ending in mid-January 2012. The IBL has been around since 2005 operating as a spring-summer league, but experimented with an additional four-team Midwest-based Winter Division from November 2010 to January 2011. Winter Division teams included the Battle Creek (MI) Knights, Kankakee County (IL) Soldiers, Great Lakes All Stars, and Gary (IN) Splash. The IBL's upcoming 2011 spring-summer season will feature 11 full-schedule teams and 5 partial-schedule teams.

Americas Basketball International: The proposed ABI has again postponed the start of its inaugural 2011 season until late April. An ABI Tip-Off Classic was to have been played the weekend of March 25.

The ABI is based in Birmingham (AL) and has been trying to get off the ground for the past couple of years with plans for some league-operated teams called the Gladiators, Wolf Pack, Reigns, and Pirates to play games against visiting teams from Central and South America.

American Basketball Association: The ABA has announced an expansion team called the Carolina Cougars, based in Rocky Mount (NC), will be part of the 2011-12 season. The Cougars' owner also owns two other North Carolina-based ABA expansion teams called the Carolina Jaguars (Raleigh-Durham) and the Trefour Cheetahs (Winston-Salem).

FOOTBALL

Southern Indoor Football League: Just prior to the start of the 2011 SIFL season last weekend, the Lafayette (LA) Wildcatters announced the team would not be participating in the 2011 season due to the high costs of workers' compensation insurance at its home arena. The Wildcatters hope to return in 2012. The Wildcatters' first opponent, the Mobile Bay Tarpons, was forced to play its first home game against a replacement team called the Georgia Firebirds of the semi-pro United Football Federation. The league's Houston Stallions apparently lost the lease on its home arena and played its first home game in Corpus Christi. The Stallions have reportedly signed a lease to play four remaining home games in an arena in Winnie (TX), about 60 miles east of Houston.

United Football League: The UFL is considering Chattanooga (TN) as a location for a potential franchise, but the league will stay with only five teams for the upcoming 2011 season. The UFL has been targeting markets without teams in the National Football League and has expressed interest in other cities like Los Angeles, Portland (OR), Salt Lake City, and San Antonio. The UFL would like to have eight teams within the next couple of years.

Lingerie Football League: The Dallas Desire of the LFL has announced the team will suspend operations for the 2011-12 season, but plans to return in 2012-13. Two other teams, the Miami Caliente and San Diego Seduction, also recently announced a suspension of operations for next season. The LFL previously announced three expansion teams called the Green Bay Chill, Las Vegas Sin, and Cleveland Crush will be added for the 2011-12 season. The LFL recently announced another new franchise has been granted to the Minneapolis-St. Paul market for 2011-12, along with another yet-to-be-announced new franchise location.

Canadian Lingerie Football League: The Lingerie Football League plans to start a Canadian version of the LFL that has been referred to as Canadian Fantasy Football. The Canadian league plans to start play in September 2012 and will host an exhibition game in Winnipeg on July 22, 2011.

American Indoor Football Association - West: A report out of Stockton (CA) claims the AIFA-West has changed its name to the Western Indoor Football Association. The league's two official members, the Stockton Wolves and Reno Barons, are playing independent schedules in 2011 as the league tries to restart in 2012.

Stars Football League: A new team called the Charleston (SC) Admirals is holding tryouts as it prepares to play in the proposed outdoor SFL, which plans to start play in 2011.

HOCKEY

North American Hockey League: The ownership of the Odessa Jackalopes of the professional Central Hockey League has confirmed that the team will leave the CHL after the 2010-11 season and it will operate a Tier II Junior-A team with the same name in the 2011-12 NAHL The Jackalopes' ownership has purchased the NAHL's Owatonna (MN) Express team, which will relocate to Odessa and become the Jackalopes next season. CHL teams in Amarillo and Corpus Christi left the league after the 2009-10 season and were replaced by NAHL teams in those cities for 2010-11. The ownership of the CHL's Laredo Bucks franchise was also considering a move to the NAHL for 2011-12. The NAHL's Traverse City North Stars have been mentioned as a possible relocation candidate for Laredo.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer Reserve League: For its 2011 season the MLS restarted its Reserve League, which previously operated for four seasons (2005-08) as the MLS Reserve Division. Each of the league's 18 clubs will operate a Reserve League team that will play a ten-game schedule from March 20 to October 16. Unlike the MLS, which is split into two, nine-team conferences, the Reserve League will be split into East, Central, and West divisions with six teams apiece. Each team will play two games against the five other teams in its regional division.

Women's Premier Soccer League: The Adirondack Lynx team, which sat out the 2010 WPSL season, has returned for 2011 as the Albany Alleycats. The SoccerPlus Connecticut Reds (New Haven) team also returns for 2011 after sitting out the 2010 season. The league's Jersey Selects team has been renamed the New Jersey Blaze. The FC Dallas men's club in Major League Soccer will operate a women's FC Dallas team in the 2011 WPSL. The owner of the Chicago Red Stars club, which is sitting out the 2011 season in Women's Professional Soccer, plans to operate a 2011 WPSL team that could take the Red Stars name.

Women's Professional Soccer: It appears as though the Washington Freedom franchise, which has relocated to Boca Raton (FL), will become the magicJack FC for the 2011 WPS season. Some of the men's teams in Major League Soccer have expressed an interest in operating women's teams in the WPS. The D.C. United of Major League Soccer plans to be affiliated with a women's team, now called Washington FC, in the United Soccer Leagues W-League for 2011. The WPS wants to return to Washington after the recent loss of the Freedom. The Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS have a women's team by the same name in the W-League and would like to move to the WPS by 2012. However, the Whitecaps do not want to be the only western team in the WPS and it might take someone like the MLS's Seattle Sounders, which also has a women's team in the W-League, to move to the WPS at the same time.

Professional Arena Soccer League: The PASL-Pro league has announced the addition of the Phoenix Monsoon expansion team for its 2011-12 season. Phoenix is expected to be placed in the league's Western Division with another recently announced expansion team called the Anaheim Bolts.

OTHER

USA Rugby League: The new USARL, which plans to start play in May 2011, has announced that the Orange County Outlaws will be an official developmental team in 2011 and a full-time team in the 2012 season. Two other rugby league football clubs called the Los Angeles Raiders and the Utah Avalanche recently announced plans to join the URARL as western developmental teams in 2011. Teams called the Seattle Force and Denver Wolverines could also become part of a USARL western division.

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.

Southern Indoor Football League Stories from March 28, 2011

• Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger
• SIFL Weekend Recap - SIFL
• Stampede Comeback Falls Short - Harrisburg Stampede

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.