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CHL Central Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
May 16, 2011 - Central Hockey League (CHL)


BASEBALL

American Association: The independent AA has started its 2011 season and has grown from 10 to 14 teams with the addition of the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, Gary SouthShore Railcats, Kansas City T-Bones, and Winnipeg Goldeyes from last season's Northern League. A new team called the Amarillo Sox was added for 2011 to replace the AA's Pensacola Pelicans team, whose owner plans to operate a Pensacola-based affiliated team in the Double-A Southern League in 2012. The AA added a new Central Division for 2011to increase to three divisions. The North Division includes the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, St. Paul Saints, Sioux Falls Pheasants, and Winnipeg Goldeyes; the Central Division has the the Gary SouthShore RailCats, Kansas City T-Bones, Lincoln Saltdogs, Sioux City Explorers, and Wichita Wingnuts; and the South Division features the Amarillo Sox, El Paso Diablos, Fort Worth Cats, Grand Prairie AirHogs, and Shreveport-Bossier Captains. The AA started play in 2006 with a merger of five teams from the former Central Baseball League, one new team, and four teams from the Northern League.

Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs: The new independent Pecos League has started its inaugural 2011 season and features six teams called the Alpine (TX) Cowboys, Carlsbad (NM) Bats, Las Cruces (NM) Vaqueros, Roswell (NM) Invaders, Ruidoso (NM) Osos, and White Sands Pupfish (Alamogordo, NM). The Carlsbad Bats will be a travel team in 2011 and will be operated by the developmental New York State League. The Pecos League currently lists four potential 2012 teams called the Del Rio (TX) Grande, Lubbock (TX) Hubbers, Odessa (TX) Outlaws, and Pueblo (CO) Wranglers.

Atlantic Baseball League: Plans for a proposed new arena and minor-league ballpark in Nassau County (Long Island, NY) have resurfaced and there is speculation the ballpark could house a new ABL team that would become a rival to the ABL's Long Island Ducks located in nearby Suffolk County.

Florida State League: A developer is still looking for a location in the Orlando area to build a new ballpark that would become home to the relocated Tampa Yankees of the Class-A FSL. Orlando's last pro baseball team was the Orlando Rays of the Double-A Southern League team, but it moved and became the Montgomery (AL) Biscuits for the 2004 season. An attempt to move another Southern League team to Orlando in 2006 failed when plans fell through for a proposed new downtown ballpark.

Pacific Coast League: One of the owners of the Edmonton Capitals in the independent North American League wants the Triple-A PCL to consider Edmonton and other Canadian markets like Calgary, Vancouver, and Winnipeg for a possible Canadian division of teams in the future. Currently, the Calgary Vipers are part of the NAL, the Winnipeg Goldeyes are part of the independent American Association, and the Vancouver Canadians are part of the affiliated short-season Class-A Northwest League.

Can-Am League: Since the new ballpark for the Can-Am League's Rockland Boulders expansion team will not be ready, the team will play its opening series against the Quebec Capitales in Trois-Rivieres (Quebec) to test fan support in that market. The head of the league is exploring the possibility of building a new ballpark in Montreal that could lead to the creation of a six-team Canadian baseball league. The Quebec Capitales could be part of the league along with a possible new team in Trois-Rivieres. Western Canada teams like the Edmonton Capitals and Calgary Vipers of the North American League, along with the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association, could also be part of the new league.

Northwest League: The Yakima (WA) Bears in the short-season Class-A Northwest League could be moving to Vancouver (WA), just north of Portland (OR), for the 2012 season if a new ballpark is built on the campus of Clark College as planned. The league had the Portland Rockies team from 1995 to 2000.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball League of Canada: The Saint John (New Brunswick) Mill Rats, Quebec Kebs, and Halifax (Nova Scotia) Rainmen, which left the Premier Basketball League after its 2011 season , have joined together to form the new NBL Canada. The league plans to start play in November 2011 with at least five teams. A team in Moncton (New Brunswick) is expected to join and the league reports it has letters of intent from groups in the Ontario cities of Barrie, Oshawa, London, and Kingston.

American Basketball Association: The ABA has announced it will add the Phoenix-based Arizona Scorpions as a 2011-12 expansion team. Teams called the Phoenix Eclipse (2001-02) and Phoenix Fury (2008-09) were at one time part of the ABA. A couple of proposed ABA teams called the Phoenix Rhinos (2005) and the Phoenix Phantoms (2007-08) never started play. The league's previously announced expansion team for Panama Beach (FL) is now listed as the Panama City (FL) Dream.

Continental Basketball League: A new Savannah-based team called the Port City Sharks has been added to the CBL schedule and replaces the Savannah Wildcats team that unexpectedly was forced to drop out of the 2011 season last week.

FOOTBALL

Arena Football League: The AFL has had preliminary discussions with the city of San Antonio and a potential ownership group about placing an AFL franchise in San Antonio for the 2012 season.

Professional Indoor Football League: The proposed PIFL, which failed to get off the ground as planned for the 2011 season, has changed its name to the Prep Indoor Football League. The PIFL recently announced plans to play its first season as a Tier I junior football league with all players between the ages of 18 and 21.

Indoor Championship Football League: A team called the DMV Hitmen will be part of the new ICFL when its starts its inaugural season in December 2011. The season will run through March with teams based in the Mid-Atlantic area.

HOCKEY

National Hockey League: The Glendale (AZ) city council voted to give the NHL $25 million in operating costs to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in town for next season. The NHL took ownership of the Coyotes at the beginning of the 2009-10 season and has been trying to complete a sale of the team ever since. A potential buyer has run into local opposition over terms of its arena lease and a group affiliated with the purchaser recently pulled out of a possible Coyotes deal. This group plans to concentrate on efforts to establish an ECHL franchise in Thunder Bay (Ontario). If the Coyotes' sale would fall through, the ownership of the Winnipeg-based Manitoba Moose in the American Hockey League expressed interest in moving the Coyotes back to Winnipeg where they left in 1996. This ownership group is now rumored to be working with the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers franchise about a possible sale and relocation to Winnipeg.

Central Hockey League: The Quad City Mallards franchise in the CHL has decided to suspend operations. This version of the Mallards started play as a member of the 2009-10 International Hockey League, whose teams played under the CHL banner for 2010-11. A previous Quad City Mallards team had been a member of the defunct Colonial Hockey League/United Hockey League from 1995 to 2007. The owner of the league's Fort Wayne Komets has committed the team to be part of the 2011-12 CHL season, although the league could be losing other teams in the current off-season. The Bloomington (IL) Prairie Thunder lost its lease after the 2010-11 season and will be replaced by a totally new CHL franchise with a new nickname for the 2011-12 season.

Federal Hockey League: The FHL plans to announce next week that it will add a New Jersey franchise based in Wayne (NJ) for its second season in 2011-12. The FHL had six teams in 2010-11 and previously announced new teams in Vermont (Green Mountain Rock Crushers) and Illinois (Danville). An investor had been looking to add another team in Smiths Falls (Ontario).

SOCCER

United Soccer Leagues PRO: The USL formally removed the Puerto Rico United, Sevilla FC-Puerto Rico, and River Plate-Puerto Rico teams from the remainder of the 2011 USL PRO league schedule. These teams were part of the International Division in the USL PRO league and also played concurrently as part of the Puerto Rico Soccer League. The two remaining International Division teams-the Los Angeles Blues and Antiqua Barracuda FC-have been placed in the league's two other divisions to create two six-team divisions. Los Angeles was added to the National Division and Antigua to the American Division.

Major League Soccer: Along with plans for a new arena and ballpark, a developer in Las Vegas announced plans to build a new soccer stadium that could become home to an MLS franchise. The city of Baltimore is considering plans for a new soccer stadium that could become home to the D.C. United. The ownership of the Minnesota Vikings in the National Football League announced plans for a proposed new football stadium that eventually could become home to an MLS franchise.

Women's Premier Soccer League: The 2011 WPSL Pacific Conference has added a four-team Northwest Division to go with its six-team South Division and six-team North Division. New conference teams for 2011 include the Orange County Wave and Los Al Vikings (Los Alamitos, CA) in the South Division; the Bay Area Breeze and West Coast Wildkatz (Livermore, CA) in the North Division; and the Portland Rain U23, Oregon Rush (Bend, OR), and the Spokane Shine, which replaced the city's Spokane Black Widows from last season, in the Northwest Division.

Liga Mexicana de Futbol Rapido: The professional LMFR, which is a Mexican indoor soccer league affiliated with the Professional Arena Soccer League, has started its 2011 May-August season with eight teams: the Astros de Tepic, Diablos Rojos de Durango, Guerreros de La Raza, Monterrey Flash, PPM Sidekicks del Estado de Mexico, Rancho Seco Saltillo, Tlaquepaque 2000, and Virmac CFR. The LMFR will also play a 2011-12 season from November to March.

OTHER

North American Lacrosse League: The new NALL was announced this past week as an indoor lacrosse league that will stress the use of more American players and will utilize medium-sized markets in the United States. The current indoor National Lacrosse League is comprised of predominantly Canadian players. The NALL plans to have a minimum of six teams in 2012 that will play a 12-game schedule from January to April. Team locations will be announced in the next month or so, but some cities under consideration include Wilkes-Barre (PA), Orlando, Charlotte (NC), Raleigh (NC), Richmond (VA), Hershey (PA), and Albany (NY).

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 2010-11 edition is available at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/leagues-teams-nicknames-the-leagueology-almanac-2010-11/15228513. Dan can be contacted at dankrieger@leaguesteamsnicknames.com.

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Central Hockey League Stories from May 16, 2011


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