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NWL1 Northwest League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
June 27, 2011 - Northwest League (NWL1)


BASEBALL

Northwest League: Just after the Yakima (WA) Bears of the short-season Class-A Northwest League began negotiating with Vancouver (WA), just north of Portland, for relocation to a proposed new ballpark, the city of Milwaukie (OR), just south of Portland, is making a bid for land that could also become home to a 4,000-seat ballpark for a Class-A Northwest League team.

Pecos League: A recent Pecos League series between the Alpine (TX) Cowboys and the Carlsbad Bats travel team was played in Carlsbad (NM), but poor attendance could threaten the chances of Carlsbad having a team of its own in 2012. The league also planned to hold neutral-site games in Pueblos (CO) and Clovis (NM) to gauge interest for possible 2012 teams.

Appalachian League: The short-season Rookie-Advanced Appalachian League has started its 2011 season and again has ten teams split into an Eastern and Western division. The only change for 2011 was the Bluefield (WV) Orioles changing its affiliation to the Toronto Blue Jays and becoming the Bluefield Blue Jays.

Pioneer League: The short-season Rookie-Advanced Pioneer League has started its 2011 season with the same eight teams. The Northern Division includes four Montana-based teams called the Billings Mustangs, Great Falls Voyagers, Helena Brewers, and Missoula Osprey. The Southern Division has the Casper (WY) Ghosts, Idaho Falls (ID) Chukars, Ogden (UT) Raptors, and Orem (UT) Owlz.

American Association: The new AA team that will be based in Schaumburg (IL) for the 2012 season has announced a name-the-team contest. After the 2010 Northern League season, Schaumburg (IL) selected a new ownership group to lease its ballpark and decided not to move forward with the group affiliated with the Schaumburg Flyers franchise, which had been a member of the Northern League since the 1999 season.

Gulf Coast Baseball League: The new developmental GCBL plans to start play in 2012 and expects to have from six to ten teams located in the southern tip of Florida, along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana, and north into Georgia and Arkansas. Teams in the independent league are expected to play a 72-game season.

Peach State League: The independent Peach State League, which had all of its inaugural 2010 games played at the home of the Macon (GA) Pinetoppers, will not play in 2011 and hopes to return in 2012. The league's three other teams were named after other Georgia cities and included the Robins Aviators, Milledgeville Capitals, and Albany Quails.

BASKETBALL

Universal Basketball Association: The UBA has added a team called the Cleveland (TX) Havoc for its second season of 2011-12. With the addition of the Havoc, the UBA now has six Texas-based teams in the league's Western Conference. The other Texas teams are the Houston Xperience, Texas Cyclones, DFW Warriors, Woodlands Express, and Katy Knights.

National Basketball Association Development League: The future of the New Mexico Thunderbirds franchise in the NBA D-League is uncertain for the 2011-12 season because it lost top priority for home dates at its arena in Rio Rancho.

American Basketball Association: The ABA announced the addition of the Washington Rampage, based in Snohomish County (WA), as a 2011-12 expansion team for the league's Northwest Division. The league also announced the Las Vegas Aces team will move to Eatonville (FL) in the Orlando area for the 2011-12 season. The ABA plans to have an ABA-Canada Select team participating in the 2011-12 season. The ABA has also announced that a future new team in Birmingham (AL) will be added for the 2012-13 season.

Eastern Basketball Alliance: The EBA has added the Brooklyn-based NYC Jaguars team for its upcoming 2011-12 season.

FOOTBALL

Indoor Football League: The Wenatchee Valley (WA) Venom franchise of the IFL has announced the team will sit out the 2012 season to restructure its organization.

Western Indoor Football Association: The Reno Barons team, which had been affiliated with the WIFA, has ended its 2011 season due to a lack of funds.

Canadian Football League: The proposed new Ottawa-based CFL franchise will most likely not start play until the 2014 season. The team was supposed to start in 2013, but the city's stadium renovation and adjacent redevelopment area were facing some legal battles.

Women's Spring Football League: After having five teams play a short exhibition schedule in 2010, the WSFL has started its 2011 season. Currently, the league has a two-team 11's Division for 11-player teams and a five-team 8's Division for 8-player teams. The WSFL is trying to develop an indoor Leather N' Lace Division that plays a game similar to the Lingerie Football League. The WSFL is also trying to start a 6's Division for six-player teams in 2012.

Leather and Lace Football League: The new LLFL has started play with three Alabama-based teams called the Mobile Bay Vixens, Dauphin Island Dreamz, and Grand Bay Ravens. All games are played at Cottage Hill Park in Mobile. The league plays full-contact indoor football and is similar to the Lingerie Football League, but the dress is a little more sports-like. The LLFL plans to add some 2012 expansion teams, one of which is the Kansas City Tease.

HOCKEY

National Hockey League: The NHL's former Atlanta Thrashers franchise, which has moved to Winnipeg (Manitoba) for the 2011-12 season, will be called the Winnipeg Jets after the city's former NHL team by the same name. That NHL team moved to Phoenix as the Coyotes for the 1996-97 season. The original Winnipeg Jets were part of the World Hockey Association for its seven seasons (1972-79) before joining the NHL for the 1979-80 season.

American Hockey League: The AHL's Rochester Americans have been sold to the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League and the Americans will become Buffalo's AHL affiliate for the 2011-12 season. The Americans were affiliated with the NHL's Florida Panthers for the past three seasons, but from 1979 to 2008 the Americans had been an affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres' most recent AHL affiliate, the Portland Pirates, is expected to become the affiliate of the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes.

Western Hockey League: The new Victoria (British Columbia) team in the major-junior WHL will be called the Victoria Royals when it starts play in the 2011-12 season. The former Chilliwack (British Columbia) Bruins franchise relocated to Victoria and will play in the same arena that had been used since the 2004-05 season by the Victoria Salmon Kings of the ECHL.

Federal Hockey League: The FHL has announced it will operate with eight teams for its second season in 2011-12. The five returning teams are the Akwesasne (Ontario) Warriors, Danbury (CT) Whalers, Thousand Islands Privateers (Alexandria Bay, NY), the Brooklyn-based New York Aviators, and the Cape Cod Bluefins (Hyannis, MA), which were the Cape Cod Barons in 2010-11. The league will add three new teams called the Danville (IL) Dashers, Niagara Falls (Ontario) Nationals, and New Jersey (Wayne) Outlaws. The FHL's sixth team from last season called the Rome (NY) Frenzy will not return, but will remain a league member and try to restart in 2012-13. At one time there had been reports that the Frenzy franchise had moved to Niagara Falls. Another previously announced new team called the Green Mountain Rock Crushers (Jay Peak, VT) will not start as planned in 2011-12.

Great Lakes Inline Junior-A Hockey League: The GLI is currently playing its 2011 season that runs from early May to late June and has five teams called the Brampton Junior-A Radicals, Buffalo Storm,

Hamilton Power, KW Rage (Kitchener-Waterloo), and Mississauga Rattlers. The league had four teams last season, but the Hamilton Power returned after sitting out in 2010. The GLI is a member of the Ontario Minor Roller Hockey Association.

SOCCER

North American Soccer League: The NASL has confirmed that the ownership of the Ottawa Fury soccer team in the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League will operate a future NASL team and will play at the city's renovated Canadian Football League stadium. The NASL team hopes to start play in 2013, but there is still a lot of work to be done on the stadium renovation project that might not be ready until 2014.

OTHER

Major League Lacrosse: The new Charlotte-based franchise in the summertime outdoor MLL has announced it will be called the Charlotte Hounds when it starts play in the league's 2012 season. Other choices were the Legion and the Monarchs. The six-team MLL plans to add Charlotte and a Columbus-based franchise called the Ohio Machine for next season.

American National Rugby League: The AMNRL lost almost half of its 2010 teams to the new USA Rugby League, but is operating for 2011 with a six-team Atlantic Conference and a new six-team Pacific Conference that has all teams based in Hawaii. The league recently announced the Utah Avalanche (Salt Lake City) will be part of a future Southwest Region.

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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