Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
February 27, 2012 - Indoor Football League (IFL)

BASEBALL

North American League: The Edmonton Capitals have withdrawn from the NAL and will suspend play for the 2012 season. The Capitals team got its start as the Edmonton Cracker-Cats in the 2005 season of the independent Northern League. The city had just lost its affiliated team called the Edmonton Trappers that played in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League from 1981 to 2004. The Cracker-Cats switched to the Golden Baseball League in 2008, changed its name to the Capitals for the 2009 season, and became part of the NAL when the NAL absorbed the GBL for the 2011 season.

Carolina League: The city of Wilmington (NC) has approved a feasibility study for a new ballpark that could bring a high Class-A Carolina League team to the city. The team would be an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves.

BASKETBALL

Atlantic Coast Professional Basketball League: The ACPBL announced it will complete its 2011-12 season with only ten teams after the Buffalo Warriors and the Center Court All-Stars (Washington, DC area) ceased operations. The Buffalo team has been removed from the North division and the Center Court team from the South division. The ACPBL started the season with 13 teams. The Center Court All-Stars were an early-season replacement for the league's Chesapeake Tru Hope Trailblazers and shortly after that a Philadelphia-based team called The Enterprise dropped out of the league. The ACPBL schedule runs until April 21.

American Basketball Association: The ABA's previously announced expansion team for Birmingham (AL) is now listed as the Birmingham Blitz.

National Basketball League of Canada: The NBL-Canada is reportedly considering the Ontario markets of Ottawa-Gatineau (Quebec), Kitchener, and Hamilton for franchises in its second season of 2012-13.

Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacifico (CIBACOPA): The Lagartos UAN (Universidad Autonama de Nayarit) de Tepic team in the Mexico's CIBACOPA (Pacific Coast Basketball League) is now listed as the Coras de Tepic for the upcoming 2012 season. The team was previously called the Coras de Tepic, but switched to the Lagartos name for the 2011 season.

FOOTBALL

Indoor Football League: The IFL has started its 2012 season with 16 teams, down from the 22 teams in the 2011 season. The league lost ten teams from last season-the Richmond Revolution, La Crosse Spartans, Amarillo Venom, West Texas Roughnecks, Oklahoma City Bricktown Brawlers, Arizona Adrenaline, Fairbanks Grizzlies, Seattle Timberwolves, Wenatchee Valley Venom, and Bloomington (IL) Extreme. Four new teams called the Cedar Rapids (IA) Titans, Everett (WA) Raptors, New Mexico Stars, and Bloomington Edge were added for 2012. The IFL alignment will feature an eight-team United Conference and an eight-team Intense Conference with no regional divisions within the conferences. The Amarillo Venom and West Texas Roughnecks moved to the new Lone Star Football League. The owner of the La Crosse Spartans started the new Cedar Rapids Titans franchise, while the owner of the Seattle Timberwolves formed the new Everett Raptors for 2012. The Bloomington Extreme franchise came under new ownership and was replaced by the Bloomington Edge.

American Indoor Professional: The AIF will reportedly have a least three travel-only teams when it starts its 2012 season. These include the Virginia (Richmond) Badgers and Tri-State (Baltimore) Redhawks on the East Coast, and the North Alameda (California) Knights on the West Coast.

United Indoor Football League: After announcing the folding of the Huntington Hammer team last month, the UIFL has added the team back to the 2012 season schedule as a travel team with three road games. The Rome Rampage and Western PA Sting will each play nine road games as travel teams for the 2012 season. The league will have eight other full-schedule teams.

Lingerie Football League-Canada: The LFL Canada, which plans to start its inaugural season on August 25, 2012, announced that its new team based in Abbotsford (British Columbia), which is about 70 miles southeast of Vancouver, will be called the BC Angels. The Angels will join the Toronto Triumph and four other teams for LFL Canada's first season. The league also announced one of the other four teams will be based in Regina (Saskatchewan) and there is a possibility another Western Division team could be based in Saskatoon (Saskatchewan).

HOCKEY

Ontario Hockey League: The Erie Otters of the major-junior OHL are reportedly pursuing a move to Hamilton (Ontario). Hamilton is currently home to the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League and the Hamilton Red Wings of the junior-A Ontario Junior Hockey League. There has been talk of the AHL Bulldogs moving to a proposed new arena in Laval (Quebec). Hamilton's last OHL team was the Dukes of Hamilton, which moved to become the Guelph Storm after the 1990-91 season.

Central Hockey League: Four current CHL teams-the Quad City Mallards, Fort Wayne Komets, Evansville IceMen, and Dayton Gems-are former International Hockey League teams that have the option of leaving the CHL after this season when the two-year CHL-IHL agreement ends. There have been reports that Fort Wayne and Evansville will move to the ECHL next season and the Dayton Gems will fold. The CHL is considering one or two expansion teams for next year.

Ontario Junior Hockey League: The Huntsville (Ontario) Otters of Canada's junior-A OJHL will reportedly leave the league and join the junior-A Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League for the 2012-13 season. A league called the Greater Metro Junior-A Hockey League, which is not affiliated with Hockey Canada, has express interest in adding a Huntsville-based team for 2012-13. There is also interest in a possible affiliated Junior-C team in Huntsville for next season.

International Junior Hockey League: A team called the Maine Moose (Hallowell) plans to rejoin the independent IJHL for its 2012-13 season. The Maine Moose last played in the IJHL's A-level division in the 2009-10 season.

SOCCER

Pecos Soccer League: The new Pecos Soccer League started its inaugural 2012 season last weekend. The league features five teams called the Alamogordo (NM) Stealth, El Paso Santos, Juarez Juventus FC, Hatch (NM) Chili Kickers, and Roswell (NM) Aliens FC.

Major League Soccer - Reserve League: The MLS has announced that each of its 19 clubs will have a team in the 2012 season of the MLS Reserve League and each team will play a ten-game schedule from March 12 to September 30, 2012. The league will be divided into a seven-team Eastern Conference, a six-team Central Conference, and a six-team Western Conference. There has been discussion of possibly integrating the MLS Reserve League schedule with the Division II North American Soccer League and the Division III United Soccer Leagues PRO league sometime in the next few years.

Liga Mexican de Futbol Rapido: Mexico's professional indoor soccer league known as the LMFR has started its 2012 season with eight teams called the Flash de Monterrey, Diablos Rojos Durango, Guerreros La Raza, VIRMAC CFR, Astros Tepic, Rancho Seco Saltillo, Tlaquepaque 2000, and Diablos Macaaray (Chiapas). The LMFR is affiliated with the Professional Arena Soccer League.

OTHER

National Lacrosse League: The commissioner of the indoor NLL stated that the league is looking to expand the sport to other markets in the United States and Canada. Possible locations for future teams include Baltimore, New York, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and New England in the United States and Vancouver (British Columbia) in Canada.

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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