Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on April 15, 2013 under American Indoor Football (AIF)

BASEBALL

Atlantic Baseball League: A group wanting to build a 6,000-seat ballpark in Virginia Beach (VA) has received conditional approval for a franchise from the independent ABL. Financing for the ballpark still needs to be worked out. The area has a nearby affiliated team called the Norfolk Tides in the Triple-A International League. The eight-team ABL is looking to expand to 12 teams in the future.

Eastern League: The city of Ottawa (Ontario) plans to undergo renovations of its baseball stadium and is trying to work with Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays to move its Double-A Eastern League affiliate, currently the Manchester-based New Hampshire Fisher Cats, to Ottawa in time for the 2014 season.

South Atlantic League (SALLY): The city of Fredericksburg (VA) has been exploring the possibility of a new ballpark that could become home to an independent team in the Atlantic Baseball League or an affiliated team like the Hagerstown (MD) Suns in the low Class-A SALLY. The Suns have been not seen much progress on a proposed new ballpark in downtown Hagerstown and have expressed some interest in Fredericksburg. The Suns had been considering a move to Winchester (VA), which is still debating a proposed new ballpark for the team. An ownership group in the ABL has proposed a new 4,000-seat ballpark in Fredericksburg.

Frontier League: The owner of the Washington (PA) Wild Things in the independent Frontier League wants to move forward with a proposed new ballpark in Bridgeport (WV), even though a new ballpark for a short-season Class-A New York Penn League team has been proposed in Morgantown (WV), about 30 miles south. The Frontier League hoped to have a Bridgeport team start play in 2014, but financing for the ballpark has not been secured. The Morgantown stadium is expected to be ready in 2015.

BASKETBALL

Central Basketball League: The new Midwest-based CBL started its inaugural season this weekend with five teams called the Bowling Green Hornets, Dayton Air Strikers, Middle Tennessee Storm (Nashville area), River City Panthers (Peoria) and St. Louis Hawks.

Beautiful Ballers League: The new BBL, a national pro fantasy women's basketball league sponsored by Reebok, has added an eighth team called the Birmingham Belles. It looks as though the Miami Suns team has been renamed the South Florida Sunz. Other teams are the Minnesota Mist, Atlanta Peaches, Orlando Lady Cats, Los Angeles Dolls, New Orleans Spirit and Brooklyn Diamondz. League play starts in June.

Bikini Basketball Association: The proposed new BBA has added another new team called the Houston Inferno. The league currently lists four other teams called the Las Vegas Fantasy, Illinois Heart (Chicago), Miami Spice and Philadelphia Diamonds.

FOOTBALL

Indoor Football League: The owner of a proposed new indoor football team called the Kearney (NE) Hawks is looking at the IFL and other leagues as possibilities for the team to start play in 2014. The city hosted a team called the Tri-City Diesel for four seasons (2001-04) in the defunct National Indoor Football League.

American Indoor Football: A team called the Hampton Crusaders, a semi-pro outdoor team from the Mason-Dixon Football League that hopes to join the AIF, was a fill-in team on the schedule of the AIF's Harrisburg Stampede last weekend. The Crusaders are supposed to play as a fill-in for two other AIF teams during the 2013 season. The AIF had to make some adjustments after a proposed new Roc City Thunder (Rochester, NY) team dropped from the league just prior to the 2013 season and the West Virginia Badgers lost its home arena and became a travel team.

West Coast Indoor Football League: The semi-pro development league for the Western Indoor Football Association that was called the WIFA2 has been renamed the West Coast Indoor Football League. The professional WIFA plans to start play in 2014, but its WCIFL development league plans to start play next month with six California-based teams.

Women's Football Alliance: The springtime WFA started its 2013 season last weekend with 50 teams aligned into a National Conference with six regional divisions and an American Conference with seven regional divisions. Some of the new teams for 2013 include the Central Maryland Seahawks, Tennessee Train, New Orleans Mojo, Portland (OR) Shockwave, Seattle Majestics and Sacramento Sirens.

Women's Spring Football League: The WSFL started its 2013 season last weekend with a division for 8-player teams and one for 11-player teams. The 8-Man Division has 7 teams listed and the 11-Man Division has 12. Some of the new teams for 2013 include the Maine Lynx, Arkansas Banshees, Atlanta Heartbreakers, Lancaster (PA) Gladiators, Memphis Dynasty (originally MoJo), Nashville Smashers, River City Raiderz (Portland, OR), Shreveport Highrollers and Tri-State Warriors (New Jersey).

HOCKEY

American West Hockey League: The Tier-III junior-level AWHL announced that the Missoula (MT) Maulers team will not return and the league will operate with seven teams in 2013-14. The Glacier Nationals (Whitefish, MT) team, which played a split schedule between the AWHL and the Tier III Northern Pacific Hockey League in 2012-13, will be a full-time AWHL member next season.

Central Hockey League: The new CHL franchise to be based in Brampton (Ontario) starting with the 2013-14 season has selected the Brampton Beast as its team name. Other nickname finalists were Vipers, Bandits, Blizzard and North Stars. The CHL will also add the new St. Charles (MO) Chill franchise for the 2013-14 season.

United States Premier Hockey League: The new USPHL announced its junior division will operate as an independent junior league that is not affiliated with USA Hockey for the 2013-14 season. The USPHL junior league plans to apply for USA Hockey certification by next season. The USPHL will also operate 16U and 18U Midget division leagues that will be affiliated with USA Hockey for the 2013-14 season.

SOCCER

National Women's Soccer League: The new NWSL, the third version of a women's professional soccer league in the United States, has started its inaugural 2013 season with eight teams. These include the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City Blues, Portland Thorns FC, Seattle Reign FC, Sky Blue FC (Piscataway, NJ), Washington (DC) Spirit and the Western New York Flash (Rochester). The United States Soccer Federation, the Canadian Soccer Association and the Federation of Mexican Football are funding women players from their respective national teams to participate in the new league that also includes other top women players.

National Premier Soccer League: The teams in the two divisions of the men's NPSL West Region have started their 2013 seasons, while teams in the Midwest, South and Northeast regions start play in early May. The league has about 60 teams planned for the 2013 season.

United Soccer Leagues - Premier Development League: The Boston-based New England Revolution of Major League Soccer has signed an agreement to make the Réal Boston Rams the official USL PDL affiliate of the Revolution. The Rams joined the PDL as a new team for the 2013 season. The Revolution also has an affiliation with the Rochester Rhinos of the Division III USL PRO league.

Liga Mexicana de Futbol Rapido: Mexico's professional indoor soccer league known as the LMFR, which is affiliated with the Professional Arena Soccer League in the United States, has started its 2013 season with eight teams called the Astros de Tepic (Nayarit), Diablos Macaaray (Chiapas), Deportivo Diablos Rojos de Durango, Flash de Monterrey, Guerreros La Raza de Guadalajara (Jalisco), Linces Tlaquepaque, Lobos BUAP Puebla (Benimerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla) and Rancho Seco Saltillo (Coahuila). The Linces replaced the 2012 team called Tlaquepaque 2000, while the Lobos replaced the 2012 team called VIRMAC CFR. The LMFR season runs from April to July.

OTHER

American Ultimate Disc League: The professional AUDL, which plays a game similar to football only with a Frisbee-style disc, started its second season this weekend with a six-team Eastern Division and a six-team Midwestern Division. The league had eight teams in 2012, but the Connecticut Constitution (New Britain), Philadelphia Spinners, Rhode Island Rampage (East Providence) and Columbus (OH) Cranes did not return. The league added eight new teams called the DC Breeze (Washington, DC), New Jersey Hammerheads, New York Empire, Toronto Rush, Philadelphia Phoenix, Madison (WI) Radicals, Minnesota Wind Chill and Windy City Wildfire. In addition the Buffalo Hunters relocated to become the Rochester Dragons and the Lexington-based Bluegrass Revolution relocated to become the Cincinnati Revolution.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the "The Leagueology Almanac 2011-12", which tracks the changes in league alignments, franchise movements and team nicknames in today's sports world. The publication is currently available at www.amazon.com.

American Indoor Football Stories from April 15, 2013

• Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger

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.