AHL American Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
June 17, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)


BASEBALL

Northwest League: The short-season Class-A Northwest League has started its 2013 season with a new alignment after the Yakima (WA) Bears relocated to become the Hillsboro (OR) Hops in the off-season.

The league has replaced its East and West divisions with a North and South division. The North includes the Vancouver (British Columbia) Canadians and three remaining Washington state teams called the Everett AquaSox, Spokane Indians and Tri-City Dust Devils. The South includes the Boise (ID) Hawks, the Hillsboro Hops and two other Oregon-based teams called the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and Eugene Emeralds.

Northern League: The revival of the independent Northern League for the 2014 is not expected to include Skylands Park in Sussex County (NJ). The ballpark was last home to the Sussex County SkyHawks for five seasons (2006-10) in the Can-Am League.

Major League Baseball: DuPage County (IL) in the suburban Chicago area plans to look for potential stadium sites to try to lure MLB's Chicago Cubs from Wrigley Field. Several weeks ago, suburban Rosemont offered free land to build a stadium for the Cubs.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The Sioux Falls (SD) Skyforce of the NBA D-League has entered into a two-year single affiliation partnership with the NBA's Miami Heat. Under this "hybrid affiliation", local ownership runs the day-to-day business operations while the Heat pays for and controls the team's basketball operations. NBA teams now have single affiliations with 13 of the 17 D-League teams. Six D-League teams operate under "hybrid affiliations", six are owned and operated by NBA teams and one D-League team has a one-to-one affiliation with an NBA team. With 13 of the 30 NBA teams having single D-League affiliations, 17 NBA teams will have to share affiliations with the 4 D-League teams that do not currently have single affiliations.

Canadian Basketball League: A sports group based in Mississauga (Ontario) is starting the new CBL that plans to start play in the fall of 2014 with at least eight teams. A meeting of prospective owners is planned for mid-July. The CBL will initially focus on Western Canada with cities like Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary mentioned as possibilities. The CBL plans to require between six to eight Canadian players on each roster. The ten-team National Basketball League of Canada, which will be entering its third season in 2013-14 and operates with eastern teams in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, requires three Canadian players per team roster. The NBL-Canada had talked of long-range plans to eventually expand into Western Canada.

National Basketball Association: Management of the NBA's Toronto Raptors team, which joined the league as an expansion team for the 1995-96 season, will consider the possibility of changing the teams nickname. The league's New Orleans Hornets recently changed to the Pelicans and the Charlotte Bobcats are considering a change to the Hornets.

Circuito de Basquetbol del Noreste (CIBANE): Mexico's northeastern minor basketball league known as the CIBANE recently started its 2013 season with six teams called the Acereros de Monclova, Cuervos de Pabellon, Caktus de Saltillo, Madereros de Durango, Mineros de Fresnillo and Tuzos de la Zacatecas. The 20-game season runs from late May to late July.

Women's United States Basketball Association: The proposed WUSBA has made annual attempts to start play since 2010 and recently decided to cancel plans for a 2013 summer season that was to include 14 teams. The WUSBA is now back to its plan announced last year in which it will build 6,000-seat arenas in 30 major cities across the United States with 32 teams starting league play in November 2015.

FOOTBALL

Continental Indoor Football League: The CIFL announced five teams (Erie Explosion, Dayton Sharks, Detroit Thunder, Saginaw Sting and Port Huron Patriots) from the 2013 season will return in 2014. The league started its 2013 season with 10 teams, but the Kane County (IL) Dawgs and Owensboro (KY) Rage dropped out during the season, while the Marion (OH) Blue Racers recently announced a move to the new Xtreme Indoor Football League. The other two teams were the Kentucky Xtreme (Louisville) and Kentucky Drillers (Pikeville). The league is in negotiations with other teams to join the league for 2013.

A team called the Flint (MI) Fury played some CIFL games during the 2013 season and expressed an interest in joining the CIFL. The Roc City Thunder (Rochester, NY) previously announced plans to join the CIFL for the 2014 season. The Fort Wayne (IN) and Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids (MI) markets were said to be under consideration for CIFL teams.

National Football League: Several members of Congress asked the NFL to reject the Washington Redskins nickname that is considered offensive to Native Americans. The league and the team's owner apparently do not want to change the nickname. A federal lawsuit was brought by a Native American group to try to strip the team of the Redskins name.

Stars Football League: The spring-summer SFL has started its third season with four Florida-based teams called the Daytona Beach Racers, Fort Lauderdale Barracudas, Miami Ironmen and Pompano Beach Swamp Dogs. The league will again play a short schedule consisting of three doubleheader dates in the month of June with playoffs starting in July. All games will be played at Central Broward Regional Park near Fort Lauderdale. Two other proposed teams called the Fort Pierce Orange and Palm Beach Admirals never made it to the 2013 season. The SFL started in 2011 with plans to be a nationwide professional spring football league, but recently the league has provided only semi-pro competition with Florida-based teams playing only a few games.

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: The National Hockey League's Vancouver Canucks announced its AHL affiliate, which operated as the Peoria Rivermen last season and was purchased by the Canucks after the season, will be based in Utica (NY) for the 2013-14 season where the team will be called the Utica Comets. Utica previously had an AHL affiliate called the Utica Devils from 1987 to 1993 and was home to several lower-level minor hockey teams since that time.

National Hockey League: The NHL hopes to decide the fate of the Phoenix Coyotes franchise at an owners' meeting later this month. The city of Glendale (AZ) needs to decide on a lease agreement with the current group trying to buy the franchise, which has been operated by the league since 2009. If a lease deal cannot be worked out, the league could consider relocating the franchise. The league would not speculate as to which city the team would move.

Minnesota Junior Hockey League: The Tier-III MnJHL has announced an expansion team called the Marquette (MI) Royales will be part of its Great Lakes Division in 2013-14. The team originally planned be part of the Midwest Junior Hockey League. The MnJHL is sanctioned by USA Hockey, while the MWJHL operates under the Amateur Athletic Union. Marquette had a recent Tier-II team called the Marquette Rangers that was part of the Tier-II North American Hockey League for four seasons (2006-10) before moving to Flint as the Michigan Warriors.

SOCCER

United Soccer Leagues - Major Indoor Soccer League: The MISL announced a franchise called the St. Louis Ambush will begin play in the 2013-14 season. The Ambush will play home games at the Family Arena in suburban St. Charles (MO). A previous indoor soccer team by the same name played eight seasons (1992-2000) as part of the National Professional Soccer League. The city's last top professional indoor team was the St. Louis Steamers, which folded after the 2005-06 season in a previous league known as the MISL.

Liga MX: Mexico's top professional soccer league known as Liga MX has established the 18 teams that will participate in the upcoming Apertura portion of the 2013-14 season that runs from July to November. The Queretaro Gallos Blancos club was relegated to the Ascenso MX after the 2012-13 season, but the ownership purchased the Jaguares club of the Liga MX and moved it from Chiapas to Queretaro to keep the city in the Liga MX. The league's San Luis Tuneros club then moved to Chiapas to become the Chiapas FC for 2013-14, so San Luis will not be part of the Liga MX. The La Piedad Reboceros club was promoted from the Ascenso MX to the Liga MX after the 2012-13 season, but that team moved to Veracruz where it will operate as the Veracruz Tiburones Rojos (Red Sharks).

OTHER

Prospect Lacrosse League: The proposed new PLL, which planned to be the first professionally operated summer-collegiate lacrosse league in the United States, has not been able to sign enough players and will not be starting its inaugural season in 2013. The PLL announced four league-operated teams in the Chicago area called the Midwest Roadsters, Dupage County Cowboys, North Shore Admirals and Windy City Skyscrapers with plans for expansion and outside ownership of teams in 2014. The PLL was formed to allow college lacrosse players with remaining NCAA eligibility a place to compete in the off-season. The league is still considering its options for a possible start in 2014.

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.

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