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Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on February 2, 2015 under ECHL (ECHL)


BASEBALL

Texas Winter League: The month-league instructional TWL will start its 2015 season next week with six teams called the Austin Capitals, Dallas Wranglers, El Paso Tejanos, Laredo Apaches, Pericos de Puebla and San Antonio Alamos. All games are played at the Mission Baseball Academy and Nelson Wolff Stadium, which is home to the San Antonio Missions of the Double-A Texas League. The league showcases players for representatives of various independent leagues looking to sign players for the upcoming summer season.

Major League Baseball: The new MLB commissioner sees Montreal as a potential MLB market, but the city would need a new stadium and the right ownership group. MLB's Montreal Expos were relocated to Washington (DC) for the 2005 season. The commissioner is also confident the Tampa Bay market will be successful if a new stadium is built in the area.

Arizona League: The Kansas City Royals will place a team in the summertime Rookie-level Arizona League for the 2015 season. The Royals cut back its Arizona League affiliate for the 2014 season, but decided to return with a team playing out its complex in Surprise. The league will have 14 teams in 2015.

Frontier League: A proposed Frontier League team for Parkersburg (WV) might not start play until the 2017 season and that is only if the city can find a suitable site and financing for a new ballpark.

Midwest League: The Beloit (WI) Snappers of the low Class-A Midwest League rejected a purchase offer from a buyer trying to save the team for the city. The Snappers are suffering from debt and low attendance and play in an old stadium that most likely will not meet Minor League Baseball standards in the future.

Eastern League: The owner of the New Britain (CT) Rock Cats in the Double-A Eastern League said groundbreaking for the Rock Cats' new stadium in Hartford (CT) was set for the end of February 2015. The stadium should be ready for the Rock Cats to move to Hartford for the 2016 season.

BASKETBALL

Universal Basketball Association: The men's UBA has started its 2015 season with 20 teams aligned into four regional conferences. A new Eastern Conference has four teams (Carolina Cougars, Charlotte Fury, Queen City Bulls and Wilkes County Flames) based in North Carolina. Other new teams for 2015 include the Anderson (IN) Legends, Louisiana Soul and the Atlanta-based International Elite Academy.

Women's Universal Basketball Association: The WUBA, which is affiliated with the men's Universal Basketball Association, has started its 2015 season with the same six teams in a Southern Conference. A proposed 2015 Northern Conference of four Ohio-based teams has yet to be announced.

FOOTBALL

American Indoor Football: After announcing in December 2014 that the Savannah Steam had joined the league, the AIF has officially added the Savannah Steam to the 2015 schedule featuring nine teams. The league standings have all nine teams listed in one table. The Savannah Steam played some road games as part of the 2014 X-League Indoor Football when new Steam ownership took control of the XLIF's Reading-based Pennsylvania Steam. The XLIF decided not to accept the Steam for the 2015 season. Only three of the seven AIF teams from 2014 returned in 2015, but the league added six new teams.

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: The AHL approved the creation of a new five-team Pacific Division of teams for the 2015-16 season with five National Hockey League teams relocating their AAA-level AHL affiliates to California. The NHL's Anaheim Ducks purchased the AHL's Norfolk Admirals and will move the team to San Diego; the NHL's Calgary Flames will move its AHL team called the Adirondack Flames, based in Glens Falls (NY), to Stockton; the NHL's Edmonton Oilers will move its AHL team called the Oklahoma City Barons to Bakersfield; the NHL's Los Angeles Kings will move its AHL team called the Manchester (NH) Monarchs to Ontario; and the NHL's San Jose Sharks will move its AHL team called the Worcester (MA) Sharks to San Jose. Bakersfield, Stockton and Ontario have current ECHL teams that will be displaced by the AHL teams. The new Bakersfield AHL team has already announced a name-the-team contest to rename the city's hockey team that has been called the Condors since 1998. The Calgary Flames are also planning a name-the-team contest for its new Stockton AHL team.

ECHL: The AA-level ECHL is losing three current California markets-Bakersfield, Ontario and Stockton-to new AAA-level American Hockey League teams for the 2015-16 season. The ECHL's Bakersfield Condors team will move to Norfolk (VA), whose current AHL team called the Norfolk Admirals was purchased and is moving to San Diego; the ECHL's Ontario Reign will move to Manchester (NH), whose current AHL team called the Manchester Monarchs is moving to Ontario; and the ECHL's Stockton Thunder will move to Glens Falls (NY), whose current AHL team called the Adirondack Flames is moving to Stockton. The new Manchester ECHL team will keep the Manchester Monarchs name. The ECHL also announced the Las Vegas Wranglers franchise, which sat out this season while looking for a new home arena, has withdrawn its membership in the league. The Wranglers joined the ECHL for the 2003-04 season. The ECHL currently operates with 28 teams and will cap its membership at 30 teams to match the AHL and the National Hockey League.

SOCCER

National Premier Soccer League: The men's elite-level NPSL has added the Orlando-based Kraze United as an expansion team for the 2015 season. An Orlando area team called the Central Florida Kraze was a member of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League from 1999 to 2011 until becoming the Orlando City U23 team for the 2012 season.

United Soccer Leagues - W-League: The women's W-League announced its 2015 team lineup that will feature only 18 teams in 3 regional conferences after operating with 26 teams in 4 regional conferences last season. Eight teams called the LA Blues, Bay Area Breeze (San Francisco), Gulf Coast Texans (Pensacola), Virginia Beach Piranhas, K-W United FC (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario), London Gryphons (Ontario), Ottawa Fury and Toronto Lady Lynx pulled out of the league for the 2015 season. The K-W United FC stated the team has not folded, but decided to sit out the 2015 season when Ontario teams in London, Toronto and Ottawa dropped out. Last season's Sedona (AZ) FC Strikers moved to Yuma (AZ) and were renamed the Arizona Strikers FC for the 2015 season.

Premier Arena Soccer League: Teams in the Texas-based South Central Division of the PASL, which is the official developmental league for the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL), started play this month and the six-team division has been added to the PASL standings. The league's Northwest Division had issues with a couple of teams this season. The Impact Premier, which was the PASL affiliate of the MASL's troubled Seattle Impact team, played only one game and had to forfeit the rest of their games. When the MASL's Seattle Impact was sold a couple of weeks ago to the owner of the amateur-level Tacoma Stars of the Western Indoor Soccer League (WISL), the owner of the PASL's Tacoma Galaxy folded the team. The South Sound Shock, which played outdoor soccer in the Evergreen Premier League and was a former PASL member, will play some indoor games as part of the PASL for the rest of the season.

United Soccer Leagues - Premier Development League: The Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma (AZ) will be transformed from a baseball venue to a soccer stadium for a proposed Yuma-based PDL team that hopes to start play in the 2016 season.

OTHER

Pacific Rugby Premiership: Seven of the top Division-1 rugby clubs in the western United States have returned for a second season of the Pacific Rugby Premiership, which started this weekend and runs until mid-May. Teams include the Belmont Shore Rugby Club (Long Beach, CA), Olympic Club Blues (San Francisco), Denver Barbarians, San Francisco Golden Gate RFC, Old Mission Beach AC (San Diego), Santa Monica Dolphins and Glendale (CO). Except for Glendale, all of these teams were at one time part of the nationwide Rugby Super League (RSL), which operated from 1997 through the 2012 season.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Leagues, Teams & Nicknames 2013-14: "The Leagueology Almanac" , 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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ECHL Stories from February 2, 2015


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.


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