Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
February 23, 2015 - United League Baseball (ULB)
BASEBALL
East Coast Baseball League: The proposed new independent ECBL has come to an agreement to place a fifth team in Old Orchard Beach (ME) for its inaugural 2015 season. A name-the-team contest has been started. The ECBL now lists a sixth team that will be a travel team called the Road City Explorers. The Explorers will play home games out of four locations that will be announced in the next two weeks. The league will use the Explorers' games to test those markets for possible expansion.
United League Baseball: After the owner of the ULB's Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings stated last week that the team and other ULB members have folded, the owners of the league's San Angelo Colts stated they are still trying to keep the Colts alive and working on a reorganization plan in bankruptcy.
Pecos Spring League: The independent Pecos League will hold its fourth Pecos Spring League in the Houston area from March 6 to March 26, 2015. The 2015 schedule lists four teams called the Coastal Kingfish, Galveston Sea Lions, Houston Apollos and Mesa Arizona Garden of Gears. A fifth team called the Dallas Diablos is listed as a 2015 team, but not on the schedule. Players in the spring league pay for the opportunity to be evaluated by the Pecos League and other independent leagues that are looking to sign players for the upcoming summer season.
BASKETBALL
International Basketball League: The Bellingham (WA) Slam, a longtime member of the IBL, will suspend operations for the 2015 season with the restructuring of the IBL after its 2014 season. The Slam played two seasons (2005-07) in the American Basketball Association before joining the IBL for the 2008 season. The IBL started play in 2005 with a spring-summer schedule, but decided after the 2014 season to switch from a traditional league model to operating summer pro-am leagues in Seattle and Portland. The Slam decided not to participate in the pro-am league model and looked at several other leagues to keep the team going, but none were considered viable options.
Women's American Basketball Association: A new team called the Milwaukee Aces has joined the WABA, which is affiliated with the men's American Basketball Association. The WABA played a short, inaugural 2014 summer season with four teams. The Aces, along with two of the 2014 teams called the Chicago Lady Steam and the Flint Monarchs, are the only teams currently listed by the WABA.
Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacifico (CIBACOPA): Mexico's Pacific Coast Basketball League known as the CIBACOPA, which is the country's second professional basketball league next to the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP), has added a team called Nauticos de Mazatlan (Sinaloa) for the 2015 season that will start in early April. Mazatlan has had various other teams in the CIBACOPA over the past several years. Also, the league's Mineros de Caborca (Sonora) will move back to Cananea (Sonora) after one season and will again be called the Mineros de Cananea.
FOOTBALL
National Football League: The NFL's Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers announced plans to pursue construction of a new shared stadium in the Carson area of Los Angeles. Both teams will continue to try to get new stadiums in their respective markets, but will use the Carson stadium option if local efforts fail. The owner of the league's St. Louis Rams recently announced plans to build a new stadium for an NFL team in the Inglewood area of Los Angeles.
Women's Spring Football League: After coming under new ownership last year, the WSFL has been expanding and will have both a Southern Division and Northern Division of teams for the 2015 season. Some recently added teams include the Tri-Cities Thunder (Kingsport-Johnson City-Bristol), Tennessee Legacy (Memphis), Southern Valkyrie (Clarksville, TN) and the Cincinnati Sizzle from the 2014 Women's Football Alliance. The WSFL also has an affiliated eight-player league called the Women's Eights Football League.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The AHL's current Norfolk Admirals franchise, which was recently purchased by the National Hockey League's Anaheim Ducks for a move to San Diego next season, will be called the San Diego Gulls. San Diego's most recent minor pro hockey team called the San Diego Gulls played eight seasons (1995-2003) as part of the West Coast Hockey League and another three seasons (2003-06) as part of the ECHL. A junior-level team called the San Diego Gulls of the Western States Hockey League recently changed its name to the San Diego Sabers leading to speculation the new AHL team would take the San Diego Gulls name. The AHL's new 2015-16 Bakersfield team, which is currently operating as the Oklahoma City Barons, will announce its new name next week.
ECHL: The new ECHL team in Norfolk (VA) for the 2015-16 will be called the Norfolk Admirals. This is the ECHL team currently operating as the Bakersfield Condors and is owned by the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers are moving their American Hockey League affiliate from Oklahoma City to Bakersfield, so the Bakersfield ECHL team needed a new home. Norfolk was in search of a hockey team for next season after its current AHL team called the Norfolk Admirals was purchased by the NHL's Anaheim Ducks for a move to San Diego for the 2015-16 season.
Ontario Hockey League: The new ownership of the OHL's Plymouth (MI) Whalers team, which will be moving to Flint (MI) for the 2015-16 season, has been granted a one-week extension to decide on a new name for the team. As of now, there are nine possible Flint team names-Fury, Nationals, Tropics, Pride, Vikings, Sparks, Spark Plugs, Force and United.
Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League: The Canadian Junior-A NOJHL announced the Abitibi Eskimos will be moving to Timmins where the team will be renamed for the 2015-16 season. A team called the Timmins Golden Bears was part of the 1998-99 season in the NOJHL.
SOCCER
National Women's Soccer League: Investors trying to bring an NWSL expansion team to Atlanta are moving forward based on a recent season ticket drive to gauge interest in the team. The Atlanta Vibe has been mentioned as a possible team name. Atlanta had two previous women's pro soccer teams called the Atlanta Beat. The first Atlanta Beat team was part of all three seasons (2001-03) in the Women's United Soccer Association, while the second Atlanta Beat team played the final two seasons (2010-11) of the three seasons played by the league called Women's Professional Soccer. Other groups in Indianapolis, Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh have expressed interest in an NWSL expansion franchise. The NWSL started play in 2013 with eight teams and grew to nine teams last season with the addition of the expansion team called the Houston Dash.
National Premier Soccer League: The men's elite amateur NPSL announced an expansion team called the FC Frederick (MD) has joined for the upcoming 2015 season.
National Indoor Soccer Association: A new indoor soccer league called the NISA is trying to organize for the 2015-16 season and will be holding a meeting in April 2015 for interested parties. The NISA lists proposed "Pro", "A League" and "Youth" divisions.
OTHER
Major League Ultimate: The professional ultimate disc league called the MLU has posted the schedule for its third season that will have each team playing a ten-game schedule from April 18 to June 21, 2015. The league will have the same eight teams it has had the past two seasons with the Boston Whitecaps, New York Rumble, Philadelphia Spinners and Washington DC Current in the Eastern Conference, and the Portland Stags, San Francisco Dogfish, Seattle Rainmakers and Vancouver Nighthawks in the Western Conference.
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.
United League Baseball Stories from February 23, 2015
- 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.
