Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
March 9, 2015 - Champions Indoor Football (CIF)

BASEBALL

Eastern League: The owners of the New Britain (CT) Rock Cats team in the Double-A Eastern League have come up with ten nickname choices for the Rock Cats team that will be relocating to Hartford (CT). The nicknames for a name-the-team contest include Blue Frogs, Choppers, Hedgehogs, Honey Badgers, Hound Dogs, Praying Mantis, River Hogs, Screech Owls, Whirly Birds and Yard Goats. Construction started last month on a new stadium in Hartford that is set to open in April 2016.

California League: The owner of the Bakersfield Blaze in the high Class-A California League has found a different site in Salinas (CA), about 200 miles to the northwest, where he will again try to build a new stadium for the relocated franchise. A deal on another site in Salinas collapsed last year because neither side could agree on the value of the land in question. The Blaze have been having little success in getting public financing in Bakersfield for a new or renovated stadium.

BASKETBALL

Central Basketball Development League: The CBDL announced a new team called the Sonics, based in Sylacauga (AL), has been added to the Southeast Division for the upcoming 2015 season.

Independent Basketball Association: The IBA started its 2015 Spring Season this weekend and features six teams called the Grand Rapids Fusion, Kankakee County Soldiers, Kenosha Ballers, Lansing Capitals, St. Louis Trotters and Windy City Blazers. The Spring Season runs until early June 2015.

Women's Universal Basketball Association: The WUBA recently added two Dayton-based teams called the Gem City Lady Slam and the Brick City Warriors to its 2015 schedule. The league planned to have a full Northern Conference of teams based in the Ohio cities of Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton, but as of now only two Northern Conference teams have started play.

Universal Basketball Association: Last month, the men's UBA added a team called the Ohio Flash (Dayton) to its Northern Conference. The league's new team for the 2015 season called the Anderson (IN) Legends is now being referred to as the Anderson Runnin' Wild. The UBA has an established team in its Southern Conference called the Atlanta Legends.

North American Basketball Development Leagues Association (BDL): The BDL, which consists of various state-based professional developmental leagues designed to assist players in gaining exposure from domestic and international pro teams, has listed the teams for its second season in 2015. New York teams include the Western New York Thunder (Niagara Falls), New York Patriots (Bronx) and the New Jersey Knights (Pitman); Pennsylvania has the Pittsburgh Bullets and Ohio Aftershock (Cleveland); while Indiana has three teams called the Indiana Blaze (Indianapolis), Central Indiana Rockets (Anderson) and Indiana Dream (Muncie). The 2015 season is scheduled to start on March 14.

FOOTBALL

Professional Indoor Football League: The PIFL's Erie Explosion announced it will play a 2015 regular-season game against the ASI Panthers (Reading, PA) from the league known as American Indoor Football. Some PIFL teams have had to add games outside the league due to the unexpected departure of the Harrisburg Stampede after the 2015 schedule had already been announced.

Champions Indoor Football: After announcing last week that a team from the Albuquerque area called the New Mexico Stars would not be part of the 2015 season, the CIF has added a new team from Albuquerque called the Duke City Gladiators. The New Mexico Stars played in suburban Rio Rancho, while the Duke City Gladiators will play home games at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque. The Gladiators were working toward a 2016 start, but will now participate in the league's 2015 season, which started last weekend. The new CIF was created for the 2015 season with some new teams, along with teams from last season's Champions Professional Indoor Football League, the Indoor Football League and the Lone Star Football League.

HOCKEY

North American Hockey League: With Flint (MI) becoming home to the relocated Plymouth (MI) Whalers of the major-junior Ontario Hockey League starting next season, the Flint-based Michigan Warriors of the Tier-II junior-level NAHL are expected to be relocated. Some reports indicate the Warriors could end up in New York with either Jamestown or Brooklyn mentioned as possibilities.

American Hockey League: The National Hockey League's Winnipeg Jets could move its AHL affiliate, currently the St. John's IceCaps (Newfoundland), to Winnipeg for the 2015-16 season and the Montreal Canadiens would then move its AHL affiliate, currently the Hamilton Bulldogs, to St. John's. The owners of the Winnipeg Jets operated the AHL's Winnipeg-based Manitoba Moose franchise from 2001 to 2011. When the ownership purchased the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers and moved the team to become the Winnipeg Jets in 2011, its AHL affiliation was moved to St. John's. The Jets have been trying to get its AHL affiliate closer to Winnipeg and this proposed move of its AHL team could be on a temporary basis. The Jets had hoped to move its AHL affiliate to Thunder Bay (Ontario), but a proposed new arena there has not gotten off the ground and is lacking a funding plan. A move of the Canadiens' AHL affiliate to St. John's could also be temporary, as the Canadiens eventually hope to move its AHL team to a new 10,000-seat arena that is under construction in Laval (Quebec) and could be ready by the fall of 2017.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: The MLS recently started its 2015 season that features 20 teams aligned into ten-team Eastern and Western conferences. The MLS had 19 teams last season, but the Los Angeles-based Chivas USA franchise was shut down and will be replaced by a new Los Angeles franchise that is expected to start play in 2017. New teams called the Orlando City FC Lions and New York City FC were added for the 2015 season and placed in the Eastern Conference. The Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City teams moved from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference for 2015.

Women's Premier Soccer League: The FC Tucson men's soccer team that has been a member of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League since the 2011 season, announced an affiliated women's team called the FC Tucson Women will be part of the WPSL for the 2015 season. The women's team will be the only WPSL team based in Arizona and will be part of a ten-team Pacific South Division.

Futbol USA: The proposed new FUSA plans to start play in September 2015 and become the first professional soccer league in the United States specifically for Hispanic and Latino players. The league plans to have 16 Liga Primera (Division 1) and 16 Liga Nacional (Division 2) teams in 16 cities in Texas, California and other markets in the Southwest. The league currently lists four potential regions - California North, California South, Texas and Southwest - each with four different markets. The league mentions future expansion could include conferences in the Northeast, Midwest and South.

United Soccer League: The owner of Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake team has entered into an agreement with West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City, to begin negotiating plans to build a new stadium for its affiliated USL team called the Real Monarchs. Last week, the owner pulled out of a proposed deal to build the Monarchs' stadium at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City.

OTHER

American Ultimate Disc League: The professional AUDL has shut down the Salt Lake Lions team for the 2015 season and it is uncertain if the Salt Lake City market will rejoin in the future. The Lions joined the league last season as part of a new West Division. With the loss of Salt Lake, the AUDL will have 25 teams in 2015.

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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