Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
March 23, 2015 - American Indoor Football (AIF)

BASEBALL

Eastern League: The new Hartford-based Double-A Eastern League team, which is currently operating as the New Britain (CT) Rock Cats, announced it will be called the Hartford Yard Goats when it moves to a new stadium in Hartford for the 2016 season. A yard goat is a railroad industry term and is a workhorse locomotive that moves rail cars from track to track in the rail yard. Other nickname finalists were the Hedgehogs, Praying Mantis, River Hogs and Whirlybirds.

East Coast Baseball League: The new independent ECBL announced its inaugural 2015 season schedule that will feature six teams each playing 60 games from late May to early August. Teams will include the Newburgh (NY) Newts, Niagara Wild (Welland, Ontario), Old Orchard Beach Surge (Maine), Waterloo (Ontario) Whiskey Jacks, Watertown (NY) Bucks and the Road City Explorers travel team.

Mount Rainier Professional Baseball League: The new independent MRPBL, which plans to start play in 2015 with six teams based in the Northwest region of the United States, announced the Glacier Grizzlies team based in Whitefish (MT) has changed its name to the Glacier Outlaws. The Outlaws will be part of an East Division along with the Ellensburg (WA) Bulls and Moses Lake (WA) Rattlesnakes, while a West Division will feature the Grays Harbor (WA) Gulls, Oregon City Mud Turtles and Skagit Valley Lumberjacks (Mount Vernon, WA). Teams will play a 68-game schedule from late May to early August.

Pecos Spring League: The independent Pecos League will finish the fourth season of its Houston-based Pecos Spring League next week. Four teams called the Coastal Kingfish, Galveston Sea Lions, Houston Apollos and Mesa Arizona Garden of Gears are participating in the 2015 season that runs from March 6 to 25. Players 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

Central Basketball Development League: The CBDL is still planning for its 2015 season and announced it has six teams set for a Southeast Division. These teams include the Fort Pierce (FL) Pride, Palm Beach (FL) Kings, Shreveport (LA) Knights, South Florida Spartans (Winter Park), Talladega (AL) Toros and Sylacagua (AL) Sonics.

Eastern Basketball Alliance: The EBA announced its Maryland Bayraiders travel team has been suspended for failing to meet league obligations. The Bayraiders joined the EBA for the 2013 season and have been listed as a travel team for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

FOOTBALL

American Indoor Football: The indoor football league known as the AIF started its 2015 season this week with nine teams. Of the seven teams from last season, the Cleveland Patriots, Baltimore Mariners and Rochester Raiders suspended operations, while the Cape Fear Heroes (Fayetteville, NC) moved to the X-League Indoor Football. The Washington Eagles (renamed the Maryland Eagles), Atlanta Sharks and York (PA) Capitals returned from last season. New teams called the Buffalo Lightning, Cleveland Saints, ASI Panthers (Reading, PA) and Savannah Steam joined for 2015, along with the Chicago Blitz and Saginaw Sting from last season's Continental Indoor Football League. Another new team called the Carolina Silverhawks (Winston-Salem) was originally announced for 2015, but was pushed back to 2016.

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: After four seasons as the AHL affiliate for the National Hockey League's Phoenix and Arizona Coyotes, the Portland (ME) Pirates will become the AHL affiliate of the NHL's Florida Panthers starting with the 2015-16 season. The Arizona Coyotes have expressed an interest in moving its AHL affiliate closer to home, possibly in an Arizona market like Tucson or Prescott Valley. The Coyotes have discussed an affiliation with the AHL's San Antonio Rampage, but the NHL's Colorado Avalanche has also expressed interest in San Antonio.

Ontario Hockey League: The new ownership of the Plymouth (MI) Whalers in the major-junior OHL announced the team will be called the Flint (MI) Firebirds when the team relocates to Flint for the 2015-16 season. Ownership was considering "Phoenix" as the team name for the idea of rising from the ashes, but a major-junior team called the Sherbrooke Phoenix in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is using that nickname.

SOCCER

National Women's Soccer League: The commissioner of the professional NWSL stated there are six cities interested in an expansion team, but specifically mentioned only the efforts of groups in Atlanta and Salt Lake City to obtain an NWSL franchise. An Atlanta team, possibly to be called the Atlanta Vibe, wants to start in 2016 and would play at the home of the Atlanta Silverbacks men's team in the North American Soccer League. A Salt Lake City team would play at a proposed 8,000-seat soccer stadium to be built for the men's Real Monarchs team in the United Soccer League, but that might not be ready until the 2017 season. Other potential NWSL expansion cities mentioned in the past include Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Jose and New York City.

Major League Soccer: The MLS announced it is in advanced discussions with the owner of the Minnesota United FC of the Division-II North American Soccer League to bring the next MLS expansion team to a proposed new soccer-specific stadium in Minneapolis. The league will announce its next expansion market in the next 30 to 45 days. Minneapolis would be the league's 23rd team and a previously announced Miami-based expansion team, which was granted on the condition of building a new soccer-specific stadium and is still looking for a stadium site, could give the league 24 teams by the 2020 season. With other markets like Sacramento, San Antonio, Las Vegas and St. Louis vying for MLS expansion teams, the league stated that during 2015 it will evaluate potential expansion beyond 24 teams.

United Soccer League: The Division-III USL, formerly known as the United Soccer Leagues PRO league, started its 2015 season this week with 24 teams, an increase of 10 teams from last season. The Charlotte Eagles, Dayton Dutch Lions and Orlando City SC Lions, which moved up to Major League Soccer, did not return from last season. The new teams for 2015 include the Austin Aztex, Charlotte Independence, Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, Louisville City FC and St. Louis FC, along with seven new MLS-owned USL affiliates called the Portland Timbers 2, Seattle Sounders FC 2, Real Monarchs SLC, FC Montreal, Toronto FC II, Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 and New York Red Bulls II. Twenty of the 24 USL teams have affiliations with MLS teams with 8 of those affiliated USL teams being owned and operated by the parent MLS team. The USL is aligned into 12-team Eastern and Western conferences.

OTHER

National Xball League: The new national paintball circuit called the NXL announced the first of the professional teams that have committed to play in the 2015 NXL Professional Division. Some of the teams include AC Dallas, Baltimore Revo, Chicago Aftershock, Edmonton Impact, Houston Heat, San Antonio X-Factor, San Diego Dynasty, Seattle Thunder, TradeMyGun Outlaws (Indiana), Upton (MA) 187 cRew and the Russian Legion.

World TeamTennis: The WTT announced a new ownership group is moving the Irving-based Texas Wild franchise to the Sacramento area where the team will be called the California Dream for the 2015 season. The Wild lasted only two seasons in Texas after the league's Kansas City Explorers moved there for the 2013 season. The WTT had a former team called the Sacramento Capitals that was part of the league from 1986 through the 2013 season. The owner of the Capitals announced plans to move the team to Las Vegas as the Las Vegas Neon for the 2014 season, but the WTT terminated the Las Vegas franchise prior to the 2014 season due to legal and financial issues surrounding the team's owner. The seven-team WTT will hold its three-week 2015 season from July 12 to August 2.

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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