Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on April 6, 2015 under Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: The proposed new Atlantic League team called the Virginia Beach Neptunes is still working on a financing package for construction of a 5,000-seat stadium. The ownership group would like to get the stadium completed by the start of the league's 2016 season.
Major League Baseball: Although there has been talk of a possible MLB franchise in Montreal either through expansion or relocation, the MLB commissioner recently stated that Montreal would need to build a new stadium before an MLB team could return to the city. The former Montreal Expos joined the National League in 1969 before moving to become the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season.
Michigan Baseball League: The city of Utica (MI), which is located north of Detroit in Macomb County, hopes to break ground next month on a 2,500-seat ballpark that will become home to a local three-team yet-to-be-named baseball league. The league would be for former high school and college players in the 22 to 24 age group.
Prospect League: The summer-collegiate Prospect League, which has most of its teams located in the Midwest, would like to expand and add more eastern and western teams. The league will be adding the Jamestown (NY) Jammers, formerly the Lorain County (OH) Steelers, and the Kokomo (IN) Jackrabbits for the 2015 season.
BASKETBALL
Women's American Basketball Association: The WABA, which is associated with the men's American Basketball Association and played a short, inaugural 2014 summer season with four teams, has added a new team called the Springfield (IL) Lady Grizzlies. Other teams listed are the Chicago Lady Steam, Flint Monarchs, Milwaukee Aces and the New England Falcons (Boston). The Chicago and Flint teams were part of the 2014 season.
FOOTBALL
American Spring Football League: The proposed new ASFL appears to have restructured and now plans to have 12 teams representing various states when it starts play in 2016. So far, the league has announced teams for the states of Arkansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. The ASFL was founded in 2014 and originally planned to start play in 2015 with 32 teams, which was then reduced to 16 teams. Some of the previous cities announced for possible 2015 teams included Ann Arbor (MI), Universal Park (PA), Knoxville (TN), Columbus (OH), Athens (GA), Pasadena (CA), Gainesville (FL), Auburrn (AL), Tuscaloosa (AL), Baton Rouge, Austin and Los Angeles.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks, whose AHL affiliate is currently operating as the Worcester (MA) Sharks, will be renamed the San Jose Barracuda when the team becomes part of a new AHL Pacific Division of five California-based teams for the 2015-16 season. Four other current AHL teams will be relocated to California and will be renamed: the Oklahoma City Barons as the Bakersfield Condors, the Manchester (NH) Monarchs as the Ontario Reign, the Norfolk Admirals as the San Diego Gulls and the Adirondack Flames (Glens Falls, NY) as the Stockton Heat.
Federal Hockey League: The FHL announced an expansion team based in Port Huron (MI) will be part of the league for the 2015-16 season. The Port Huron team will be operated by the owner of two current FHL teams called the Danville (IL) Dashers and Dayton Demonz. The Dashers played a regular-season game in Port Huron in January 2015 to test the market. Most recently, Port Huron had been home to the Port Huron Fighting Falcons of the Tier-II junior-level North American Hockey League for the past four seasons (2010-14). Port Huron was also home to various minor league hockey teams like the Clippers, Flags, Wings, Border Cats, Beacons and Icehawks dating back to 1962.
United States Premier Hockey League""Empire Division: The junior-level USPHL announced a new team called the Daytona Racers will be added to the Tier-III USPHL Empire Division for the 2015-16 season. The Empire Division's New York Aviators team is leaving the USPHL to join the North American 3 Eastern Hockey League (NA3EHL) for the 2015-16 season.
North American 3 Eastern Hockey League: The junior-level NA3EHL, which started the 2014-15 season as the Northern States Hockey League before coming under the control of the Tier-II North American Hockey League (NAHL), will add the New York Aviators of the Tier-III United States Premier Hockey League-Empire Division and the expansion Skyland Kings (Stockholm, NJ) for the 2015-16 season. In December 2014, the NA3EHL also announced the Laconia-based New Hampshire Fighting Spirit team will move to Lewiston (ME) as the Lewiston-Auburn Fighting Spirit for the 2015-16 season. The NA3EHL is trying to join USA Hockey and become an eastern division of the NAHL's Tier-III North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) for next season. The Tier-II NAHL has been trying to form an eastern division of teams and could also place a Tier-II NAHL team in Lewiston.
National Women's Hockey League: The NWHL is a new women's professional ice hockey league that plans to start play with four teams in the 2015-16 season. The four Northeast-based teams will include the Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale (Stamford) and New York Riveters. An elite-level non-professional league by the same name operated with mostly Canadian teams from 1999 to 2007. After the NWHL folded, some of the owners formed the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) for the 2007-08 season. Today, the CWHL has five elite-level teams called the Boston Blades, Brampton Thunder (Ontario), Calgary Inferno, Montreal Stars and Toronto Furies. Although it is non-professional, CWHL teams in Calgary, Montreal and Toronto have marketing partnerships with the men's National Hockey League teams in their cities. During the past off-season, the CWHL considered changing its name and growing to sixth teams by adding a second team in the United States, but neither happened. Bids from Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and New York City were reported to be under consideration.
SOCCER
North American Soccer League: The Division-II NASL started the spring portion of its 2015 season this weekend with 11 teams. All ten teams returned from last season and the league added the expansion team called the Jacksonville Armada. The NASL plays a spring season from early April to mid-June and a fall season from early July to early November. The champions of each season earn championship playoff spots, along with the two non-champion teams with the most combined points over both seasons. The NASL commissioner recently stated the league would like two more Canadian teams, possibly in Calgary and Hamilton, to join the league's current Canadian teams called the FC Edmonton (Eddies) and Ottawa Fury FC. There has also been discussion about adding a new team in Chicago, possibly taking the Chicago Sting name after a team that played from 1975 to 1984 in the original top professional NASL that folded after the 1984 season.
National Premier Soccer League: Some of the West Region teams in the men's elite-level NPSL have started their 2015 season. The league has 67 teams aligned into four geographic regions that are further aligned into regional conferences. The NPSL recently announced another Miami-based team called the Miami Fusion FC has joined the South Regions Sunshine Conference, which also has a team called the Miami United.
United Soccer League: The Division-III USL, formerly the USL PRO league, has granted the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the National Basketball Association D-League a USL franchise to be operated in the Rio Grande Valley. The Vipers will be moving into a new arena in Edinburg (TX) in 2016 and hope to build a new 5,000-seat soccer stadium near the arena. The Vipers have been in discussions with the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer for the Dynamo to control the soccer operations of the new Rio Grande Valley team. Each MLS team either owns or is affiliated with a USL team and Houston has the Charleston (SC) Battery as its USL affiliate for the 2015 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.
Federal Prospects Hockey League Stories from April 6, 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.
