Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on June 1, 2015 under Champions Indoor Football (CIF)

BASEBALL

Pacific Association: The independent Pacific Association starts its third season next week and will again have four California-based teams - the Pittsburg Diamonds, San Rafael Pacifics, Sonoma Stompers and Vallejo Admirals. The only change from last season was the Pittsburgh Mettle recently coming under new ownership and being renamed the Pittsburg Diamonds. The teams are scheduled to play a 78-game schedule through August 2015.

Mount Rainer Professional Baseball League: The new independent MRPBL started its inaugural season this past week with six teams based in the states of Washington, Oregon and Montana. An East Division includes the Ellensburg (WA) Bulls, Glacier Outlaws (Whitefish, MT) and Moses Lake (WA) Rattlesnakes, while a West Division has the Grays Harbor Gulls (Hoquiam, WA), Oregon City (OR) Mud Turtles and Skagit Valley Lumberjacks (Mount Vernon, WA). The teams are scheduled to play a 68-game schedule through mid-August 2015, but the league's survival is uncertain. The MRPBL started out owning most of the teams, but the league organizer recently made a plea to save the league by asking outside owners or investors to step up and operate teams in several markets.

Texas League: Officials in San Antonio, which is home to the San Antonio Missions in the Double-A Texas League, are again talking about building a new downtown stadium for a possible Triple-A team. Although discussions with potential Triple-A teams have been held, no specific team has been mentioned. In the past, the city had talked of building a Triple-A stadium that could be expanded for a relocated Major League Baseball team. Back in 2006, San Antonio was under consideration by MLB's Florida Marlins for possible relocation until the Marlins decided to concentrate new stadium efforts in Miami.

North Country Baseball League: The new NCBL, which was formed by teams from the failed start of the East Coast Baseball League (ECBL), began play last week with four of the six proposed ECBL teams. The owner of the Watertown (NY) Bucks team, which was the only one of six teams not owned by the ECBL, is heading operations of the NCBL. Other former ECBL teams include the Old Orchard Beach (ME) Surge, Newburgh (NY) Newts and the Road City Explorers, now based in Watertown. The two other proposed ECBL teams in Ontario called the Niagara Wild and Waterloo Whiskey Jacks have folded.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): A list of seven potential markets in the Carolinas for a possible NBA D-League team affiliated with the NBA's Charlotte Hornets was announced earlier this month. Of those markets, the cities of Greenville (SC) and Raleigh (NC) have stated they will not submit proposals. Columbia (SC) and Greensboro (NC) plan to make a proposals, but there has been no statement yet from Charleston (SC), Asheville (NC) or Fayetteville (NC).

American Basketball Association: The ABA announced two new teams called the Louisiana Cajun All Stars (Lake Charles) and the Texas Cardinals (Beaumont) have joined the league and both teams will be under the same ownership. The ABA has made other attempts in the Lake Charles market with proposed teams called the Lake Charles Hurricanes, Lake Charles Corsairs, Louisiana Gators and Lake City Kingdom Riders. The ABA had a Beaumont-based team called the Southeast Texas Mustangs that became the SETX Mavericks and moved to become the Shreveport-Bossier Mavericks for the 2013-14 season.

Women's United States Basketball Association: The WUSBA, which has been trying to get off the ground with a summertime season since 2010, has again cancelled a proposed 2015 season.

Women's American Basketball Association: The WABA, which is affiliated with the men's American Basketball Association and played a short inaugural season last summer, has posted a schedule for a 2015 season that will start next week. The Chicago Lady Steam and Flint (MI) Monarchs participated in the 2014 season and will be joined by new teams called the Milwaukee Aces and Springfield (IL) Lady Grizzlies. Each team is expected to play six league games and two non-league games.

FOOTBALL

Champions Indoor Football: The CIF announced the Salina (KS) Bombers team has been suspended for not meeting league requirements and a game scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled. The Bombers then announced the team has been dissolved. The CIF also announced a new Chicago-based team called the Illiana Eagles, which hopes to draw fans from both Illinois and Indiana, will be league's first expansion team for the 2016 season. The team's home arena could be the arena on the University of Chicago campus.

X-League Indoor Football: The Cape Fear Heroes (Fayetteville, NC) announced the team has left the X-League due to issues with some non-enforced league policies. The Cape Fear Heroes joined the X-League for the 2015 season from the league known as American Indoor Football. The X-League has had to use some non-league replacement teams this season for games that could not be played by X-League teams.

HOCKEY

ECHL: The ECHL's Brampton (Ontario) Beast announced the team will be the AA-level affiliate of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens and its AAA-level American Hockey League's St. John's (Newfoundland) IceCaps for 2015-16. Brampton is about 40 miles north of Hamilton (Ontario), which recently lost its AHL team when the Canadiens moved the Hamilton Bulldogs to St. John's for 2015-16.

Northern Pacific Hockey League: USA Hockey's Tier-III NPHL announced it has awarded an expansion team to the Seattle Ravens for the 2015-16 season. The team will be based in Kent (WA). The NPHL operated with six teams last season - five in Washington and one in Oregon. A team called the Seattle Totems last played in the league during the 2011-12 season.

United States Hockey League: USA Hockey's top Tier-I USHL confirmed the Indianapolis-based Indiana Ice is likely to return for the 2016-17 season. The Ice went dormant after the 2013-14 season to work toward building a new 4,000-seat arena for the team. The USHL also indicated there could be additional expansion teams added for the 2016-17 season. There had been talk of possible eastern expansion, but for now the league will stay with teams mostly based in the Midwest.

Central Canada Hockey League-2: Canada's new CCHL-2, which operated as the 22-team Junior-B Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League last season, will become a development league to the Junior-A CCHL. The CCHL-2 will have 16 of the 22 former EOJHL teams aligned into 8-team East and West divisions.

SOCCER

United Soccer Leagues W-20 League: The women's W-20 league, which features elite players 17 to 20 years old and is aligned operationally with the USL's upper level W-League, started its 2015 season earlier this month with 13 teams. The league is aligned into a four-team North Atlantic Division, a four-team South Atlantic Division and a five-team Southeast Division.

National Premier Soccer League: The Morris County Colonials team in the men's elite-level NPSL has changed its name to the Jersey Blues FC. The Blues Football Club also has a women's team called the Jersey Blues FC in the Women's Premier Soccer League.

Ascenso MX: The Ascenso MX soccer league, which is the second-level relegation league to Mexico's first division Liga MX, will grow to 16 teams for its next season with the addition of two new teams called the Cimarrones de Hermosillo (Sonora) and FC Juarez (Chihuahua), also listed as the Cobras de Ciudad Juarez. MountainStar Sports Group, which operates the El Paso Chihuahuas baseball team in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, is launching the new FC Juarez soccer team across the border from El Paso. This ownership group previously expressed interest in bringing a Major League Soccer franchise to El Paso.

Major Arena Soccer League: The Oxford City FC, which operated the Beaumont-based Oxford City FC of Texas in the 2014-15 MASL, announced an ownership interest in the league's new Soles de Sonora team based in Hermosillo (Mexico).

OTHER

National Lacrosse League: The ownership of the Minnesota Swarm announced the indoor NLL team will move to the Atlanta area and be renamed the Georgia Swarm for the 2016 season. The team will play home games at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth (GA). The team's application to relocate has been accepted by the league. There had been speculation the team would move to Nashville, Las Vegas or Winnipeg. The Minnesota Swarm joined the NLL as an expansion team for the 2005 season.

National Pro Fastpitch: The women's NPF softball league started its 2015 season this week with five teams. The four teams called the Akron Racers, Chicago Bandits and USSSA Florida Pride (Kissimmee) and the Pennsylvania Rebellion (Washington) from last season have been joined by a new fifth team called the Dallas Charge.

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.

Champions Indoor Football Stories from June 1, 2015

• Gladiators Complete Successful Inaugural Season - Duke City Gladiators
• 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.