Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
September 14, 2015 - Indoor Football League (IFL)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: The Camden (NJ) Riversharks of the independent Atlantic League appear to be the team that will move to New Britain (CT) market, which is being vacated next season by the New Britain Rock Cats of the Double-A Eastern League. An affiliated team in the short-season Class-A New York-Penn League is expected to be moved to take over the Camden market. A Camden-based NY-Penn League team, which could be affiliated with the nearby Philadelphia Phillies, would not start play until the 2017 season at the earliest.
American Association: The mayor of Rosemont (IL), a northwestern suburb of Chicago, is proposing a new baseball stadium that could become home to a team in the independent American Association. There has been no financial plan or official city approval of the project, but 2018 is being targeted for stadium completion. The Chicago suburbs are already home to three teams (Joliet Slammers, Windy City ThunderBolts and Schaumburg Boomers) in the independent Frontier League and one affiliated team (Kane County Cougars) in the low Class-A Midwest League.
Frontier League: The owner of the ballpark in Rockford (IL) that serves as the home to the Rockford Aviators of the independent Frontier League has come to an agreement for an ownership group with ties to the summer-collegiate Northwoods League to take over the ballpark lease. A Northwoods League team is expected to replace the Frontier League team in Rockford next season.
BASKETBALL
National Basketball League of Canada: The effort to bring a new NBL-Canada team to Sydney (Nova Scotia) for the 2015-16 season appears to moving ahead after a new investor came forward based on the announcement last week of a new team in Halifax (Nova Scotia) for the 2015-16 season. The organizer of the Sydney franchise has an arena lease in place and was to be submitting an application to the league.
Midwest Professional Basketball Association: The Lima (OH) Express, which played the past two seasons as part of the Premier Basketball League, has agreed to join the MPBA for the league's second season starting in January 2016. The MPBA completed its inaugural 2015 season with six teams - two in the St. Louis area, two in the Chicago area and one each in the Illinois markets of Bloomington and Champaign. The MPBA is planning to announce additional expansion plans for the 2016 season.
East Coast Basketball League: The ECBL announced plans to add two North Carolina-based teams called the Winston-Salem Team Certified and the Carolina MPact (Anson County) for the league's second season in 2016. The Winston-Salem Team Certified recently competed in the 2014-15 season of the Tobacco Road Basketball League and will be added to the ECBL's Northern Division.
National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The National Basketball Association's Indiana Pacers have purchased the Fort Wayne Mad Ants franchise in the 19-team NBA D-League. This increases to ten the number of NBA teams that now fully own and operate D-League teams, while the nine other D-League teams have specific single affiliations with an NBA team. The 30-team NBA will have 11 teams during the upcoming season without a one-to-one D-League affiliation. Those 11 NBA teams can still place players with D-League teams, but the D-League will get involved and can use a lottery to assign certain players to affiliated teams. The D-League also announced the new Raptors 905 (Mississauga) team will be placed in the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division with the Canton Charge moving from the Atlantic Division to the Eastern Conference Central Division.
New Era Basketball Association: The NEBA is again trying to develop a national league of basketball teams for a 2015-16 season running from late November 2015 to late February 2016. The NEBA tried a similar league for the summer of 2014, but it never started play. The league currently lists ten teams called the Atlanta Show, Central Florida Marvel (Orlando), Houston Xperience, Hub City Cyclones (Jackson,TN), Kitsap (WA) Admirals, Memphis Lions, New York United, Philadelphia Patriots, Spa City Swish (Hot Springs, AR) and Tacoma Rise (WA). The NEBA also recently announced two other teams called the Hickory (NC) Elite and Carolina Prestige (Raleigh, NC) have joined the league.
FOOTBALL
Indoor Football League: The IFL officially announced the Minnesota Havok (Mankato) as the league's 12th team for the 2016 season. The IFL had ten teams last season and also recently announced the addition of the Spokane Shock from the Arena Football League. Mankato is expected to be added to the league's United Conference that has other teams located in the north central United States.
Professional Indoor Football League: The PIFL's Richmond Raiders announced the team will sit out the 2016 season since the league was down to only five teams after the Trenton Freedom folded and the Erie Explosion left for the new Continental Indoor Football League. Although there has been no official announcement on the status of the league's remaining four teams, the Alabama Hammers and Nashville Venom were also considering sitting out the 2016 season, while the Columbus (GA) Lions and Lehigh Valley Steelhawks (Allentown, PA) were looking to move to another league and were currently listed in the 2016 alignment of the American Indoor Football league.
American Indoor Football: The AIF announced the Marion (OH) Blue Racers team has joined the league for the 2016 season and the team is listed in the Mid Western Division. The Blue Racers were part of the 2015 X-League Indoor Football and had been associated with the new Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL), which was planning to restart in 2016 as part of the new Indoor Football Alliance. The Marion Blue Racers started play in 2011 as part of the CIFL, joined the Ultimate Indoor Football League for the 2012 season, and returned to the CIFL for two more seasons (2013-14) before moving to the X-League in 2015. The Columbus (GA) Lions and Lehigh Valley Steelhawks (Allentown, PA) from the 2015 Professional Indoor Football League have also apparently joined the AIF. The AIF 2016 league standings have the Columbus (GA) Lions in the Southern Division and the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks in the Mid Western Division.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The Gwinnett (GA) Gladiators of the AA-level ECHL have changed their name to the Atlanta Gladiators starting with the 2015-16 season. The Gladiators are based in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth in Gwinnett County. The Gwinnett Gladiators joined the ECHL from the relocation of the Mobile Mysticks team after the 2001-02 season. The franchise sat idle for one season before starting play in Gwinnett for the 2003-04 season.
United States Premier Hockey League "" Midwest Division: The new Tier-III USPHL Midwest Division, which was created for the 2015-16 season through a merger of the Midwest Junior Hockey League (MWJHL) and the Minnesota Junior Hockey League (MnJHL), has lost another team and is down to 17 teams after the Fort Wayne-based Indiana Attack recently dropped out for the season.
SOCCER
United Soccer League: The owner of the Reno Aces baseball team in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League announced a Division-III USL team will be playing at the Aces Ballpark by the 2017 season.
Major League Soccer: Ramsey County officials have voted to support a proposed Major League Soccer stadium in St. Paul (MN), if the Minnesota United FC designs and builds the stadium with private funding. The owner of the Minnesota United FC, which currently plays in the Division-II North American Soccer League, was granted an MLS expansion team earlier this year, but has been unable to work out a deal for a privately owned stadium site in Minneapolis. A decision on a stadium for the Miami MLS expansion team is expected by the end of the year. If Minneapolis and Miami work out stadium deals, the league could have 24 teams by 2018. With 20 current teams, the MLS will have Atlanta join in 2017, while Los Angeles, Minnesota and Miami could all join in 2018.
OTHER
National Lacrosse League: The indoor NLL announced its schedule for the upcoming 2016 season that will run from January 1 to April 30, 2016. The league will again have nine teams in a five-team East Division and a four-team West Division. The NLL underwent two franchise relocations after the 2015 season with the Minnesota Swarm moving to the Atlanta area as the Georgia Swarm and the Edmonton Rush relocating to Saskatoon as the Saskatchewan Rush.
Major League Lacrosse: The eight current teams in the outdoor (field lacrosse) MLL announced their protected player rosters as the league prepares for the expansion draft to stock the new Atlanta Blaze team that will start play in 2016. The expansion draft will be held in November 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.
Indoor Football League Stories from September 14, 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.
