Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
September 28, 2015 - North American Indoor Football (NAIF)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: The city of New Britain (CT) unanimously approved leasing its baseball stadium to an Atlantic League team for next season. The league plans to introduce the new team sometime next month. The league has a couple of weeks left to negotiate a stadium lease for its Camden (NJ) Riversharks team and if a deal is not worked out, Camden would move to New Britain. Otherwise, a different team would move to New Britain.
International League: Plans for a proposed stadium in downtown Providence (RI) for the Pawtucket (RI) Red Sox of the Triple-A International League have died. The Pawtucket ownership will continue to look at other sites in Rhode Island since staying at its current stadium is not an option. Other markets outside of Rhode Island like Worcester (MA), Springfield (MA) and the suburban Boston area have been mentioned as possible relocation candidates, but any new location would need to build a new stadium for the team.
Great West League: The proposed new summer-collegiate GWL, which plans to start play in June 2016, announced its fifth team will be based in Sacramento while its sixth team will be the Medford (OR) Rogues. The Rogues have been part of the summer-collegiate West Coast League for the past three seasons, while the other five GWL teams will all be new teams. With the addition of Sacramento and Medford, the GWL now has two teams in Oregon and four teams in California.
BASKETBALL
National Basketball League of Canada: The NBL-Canada announced a ninth team for the 2015-16 season will be located in Sydney (Nova Scotia). The Sydney-based team is expected to be placed in the Atlantic Division, which will have five teams, while a Central Division will have four teams. A name-the-team contest will be held with the team name being announced in mid-October. A professional basketball team called the Cape Breton Breakers was based in Sydney and played in both spring-summer seasons (1993-94) of the defunct National Basketball League.
Midwest Professional Basketball Association: The MPBA announced an expansion team called the Pontiac (IL) 66ers will start play in the league's second season in 2016. The team takes its name from the city's location on old Route 66. The MPBA completed its inaugural 2015 season with six teams and also recently added the Lima (OH) Express from the Premier Basketball League.
New Era Basketball Association: The proposed NEBA plans to start nationwide play in November 2015 and now lists 20 teams. Four of the teams (Atlanta Show, Houston Xperience, New York United and Washington DC Nation) were part of an effort last summer to try to start the NEBA as a national league. The Houston Xperience and other current NEBA teams like the Detroit Coast-2-Coast All Stars, Kitsap Admirals, Memphis Lions, and Tacoma Rise have played in the American Basketball Association (ABA), while NEBA teams called the Central Florida Marvel (Orlando), Hub City Cyclones (Jackson, TN) and San Antonio Kings (Schertz Kings) had previously announced plans to play in the ABA.
AmeriLeague: The proposed new AmeriLeague, now lists eight Las Vegas-based teams that plan to start the league's inaugural season in November 2015. The AmeriLeague plans to target top high school talent and well-known former players from the National Basketball Association. The league organizer started with the Las Vegas Dealers team, which will be joined by teams called the Las Vegas Flush, Las Vegas High Rollers, Las Vegas i15, Las Vegas Mambas, Las Vegas Westerners, Las Vegas Wild Aces and the Vegas 702. Las Vegas tryouts started this weekend and others will take place next month in various cities.
American Basketball Association: The ABA announced a new team called the Sioux City (IA) Hornets is scheduled to start play in the 2016-17 season. The league stated this is its first team in Iowa, although a team called the Cedar Rapids (IA) Running Guns was announced in 2006, but never made it to the start of the 2006-07 season.
Central Basketball Development League: The CBDL announced an ownership group from Delaware planned to place a CBDL team called the Beast Coast Ballers in West Chester (PA), but then announced the team would not be able to join the league for the 2016 season.
FOOTBALL
Indoor Football League: The 12-team IFL announced a new divisional alignment of teams within its two conferences for the 2016 season. The six-team United Conference will have three-team North and Midwest divisions, while the six-team Intense Conference will have three-team Central and West divisions. All ten teams returned from last season with the Bemidji Axemen recently being renamed the Minnesota Axemen and the Loveland-based Colorado Ice renamed the Colorado Crush. The IFL added two new teams - the Spokane (WA) Shock from the Arena Football League and the expansion Minnesota Havok (Mankato).
Legends Football League-USA: The women's indoor LFL, formerly known as the Lingerie Football League, announced it will add a team in Austin when the next season starts in the spring of 2016. The LFL had one previous Texas-based team called the Dallas Desire for two seasons (2009-11).
North American Indoor Football: The new NAIF announced that Mexico's arena football league called LEXFA (Liga Extrema de Futbol Arena) will organize a professional indoor football team to compete in the NAIF for the 2016 season.
Fall Experimental Football League: The Mahoning Valley Brawlers announced Monday the team has ceased operations less than a week before its scheduled inaugural game. The loss of the franchise leaves the FXFL with just three teams including the travel-only Florida Blacktips.
HOCKEY
Lique Nord-Americaine de Hockey: The minor pro-level Quebec-based LNAH, or the North American Hockey League, has posted its 2015-16 season schedule that run from early October 2015 to early March 2016. The league will basically have the same eight teams as last season. The Thetford Mines team has a new sponsor so the team changed from the Isothermic Thetford Mines to Assurancia Thetford Mines. The Blizzard Cloutier Nord-Sud Trois-Rivieres team is now simply the Blizzard de Trois-Rivieres.
Metropolitan Junior Hockey League: The Philadelphia Little Flyers of Aston (PA) are no longer part of the 2015-16 Tier-III MJHL. The Philadelphia Little Flyers still have a higher level Tier-III team in the Eastern Hockey League's Premier Division. A Tier-II North American Hockey League team called the Aston Rebels also started playing in the market for the 2015-16 season.
United States Premier Hockey League "" Elite Division: The Kissimmee-based Florida Bulldogs, which operated as the Roswell Bulldogs in the 2014-15 Tier-III USPHL Elite Division, have dropped out of the USPHL Elite Division for the 2015-16 season.
SOCCER
Major Arena Soccer League: The MASL has a team called the Jupiter City FC of Jupiter (FL) listed as a 2016-17 expansion team. The club is owned by Oxford City FC, which owned an MASL team in Beaumont (TX) called Oxford City FC of Texas for the 2014-15 season and sold it in December 2014. Another ownership group has been trying to bring an expansion team called the Youngstown (OH) Nighthawks to the MASL, but it has yet to be formally accepted by the league.
Major League Soccer: The MLS appears to be in favor of a site in St. Paul for the proposed Minnesota MLS expansion team. The owner of the Division-II North American Soccer League's Minnesota United FC was awarded an MLS expansion team and has yet to work out a deal on the first choice for a stadium in Minneapolis near Target Stadium, home of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins.
Western Indoor Soccer League: The men's elite-amateur WISL announced the Shohomish Skyhawks have joined for the second season of the indoor league based in the state of Washington. The Skyhawks had been part of the Premier Arena Soccer League since starting play back in 2006. A team called the Snohomish Bigfoot was originally announced in 2014 for the WISL's first season, but that team never developed. The home venue of the WISL's Oly Town Artesians (Olympia, WA) was closed down after the 2014-15 season and it was uncertain if the team would return. The Artesians recently announced the team will return for the 2015-16 season and use a covered outdoor facility on the campus of Evergreen State University as its home.
National Premier Soccer League: The men's elite amateur NPSL recently announced two new Michigan-based teams - AFC Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids FC - have been added for the 2016 season. Both teams will be placed in the league's Midwest Region.
OTHER
Canadian Lacrosse League (C-LAX): The professional C-LAX announced its 2016 schedule that will feature the same five Ontario-based teams as last season. Teams include the Barrie Blizzard, Durham Turfdogs, Niagara Lock Monsters (St. Catharines), Ohsweken Demons and Southwest Cyclops (Paris). The league is entering its fifth season and each team will play ten games from January 15 to March 6, 2016.
Dan Krieger is the creator of the Leagues, Teams & Nicknames 2014-15: "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.
North American Indoor Football Stories from September 28, 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.
