Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
January 4, 2016 - Arena Football League (AFL)
BASEBALL
Eastern League: The proposed relocation of the Double-A Eastern League's Binghamton (NY) Mets to Wilmington (DE) will not move forward, as new ownership was announced for the team and it will remain in Binghamton. The group trying to purchase the Binghamton Mets and move the team to Wilmington had been involved in a lawsuit with the sellers over a purchase agreement, but an undisclosed settlement was worked out. Apparently, the Eastern League was not going to approve the move of the Binghamton Mets to Wilmington, which is currently home to the Wilmington Blue Rocks in the high Class-A Carolina League. If the Binghamton Mets did move to Wilmington, the Carolina League team was supposed to move to Kinston (NC), the former home of a Carolina League team. The Binghamton Mets have had attendance issues over the past few seasons and ranked last in league attendance for the 2015 season.
Freedom Professional Baseball League: The independent FPBL played with four Arizona-based teams in each of its previous short summer seasons in 2012 and 2013, and now claims to be trying to return with four teams in 2016.
Ohio Valley Summer Collegiate Baseball League: The Ohio Valley League has added the Muhlenberg County Stallions (Greenville, KY) as a seventh team for the 2016 season.
BASKETBALL
National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association announced its new NBA D-League team will be called the Greensboro (NC) Swarm when it starts play in the 2016-17 season.
Universal Basketball Association: The men's UBA played a couple of Southern Conference games in December, but the main portion of its 2016 season starts next week.. The UBA currently lists 28 teams aligned into a five-team Eastern Conference, a four-team Mid-Western Conference, a five-team Northern Conference a six-team Southern Conference, a four-team Western Conference and a developmental four-team UBA DLeague. Some of the new teams for 2016 include the Georgia Rize, Cin-City Titans, Cincinnati RedHawks, Kentucky Waves and Central Indiana Seminoles (Anderson).
Women's Universal Basketball Association: The WUBA, which is affiliated with the men's Universal Basketball Association, started its 2015-16 season in early December and currently lists 14 teams aligned into a two-team Northern Conference, a six-team Southern Conference, a four-team Western Conference and a developmental two-team WUBA DLeague.
Central Basketball Development League: The CBDL announced a new team called the Tampa Bay Wind Jammers will be part of the league's 2016 season. The CBDL team is taking its name from a team by the same name that operated for four seasons (1996-99) in the former United States Basketball League.
FOOTBALL
Arena Football League: The owner of the Portland (OR) Thunder in the AFL reported the team has not yet signed a commitment for the 2016 season. The team is still trying to attract investors to keep the operations going and a decision about the future of the team is expected next week. The Portland Thunder joined the AFL as an expansion team for the 2014. If Portland does not return, the league will have lost 5 of its 12 teams from the 2015 season.
American Indoor Football: The AIF has added two more teams called the Texas Stealth, based in the North Richland Hills area of Dallas-Fort Worth, and the Louisiana Cottonmouths (Gonzales), based in the Baton Rouge area. The Texas Stealth and Louisiana Cottonmouths will be part of a West Division that will include the Abilene (TX) Warriors, Corpus Christi (TX) Colts, New Mexico Stars (Albuquerque area), Northshore Gators (Slidell, LA) and Steel City Menace (Pueblo, CO). The Texas Stealth had been affiliated with the league known as North American Indoor Football (NAIF) over the past year. The NAIF has another team called the Texas Grim Reapers that also was to be based in North Richland Hills. Baton Rouge was home to previous indoor teams called the Louisiana Bayou Beast in the 1998 Professional Indoor Football League and 1999 Indoor Professional Football League, and the Baton Rouge Blaze in the 2001 season of arenafootball2 The AIF had 7 participating teams in 2015 and is now up to 26 teams listed for the 2016 season.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The potential owner of a Worcester (MA) franchise in the AA-level ECHL has mentioned the Worcester Whitehawks as one possible team name, but fan input will be part of the naming process.
Federal Hockey League: The financially struggling Dayton Demolition team has moved from the Hara Arena in the Trotwood area to a smaller recreation center in Centerville (OH). It is uncertain how many of the Demolition's home games will be played in Centerville and some games could be moved to another location like the Hobart Arena in Troy (OH).
SOCCER
Major League Soccer: The potential new buyer of Everton FC in England's Premier League is also one of two groups looking at San Diego for a possible MLS franchise. The league confirmed it has had preliminary discussions with interests in San Diego, but a new soccer-specific stadium would have to be built for an MLS team. The MLS plans to grow from 20 to 24 teams by the 2020 season with expansion teams granted to Miami, Minnesota, Atlanta and Los Angeles. The league recently announced further expansion to 28 teams beyond 2020.
United Soccer Leagues "" Premier Development Leagues: The 2016 PDL expansion team to be based in Statesboro (GA) announced it will be called the Tormenta FC. Tormenta is the Spanish name for a storm. The PDL awarded a new franchise to the OKC Energy FC (Oklahoma City) of the Division-III United Soccer League for the 2016 season. A name will be announced in the near future for the new Oklahoma City PDL team.
North American Soccer League: A few weeks ago, Scotland's Celtic FC (Glasgow) was reported to be interested in placing a related club in the Division-II NASL, but no location for the team was announced. Although Celtic FC would prefer an eastern location for an NASL team, the league is hoping to expand to locations on the West Coast, in the Midwest or in Canada. The NASL appears to be losing the San Antonio market to a United Soccer League team next season, while previously announced Major League Soccer teams in Atlanta (2017) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (2018) will most likely displace the NASL's Atlanta Silverbacks and Minnesota United FC teams in the future.
Northwest Premier League: The Olympic Force (Bremerton, WA) soccer club, which had a men's team compete in the 2015 season of the elite-amateur Evergreen Premier League of Washington (EPLWA), is looking to form a women's version of the EPLWA to be called the Northwest Premier League (NWPL) starting in the 2016 season. The Olympic Force women's club that participated in a six-team Northwest-Washington Division of the 2015 Women's Premier Soccer League would be a charter member of the new NWPL. Teams and locations are expected to be announced later this month.
OTHER
National Lacrosse League: The indoor NLL started its 2016 season this weekend with nine teams aligned in a five-team East Division and a four-team West Division. In the off-season, the Minnesota Swarm moved from St. Paul to the Atlanta area to become the Georgia Swarm and the Swarm was moved from the West to the East Division. The Georgia Swarm will play home games at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth. Also, the Edmonton Rush relocated to Saskatoon to become the Saskatchewan Rush for the 2016 season. The Minnesota Swarm had joined the NLL for the 2005 season when ownership purchased the dormant Montreal Express franchise. The Edmonton Rush joined the NLL for the 2006 season when ownership purchased the dormant Ottawa Rebel franchise.
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.
Arena Football League Stories from January 4, 2016
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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.
