ECHL ECHL

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
January 11, 2016 - ECHL (ECHL)


BASEBALL

Pecos League: The independent Pecos League has a new team called the Great Benders, based in Great Bend (KS), listed as a tenth team for the 2016 season. Great Bend is in central Kansas about 80 miles southwest of Salina, which was once listed as a proposed site for a 2016 team to be called the Salina Stockade. The Great Bend city council still has to approve the Pecos League's use of the local ballpark. In the past, the league has been known to announce teams that eventually failed to work out. Over the past several months teams called the Woodward (OK) Westerners and Wichita Falls (TX) Spudders, along with the Salina Stockade, were proposed for the 2016 season, but are no longer listed. Great Bend was once under consideration in 2014 as a possible home to a team in the proposed Kansas State League.

Prospect League: The expansion team to be based in Lisle (IL) for the 2016 season of the summer-collegiate Prospect League has announced six nickname choices. Since the team will be based in DuPage County, each nickname will use DuPage in its name. The choices are DuPage The Fighting Arbor, DuPage Mighty Oaks, DuPage Woodsmen, DuPage AxMen, DuPage Drones and DuPage Infantry.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association has begun the process of evaluating several locations in Florida for an NBA D-League team that would become home to the Magic's D-League affiliate starting with the 2017-18 season. Currently, the Magic has a single affiliation with the D-League's Erie (PA) BayHawks that will expire after the 2016-17 season. Under that hybrid affiliation the Magic runs the basketball operations, but does not own the team. A decision as to whether the Magic would own the Florida-based D-League team has not yet been made. For now, the Magic wants to establish a home for the team and is first considering Central Florida facilities in Kissimmee, Daytona Beach and two in Orlando. Other locations in northern Florida like Lakeland, Estero, Fort Myers and Jacksonville will also be considered. The D-League's Erie BayHawks will have to find a new NBA affiliation starting with the 2018-19 season. The BayHawks joined the league for the 2008-09 season and became the sole affiliate of the New York Knicks for three seasons (2011-14) until signing a three-year affiliation deal with the Orlando Magic.

Central Basketball Association: The men's CBA plans to return with nine teams for a fourth springtime season in 2016. The league had eight teams last season, but the Memphis Soul Kings will sit out the 2016 season while two new teams called the Columbus (OH) Condors and Indianapolis Briks were added. The Columbus and Indianapolis teams will be part of a new five-team North Division with the returning Fort Wayne Flite, Peoria Panthers and Springfield Sentinels. Four other returning teams called the Bowling Green (KY) Hornets, Chattanooga Rail Runners, Middle Tennessee Storm (Nashville) and Mississippi Eagles (Southhaven) will comprise a South Division. The CBA schedule will run from late March to early May 2016. The CBA had a team called the Indianapolis Briks that was announced as a 2015 team, but never made it to the start of the season.

Midwest Professional Basketball Association: After operating with six teams in its inaugural 2015 season, the men's MPBA has returned and started its second season this week with seven teams. Of the six teams from the last season, the Bloomington (IL) Flex did not return but the league added the new Pontiac (IL) 66ers and the Lima (OH) Express team that played in the 2015 Premier Basketball League. The five returning teams include the Champaign (IL) Swarm, Gateway Steam (St. Louis), St. Louis RiverSharks, Windy City Groove (Chicago) and the Chicago Blues, which operated as the Chicago Force last season. The 2016 MPBA regular season runs through March.

Central Basketball Development League: The CBDL has announced another two new teams called the Missouri Quake (Essex) and the Gulf Coast Wizards (Gulfport, MS) were added for the 2016 season.

FOOTBALL

Arena Football League: The AFL has taken over the operations of the Portland (OR) Thunder franchise and the league plans to run the team until new ownership can be established. The league forced out the Thunder's ownership after trying to work out a deal to provide financial and operational support to the franchise. The Portland Thunder joined the AFL as an expansion team for the 2014 season.

North American Indoor Football: With the recent loss of the Texas Stealth team to American Indoor Football, the new NAIF is down to only six teams for its proposed inaugural 2016 season. Teams include the Austin Colts, Dallas Silverbacks, East Texas Timber Rattlers (Lufkin), Kearney (NE) Hawks (travel team), Tampico (Mexico) Legartos and Texas Grim Reapers (North Richland Hills).

HOCKEY

ECHL: The mayor of Evansville has directed the operators of the city's arena to search for another professional hockey team to replace the Evansville IceMen in the ECHL. The city and the IceMen have been unable to work out a new arena lease beyond the current season and a league-imposed deadline passed this week. An attorney for the Icemen stated the team had the options of moving to another city, sitting out a season or folding. The mayor and the team owner will still continue to try to work out a new lease.

Federal Hockey League: The owner of the financially struggling Dayton Demolition team has apparently found a new investor to help the team, so it will move back to the Hara arena after playing a game last weekend at a smaller recreation center in Centerville (OH).

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: The MLS expansion effort in Miami is moving forward on a proposed new stadium site in the Overtown area of Miami and the league appears to be in favor of the location. The city of Louisville is considering construction of a new stadium for the Louisville City FC of the United Soccer League and the club's owner would like a proposed new 9,000-seat stadium to be expandable to 20,000 seats for a possible future MLS franchise.

United Soccer League: The Division-III USL has terminated the current ownership of the league's Rochester Rhinos team for failure to meet league standards. The league will operate the Rhinos until new ownership can be established. The Rochester Rhinos were the champions of the 2015 season. The USL officially announced a new San Antonio franchise has been added as the 31st franchise and the team will start play in 2016. The team will play at Toyota Field, which had been home to the San Antonio Scorpions of the Division-II North American Soccer League for the past four seasons. A name for the new San Antonio USL team will be announced in the next few weeks. The USL operated with 24 teams in 2015 and has announced 5 other 2016 expansion teams over the past few months.

United Soccer Leagues "" Premier Development League: In late November 2015, the Ontario Soccer Association informed the four Ontario-based PDL teams (FC London, Kitchener-Waterloo United, Toronto FC Academy and the Thunder Bay Chill) that 2016 will be the last year they will be permitted to play in the PDL. The OSA is pushing the teams to join League1 Ontario, which the OSA wants to become the only recognized high performance senior league in Ontario. The Canadian Soccer Association has been urging the provinces to create their own high performance senior leagues for several years.

United Women's Soccer: A new women's pro-am soccer league known as the UWS has been organized for a start in 2016 and will be comprised of former teams from the United Soccer Leagues W-League, which ceased operations in November 2015, the Women's Premier Soccer League and some new teams. The league currently lists eight teams in an East Division and plans to add a West Division before it starts play. The East Division includes former W-League teams called the New York Magic, Long Island Rough Riders, Laval (Quebec) Comets, Quebec Dynamo (Quebec City) and the North Jersey Valkyries (Lincoln Park), now the TSF Academy Valkyries. The addition of the two Quebec teams is subject to approval from the Canadian Soccer Association. The East Division also includes the New England Mutiny (Springfield, MA) and Lancaster (PA) Inferno from the WPSL and a new team called New Jersey Copa FC (Metuchen).

Women's Premier Soccer League: With the folding of the United Soccer Leagues W-League after the 2015 season, the pro-am WPSL announced plans to add five former W-League teams for the 2016 season: the Seattle Sounders Women, Dayton Dutch Lions, New Jersey Wildcats, Washington (DC) Spirit Reserves and the Washington Spirit Academy (Virginia), which operated as the Braddock Road Stars Elite in 2015. The WPSL also announced some other 2016 eastern expansion teams called the Old Dominion FC-Cesena USA (Loudoun County, VA), Penn Fusion (Chester, PA), Philadelphia Fever and Connecticut Blues (Middleton, CT). The WPSL reports it is nearing 100 teams for the 2016 season.

OTHER

Professional Bowlers Association "" The League: The eight-team PBA League will return for a fourth season that will be played on April 2 and 3, 2016 in Portland (ME) with matches telecast over four consecutive Sundays on ESPN from April 17 to May 8. A new Portland Lumberjacks team will represent the host bowling center, the city of Portland and the state of Maine during the season. The Lumberjacks will replace the league's Pittsburgh Jack Rabbits team for the 2016 season. The other returning teams from last season include the GEICO New York City WTT KingPins, Barbasol Motown Muscle (Detroit), Silver Lake Atom Splitters, Philadelphia Hitmen, L.A. X, Brooklyn Styles and Dallas Strikers.

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.

Check out the ECHL Statistics



ECHL Stories from January 11, 2016


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.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central