Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
January 25, 2016 - American Indoor Football (AIF)
BASEBALL
Pacific Coast League: The Triple-A PCL has concerns about the deterioration of Cashman Field, home of the league's Las Vegas 51s, and whether it can continue as a Triple-A facility without replacement or significant renovations. In 2015 the league issued two warning letters to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority about the condition of the current ballpark. There has been talk of building a new stadium for the team in nearby Summerlin or Henderson.
Eastern League: The Double-A Eastern League's new Hartford Yard Goats, formerly the New Britain (CT) Rock Cats, announced its new stadium will not be ready until the end of May 2016, so the team will start the first two months of the season on the road.
California Winter League: The short-season developmental CWL started its 2016 season this week with 14 teams. The league had 10 teams last season and added new teams called the Toronto Rush, Manitoba North Stars, New York Colonials and the Bay Area Bootleggers. The league plays a three-week schedule from late January to mid-February with all games played in Palm Springs.
South Atlantic League: After making two attempts to move to the Fredericksburg (VA) area and one attempt at Winchester (VA) over the past few years, the Hagerstown (MD) Suns of the low Class-A SAL have signed a two-year lease that will keep the team in Hagerstown for now.
BASKETBALL
Women's American Basketball Association: The men's American Basketball Association again announced plans to re-launch the WABA in August 2016 with seven regional divisions comprised of at least four teams each. The WABA would play a couple of months, take a short break and then play prior to ABA games from November to March. The WABA has been trying to get off the ground since it was first announced in 2011 and a handful of teams played exhibition games in 2012. The WABA was re-launched again in 2013 with plans for four regional divisions, but play did not start until the summer of 2014 with a short schedule that included only four active teams. Four teams called the Flint (MI) Monarchs, Milwaukee Aces, Minnesota Flame and Springfield (IL) Lady Grizzlies participated in another short season in the summer of 2015. Some teams played exhibition games in 2015 against teams from the Women's Blue Chip Basketball League.
FOOTBALL
Major League Football: The proposed new professional MLFB will hold its player draft next week and plans to start its inaugural spring season with eight teams playing ten games from April to June 2016. No specific markets have been announced, but the league says no team will be based in a National Football League or Major League Baseball market. Orlando is expected to be home to a Florida-based MLFB team.
American Indoor Football: The Marion (OH) Blue Racers announced the team has suspended operations and will not play as part of the 2016 AIF season. Ownership did not have enough sponsorships and advance ticket sales to finance the upcoming season. The Marion Blue Racers started play in 2011 as part of the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL), moved to the United Indoor Football League in 2012, returned to the CIFL for two seasons (2013-14) and were part of X-League Indoor Football in 2015. After the 2015 season, the Blue Racers announced plans to be part of a reorganized CIFL under the umbrella of the Indoor Football Alliance, but later switched to the AIF.
Indoor Football Alliance: The Erie (PA) Explosion, which was part of the 2015 Professional Indoor Football League and was supposed to be part of a 2016 revival of the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) under the IFA, announced the team has suspended operations for the 2016 season. The IFA was first announced in August 2015 as an alliance of two member leagues, the CIFL and Supreme Indoor Football (SIF). At that time, the CIFL included the Erie Explosion, Saginaw Sting and Marion Blue Racers, while the Cape Fear Heroes (Fayetteville, NC) was the only SIF member. Erie was left as the lone CIFL team when Saginaw and Marion later switched to American Indoor Football (AIF) for the 2016 season. The SIF planned to move forward with a 2016 season and added other teams called the Kentucky Knights (Owensboro) from North American Indoor Football and the Buffalo Lightning from the 2015 AIF.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The city of Owensboro (KY), about 30 miles southeast of Evansville, has signed a contract with the owner of the ECHL's Evansville IceMen to move the team to Owensboro for the 2016-17 season. The IceMen and the city of Evansville were unable to reach a lease agreement for the Ford Center beyond the current season. The ECHL still has to approve the relocation. The city of Evansville has begun the process of finding another hockey team for the Ford Center and the Southern Professional Hockey League has expressed interest in the market. The Evansville IceMen joined the ECHL from the Central Hockey League starting with the 2012-13 season.
Federal Hockey League: The lower-level professional FHL announced it has terminated the ownership of the Dayton Demolition franchise, but the team will continue to be operated by the league as it tries to establish a new ownership group to run the team for the remainder of the 2015-16 season. The league could announce new ownership next week. The owner of last season's Berkshire Battalion relocated the team from North Adams (MA) to become the Dayton Demolition for the 2015-16 season when the FHL's Dayton Demonz folded after three seasons (2012-15) in the league.
SOCCER
United Soccer League: The Division-III USL announced the alignment of its 29 teams for the 2016 season that will include a 14-team Eastern Conference and a 15-team Western Conference. The league had 24 teams in 12-team conferences last season, but the Austin Aztex team from the Western Conference is sitting out the 2016 season. The Eastern Conference added three new teams called the Bethlehem Steel FC, FC Cincinnati and Orlando City FC Lions B, while the St. Louis FC was moved from the Eastern to the Western Conference. The Western Conference added three new teams called the Rio Grande Valley FC, Swope Park Rangers (Kansas City, MO) and a yet-to-be-named team in San Antonio. The 20 active Major League Soccer league teams in 2016, plus the 2017 expansion Atlanta United FC, will each have a single affiliation with 21 of the 29 USL teams for the 2016 season. The proposed new 2017 USL expansion team in Reno (NV) announced six team name finalists: FC Reno, Reno 1868, Reno City FC, Reno FC, Reno Silver FC and Reno 1868. The team name will selected in mid-February after fan voting.
Major League Soccer: If the Las Vegas 51s baseball team in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League moves to a proposed new stadium in nearby Summerlin or Henderson, an investment group would like to convert the team's current home at Cashman Field into a soccer venue for an MLS expansion team. The group hopes to submit a proposal to the MLS sometime this year for an 18,000-seat soccer stadium on the Cashman Field site. Early in 2015, the MLS passed on a proposal for a 24,000-seat downtown Las Vegas soccer stadium that included a large amount of public funding. Since the MLS announced future plans to expand to 28 teams, several markets have expressed interest in an MLS expansion team. Also, the expansion Atlanta United FC might have to start the first three months of its inaugural 2017 season on the road due to construction delays at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will also be home to the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons starting with their 2017 NFL season.
United Soccer Leagues "" Premier Development League: Over the past couple of weeks, the PDL has announced four new teams that have been added for the 2016 season: the San Diego Zest, San Francisco City FC, Peachtree City (GA) MOBA and a yet-to-be-named team in The Villages (FL). The league's Golden State Misioneros FC, which was known as the LA Misioneros prior to the 2015 season, has aligned with the Ozzys Laguna FC and will operate as the LA Laguna FC for the 2016 season.
Northwest Premier League: The women's elite-level amateur NWPL, which is based in the Northwest region of the United States and modeled after the men's elite amateur soccer league known as the Evergreen Premier League of Washington (EPLWA), announced two more teams that brings the total to six teams for the inaugural 2016 season. The new teams are the Seattle Uninube FC, which will be owned and operated by the Seattle Stars FC of the men's EPLWA, and the Yakima United FC, which operates a men's team called the Yakima United Hoppers in the EPLWA. The NWPL season will start in May 2016.
OTHER
Canadian Lacrosse League (CLAX): The semi-pro CLAX started its 2016 season last week and it features the same five Ontario-based teams as last season: 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.
American Indoor Football Stories from January 25, 2016
- 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.
