Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
April 19, 2021 - Champions Indoor Football (CIF)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: The Maryland General Assembly approved a bill this week that could lead to a new baseball stadium being built in Hagerstown (MD) for an Atlantic League expansion team. The city has had various affiliated teams over the past 40 years with the most recent being the Hagerstown Suns, which lost its low Class-A South Atlantic League affiliation during the recent restructuring of Minor League Baseball. New York City ¬â¢s borough of Staten Island is trying to bring an Atlantic League team to its vacant ballpark for the 2022 season. The Staten Island Yankees lost its Major League Baseball affiliation when the short-season New York/Penn League was disbanded during the recent restructuring of Minor League Baseball.
Frontier League: Due to cross-border travel restrictions between the United States and Canada, the Frontier League announced its three Canadian teams - the Trois-Rivieres (Quebec) Aigles, Quebec Les Capitales (Quebec City) and the expansion Ottawa Titans-will be replaced by one team from the Province of Quebec that will play at least the first half of the season as a travel-only team in the United States. If the border should open later in the season, the Quebec team will play home games in Quebec City and Trois-Rivieres. The loss of the Ottawa Titans reduces the Can-Am Conference Northeast Division from four to three teams. The Quebec travel team replaces the Quebec Les Capitales and Trois-Rivieres Aigles and reduces the Can-Am Conference Atlantic Division from four to three teams. The league ¬â¢s Midwest Conference remains the same with a four-team Central Division and a four-team West Division.
Double-A South League: The state of Tennessee has included some funding in the 2021-22 budget for a proposed new downtown Knoxville ballpark that could become the future home to the Tennessee Smokies of the Double-A South league. The Smokies started in Knoxville in 1972 and were known as the Knoxville Smokies from 1993 to 1999 until moving to Kodak as the Tennessee Smokies for the 2000 season.
West Coast League: The summer-collegiate WCL announced its five Canadian teams will not compete in the 2021 season due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. The league ¬â¢s ten teams based in the United States are still planning to start their 2021 season in early June.
Prospect League: With the summer-collegiate Prospect League expanding to 16 teams for the 2021 season, the league features a new alignment featuring an East Conference with four-team Ohio River Valley and Wabash River divisions, and a West Conference with four-team Great River and Prairie Land divisions.
New England Collegiate Baseball League: The North Shore Navigators (Lynn, MA) are moving back to the NECBL after being part of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League since the 2012 season. The North Shore Navigators had played four prior seasons (2008-11) in the NECBL before moving to the FCBL.
BASKETBALL
Women ¬â¢s National Basketball Association: The professional WNBA announced its 25th season will start on May 14, 2021 with the same 12 teams as last season playing a 32-game schedule through September 19, 2021. The WNBA has had 12 teams since the 2010 season and would like to expand, but a serious discussion of expansion is at least a year away.
American Basketball Association: The semi-pro men ¬â¢s ABA announced three new 2021-22 expansion teams called the Crescent City Bokor (New Orleans), Louisville Colonels and Midland (TX) Thrillers. The ABA has had previous teams in all three of these markets.
FOOTBALL
National Gridiron League: The new 12-team NGL ¬â¢s plans to hold its inaugural 2021 season at one unannounced location in Fort Wayne because of coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns has been cancelled due to a dispute with the city. The city denied the NGL ¬â¢s claim that it would pay hotel costs for players arriving a couple weeks ago for a training camp and stated no venue was secured for the NGL games to start on May 1. The NGL failed to start play as planned in 2019 and 2020 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The league operator said the NGL will try to find a new city for a 2021 season.
The Spring League: After playing a short season this past fall in San Antonio with six teams, the TSL elite professional football development league announced the addition of two more teams for a six-week 2021 season starting May 6. North Division teams called the Conquerors, Aviators, Alphas and Linemen will use Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis as its hub, while South Division teams called the Sea Lions, Generals, Jousters and Blues will use Rice Stadium in Houston as its hub.
Champions Indoor Football: The ownership group that operates the CIF ¬â¢s Wyoming Mustangs (Gillette) is trying to bring a CIF expansion team to Billings (MT) for the 2022 season. Billings has had several former indoor football teams with the most recent being the Billings Wolves that played two seasons (2015-16) in the Indoor Football League. The group was also considering Rapid City (SD) and Casper (WY) for a team and Rapid City is reported to have an unofficial agreement to add a team.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: An executive with the AHL ¬â¢s Binghamton (NY) Devils team, which is an affiliate of the National Hockey League ¬â¢s Newark-based New Jersey Devils and playing its 2020-21 home schedule in Newark due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, was informed by its parent NHL team that the AHL team will be relocated from Binghamton next season. The president of the league ¬â¢s Utica (NY) Comets filed a trademark registration this week for the Utica Devils, indicating a possible affiliation change involving that team next season.
Canadian Hockey League: The major-junior CHL, which includes the 22-team Western Hockey League, the 20-team Ontario Hockey League and the 18 team Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, announced it will not hold its 2020-21 season-ending Memorial Cup championship due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. The Memorial Cup tournament includes the champion from each league and a fourth team from the host city. The WHL and QMJHL have been able to play a portion of their 2020-21 seasons, while the OHL has yet to start play. The OHL had a conditional agreement with the province to return to play, but a stay-at-home order was recently issued due to a spike in coronavirus cases.
Canadian Junior Hockey League: The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) and the Ligue de Hockey Junior du Quebec (LHJQ), two of the nine leagues that are members of the Junior-A CJHL, announced the cancellation of their 2020-21 seasons this week due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. Some of the 13 LHJQ teams had played some pre-season games, but the regular season that was to start in October 2020 never happened. Only 6 of the OJHL ¬â¢s 22 teams were able to play a total of 58 exhibition games in November, December and March due to local restrictions.
Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League: Canada ¬â¢s 24-team Junior-B GOJHL was never able to start its 2020-21 season and with the Ontario provincial government issuing a stay-at-home order through May 6, the league announced this week the cancellation of its entire 2020-21 season.
SOCCER
Major League Soccer: The MLS started its 2021 season this weekend with 27 teams aligned in a 14-team Eastern Conference and a 13-team Western Conference. The expansion Austin FC was added this season and placed in the Western Conference with the Nashville SC switching to the Eastern Conference. The Montreal Impact was renamed the CF Montreal in the off-season. The league ¬â¢s three Canadian teams will start the season playing home games in the United States-Vancouver Whitecaps FC in Salt Lake City, CF Montreal in Fort Lauderdale and Toronto FC in Orlando-due to cross-border travel restrictions. Although the league has not given up on Sacramento for its 30th team, the MLS commissioner mentioned Las Vegas, San Diego and Phoenix are other markets now under consideration. The league is operating the Real Salt Lake team due to a forced ownership change and hopes to find new local ownership by the end of the year.
National Independent Soccer Association: The men ¬â¢s Division-III professional NISA started the 2021 season this week with its two-week Legends Cup tournament in Chattanooga (TN) featuring nine teams playing through April 25. The same nine teams will play in the 2021 Spring Season starting May 1.
Women ¬â¢s Premier Soccer League: The professional National Women ¬â¢s Soccer League ¬â¢s NJ/NY Gothams FC, formerly the Sky Blue FC, announced a partnership with New York City ¬â¢s Downtown United SC to operate a team called the NJ/NY Gotham Reserves in the 2021 elite-level WPSL.
OTHER
National Lacrosse League: The professional indoor NLL announced its new Albany (NY) team, which was a relocation of the New England Black Wolves from Uncasville (CT), will be called the Albany FireWolves when the team starts play in the 2021-22 season.
Premier Lacrosse League: The professional tour-based field lacrosse PLL announced its 2021 season will start on June 4 with eight teams. The season will feature seven regular-season stops in Boston (Foxborough), Atlanta, Baltimore, Long Island, Minneapolis, Colorado Springs and Albany (NY); an All-Star weekend in San Jose; and a three-weekend playoff in Salt Lake City, Philadelphia and Washington (DC).
Dan Krieger is the creator of the Weekly Sports League & Franchise Report, which has been tracking changes in the sports world ¬â¢s leagues, teams and nicknames since April 2007.
Champions Indoor Football Stories from April 19, 2021
- 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.
