Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
June 28, 2021 - MLS NEXT Pro (MLS NEXT Pro)
BASEBALL
Futures Collegiate Baseball League: The summer-collegiate FCBL started its 2021 season late last month with eight teams aligned in one table. The league operated with six of its seven teams last season with the Pittsfield (MA) Suns sitting out the season. Pittsfield returned for 2021, but the North Shore Navigators moved to the New England Collegiate Baseball League. The FCBL added the Norwich (CT) Sea Unicorns and the Vermont Monsters (Burlington) from the former Class-A short-season New York-Penn League, which was eliminated this year with the restructuring of Minor League Baseball.
Expedition League: The summer-collegiate Expedition League started its 2021 season late last month with 12 teams aligned in a six-team Lewis Division and a six-team Clark Division. Only six of the league's ten teams played last season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Two new teams called the Mining City Tommyknockers (Butte, MT) and the Canyon County Spuds (Caldwell, ID) were added for the 2021 season. The league's Wheat City Whiskey Jacks (Brandon, Manitoba) are playing their 2021 home schedule in Grand Forks (ND) due to cross-border travel restrictions. A new Grand Forks expansion team will start play in the 2022 season.
Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League: The summer-collegiate PGCBL started its 2021 season earlier this month and has grown to 15 teams for the 2021 season with a five-team East Division, a four-team Central Division and a six-team West Division. The PGCBL cancelled its entire 2020 season and last played in 2019 with 12 teams. Since then the Adirondack Trail Blazers are sitting out the 2021 season; the Utica Blue Sox and Jamestown Tarp Skunks, formerly the Jamestown Jammers, returned after sitting out the 2019 season; the Niagara Power (Niagara Falls, NY) joined from the New York Collegiate Baseball League; and the Auburn (NY) Doubledays and Batavia (NY) Muckdogs joined from the former Class-A short-season New York-Penn League, which was eliminated with the recent restructuring of Minor League Baseball. The PGCBL also states the Ottawa-based Capital City Reds team is an affiliate member.
Major League Baseball: MLB's Oakland Athletics are considering relocation and team officials recently visited Las Vegas where they looked at several potential sites for a new stadium that could become home to the team if it decided to relocate to the area.
BASKETBALL
American Basketball Association: The ABA announced it will start a spring-summer league called the ABA GOLD in April 2022 after the end of the ABA's regular fall-winter season. An eight-team ABA GOLD league planned for Las Vegas in August and September 2019 was cancelled, as was an ABA Summer League planned for last summer. The ABA also announced a new team called the Fast Break Fury (Batavia, NY) has been added as an expansion team for the 2021-22 season.
Canadian Elite Basketball League: The seven-team professional CEBL started its 2021 season this week, about two months later than normal, with each team playing a 14-game schedule instead of the normal 20-game schedule. All seven teams have returned from last season and they are aligned in a single-table format. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the CEBL played a shortened 2020 summer season over a two-week period with all games played at one location in St. Catharines (Ontario).
National Basketball Association: The exhibition-based Harlem Globetrotters team has petitioned the NBA to be admitted as a future expansion team. The NBA is considering expansion with the Seattle and Las Vegas markets considered to be the frontrunners.
National Basketball Association G-League: The G-League's Grand Rapids (MI) Drive, which earlier this year lost its affiliation with the NBA's Detroit Pistons but gained an affiliation with the NBA's Denver Nuggets, stated the team will announce a new name and logo next month.
The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL announced a team based in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania will join as a 2022 expansion team. A name, home city and venue has not yet been selected.
FOOTBALL
American West Football Conference: The five-team AWFC announced the addition of the San Diego Redtails as the league's sixth team and it will start play in the 2022 season.
National Football League: The NFL's Washington Football Team, formerly known as the Washington Redskins, was denied a trademark registration for the "Washington Football Team" as being too generic and due to a previous trademark granted for the "Washington Football Club".
United Arena League: The three-team semi-pro UAL announced it has cancelled the remainder of its inaugural 2021 season that was to run through July 17 and will hold a championship game on that date between the Peach State Cats (Cumming, GA) and the Georgia-Lina Lions (Augusta area).
United States Football League: The mayor of Birmingham (AL) is lobbying for the city to get a team in the new springtime USFL that is supposed to start play in 2022. A team called the Birmingham Stallions played in all three seasons (1983-85) of the previous version of the USFL.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The ECHL's Adirondack Thunder (Glens Falls, NY) extended its affiliation with the National Hockey League's New Jersey Devils that will include an affiliation with the Devils' new American Hockey League affiliate called the Utica (NY) Comets, which operated as the Binghamton (NY) Devils in the 2020-21 AHL season before moving to Utica.
United States Premier Hockey League: The Medford-based Southern Oregon Spartans of the Tier-III USPHL Premier Division announced the team will sit out the 2021-22 season. The Spartans were one of 11 former Western States Hockey League teams that joined the USPHL Premier Division for the 2020-21 season, but the team cancelled its 2020-21 season after only six games due to the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Western States Hockey League: A team called the Vegreville Vipers (Alberta, Canada) announced it will be a member of the junior-level WSHL for the 2021-22 season. The WSHL, which is considered a Tier-II league under the Amateur Athletic Union's United Hockey Union, did not play a 2020-21 season.
SOCCER
Canadian Premier League: Canada's eight-team Division-II professional CPL started its 2021 season this weekend with a four-week event called "The Kickoff" in Winnipeg (Manitoba). The event will feature each team playing eight games. The CPL announced that after this event ends on July 24, teams will return to playing games in their home markets. Teams will each play an additional 20 games and will be aligned in a single-table format for the standings.
Major League Soccer Developmental League: The MLS announced a yet-to-be-named player development league that will start play in 2022 with 20 MLS-affiliated teams and possible independently owned teams. The new league was created to bridge the gap between the MLS NEXT youth academy program and the Division-I MLS teams, and the level of play is expected to be below that of the current Division-II USL Championship. The league is expected to include the MLS-operated teams currently playing in the Division-II USL Championship and Division-III USL League One. The MLS's Portland Timbers, which previously operated a team in the USL Championship, and the Orlando City SC clubs, which previously operated USL a team in the USL League One, have announced plans to place teams in the new league next season. The 2023 MLS expansion team called St. Louis City SC announced it will place a team in the new development league next season in addition to starting a new MLS NEXT academy team.
Major Arena Soccer League: The owner of the MASL's Rochester (NY) Lancers indoor team, which sat out the shortened 2020-21 season, stated the team will return for the 2021-22 season if the Dome Arena is available. The arena has been used as a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination site and the current lease with the state expires October 31, 2021.
National Independent Soccer Association: The owner of the Rochester (NY) Lancers, which operates both indoor and outdoor soccer teams, announced the sale of its two outdoor teams-the men's team from the National Premier Soccer League and the women's team from the United Women's Soccer-to the NISA's new Rochester-based team called the Flower City Union that will start play in the spring of 2022. The NISA currently operates a Division-III men's professional league and is associated with the proposed new Women's Independent Soccer League that is trying to get off the ground in 2022.
USL Championship (United Soccer League): The Rochester (NY) Rhinos team, which last played in the 2017 season of the Division-II USL Championship, has added a new co-owner and announced it will return to play in 2022 under a new name, although no league was announced. In 2019 the Rochester Rhinos were listed as an expansion team for the Division-III USL League One, but it is no longer listed.
OTHER
National Lacrosse League: The professional indoor (box lacrosse) NLL announced the addition of a 15th team that will be based in Las Vegas starting with the 2022-23 season.
Dan Krieger is the creator of the Weekly Sports League & Franchise Report, which has been tracking changes in the sports world's leagues, teams and nicknames since April 2007.
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MLS NEXT Pro Stories from June 28, 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.
