Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on July 5, 2021 under National Arena League (NAL)
BASEBALL
Pecos League: The independent Pecos League's Salina (KS) Stockade, which has been mostly a travel-only team since its start in 2016, will not play the 12 of 28 home games scheduled to be played in Salina during July and August of this season. The team played two early-season home games about 200 miles west in Colby (KS) and has been on the road for the rest of its games. Three previously scheduled home games for Salina will be moved to Colby and nine will be moved to El Dorado (KS), about 100 miles south, where that city's summer-collegiate team called the El Dorado Broncos shut down its 2021 season in the Sunflower Collegiate League after only one game early last month.
Puerto Rico Independent Baseball League: The new professional PRIBL started its inaugural 2021 season this week with four teams called the Pelicanos de Rincon, Tainos de Mayaguez, Conquistadores de Aguada and Peregrinos de Hormigueros. Teams will each play 28 games through July.
Western Canadian Baseball League: After cancelling its entire 2020 season due do the coronavirus (COVID-19), the 11-team summer-collegiate WCBL started its 2021 season last month with only five Albert-based teams that will have no American players. The Okotoks Dawgs will operate two teams (Black and Red) and the Edmonton Prospects will be a travel-only team as its waits for completion of a ballpark in Spruce Grove. The other teams are the Lethbridge Bulls and the expansion Sylvan Lake Gulls.
BASKETBALL
Independent Women's Professional Basketball League: The new IWPBL started its inaugural 2021 season last month with seven teams playing short schedules of games in June and July. The Midwest Region features the Chicago Breeze, Indiana Bandits and Memphis Blaze, while the Southern Region has the Houston Titans, Dallas Twisters, San Antonio Surge and Oklahoma Lady Outlaws (Enid). The Midwest teams are playing some non-league games against teams from the Global Women's Basketball Association. The IWPBL was organized last year and some previously announced teams, such as the Kansas City Chill, Iowa Bounce, Wichita Machine and Salina Stealth, are no longer listed.
Global Women's Basketball Association: After cancelling its 2020 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the GWBA started its 2021 season late last month with five teams playing short schedules through mid-August. The 2021 teams include the St. Louis Surge, Columbus Cardinals, Wisconsin Glo (Oshkosh), Detroit Dodgers and Flint Monarchs. The GWBA teams are also playing some non-league games against teams from the Independent Professional Women's Basketball League.
National Basketball League-U.S.: After shortening its inaugural 2020 season due to the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic, the NBL-US started its 2021 season last weekend with eight teams. An American Conference has the Baytown (TX) Bobcats, Bexar County (TX) Bucs, East Houston United and New Orleans Blues, while the National Conference includes the Fort Lauderdale Herd, Marietta (GA) Rockets, Space Coast Stars (Melbourne, FL) and South Atlanta Showtyme.
FOOTBALL
American Indoor Football: A new version of the AIF, which previously played five seasons (2012-16) before ceasing operations, announced plans this week to restart in 2022 with teams aligned in geographic regions across the country.
National Arena League: The NAL commissioner has expressed interest in placing a team in the Pittsburgh market, but an ownership group would need to be found. The city's most recent indoor teams were the Pittsburgh Power that played four seasons (2011-14) in the former Arena Football League and the lower-level Pittsburgh Defenders, or Burgh Defenders, that did not make it through its only season in 2019 as part of the American Arena League.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The city of Abbotsford (British Columbia) and the National Hockey League's Vancouver Canucks officially signed off on a five-year deal to bring the Canucks' AHL affiliate to the city-owned Abbotsford Centre starting with the 2021-22 season. The Canucks will announce its AHL affiliate's name next week. The NHL's expansion Seattle Kraken will share the AHL's Charlotte Checkers, the affiliate of the NHL's Florida Panthers, for the 2021-22 season since the Kraken's AHL team in the Palm Springs area is not set to start until the 2022-23 season. The AHL approved the sale of the Rockford IceHogs to the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks. The IceHogs have been Chicago's AHL affiliate for the past 14 seasons.
ECHL: The ECHL's Jacksonville Icemen entered into a multi-year affiliation with the National Hockey League's New York Rangers and the Rangers' American Hockey League affiliate the Hartford Wolf Pack. The Rangers' former ECHL affiliate, the Portland-based Maine Mariners, then signed an affiliation with the NHL's Boston Bruins and the Bruins' AHL affiliate the Providence Bruins.
North American Hockey League: The Tier-II junior-level NAHL announced its 2021-22 schedule and alignment, which will feature 29 teams in East, Central, Midwest and South divisions. The NAHL had 23 teams last season but three teams called the Jamestown (NY) Rebels, Springfield (IL) Junior Blues and Corpus Christi IceRays will return after taking voluntary leave last season. Three new teams called the El Paso Rhinos, Anchorage Wolverines and Amarillo Wranglers were added. The Wranglers are the former Kansas City Scouts franchise, which has been inactive since the move of the Topeka Pilots to Kansas City after the 2019-20 season. The Amarillo market became available after the NAHL's Amarillo Bulls moved to Mason City to become the North Iowa Bulls for the 2021-22 season.
National Women's Hockey League: The six-team NWHL has completed its transition from a single-entity ownership model to a joint venture ownership model with the recent sale of the Buffalo Beauts and Minnesota Whitecaps to a private owner. Eventually, the league will require each team to have one owner.
Ontario Hockey League: After sitting out the entire 2020-21 season due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, the 20-team major-junior OHL announced its 2021-22 schedule will feature all 20 teams participating and aligned as they were in the 2019-20 season with four five-team divisions.
SOCCER
Major Arena Soccer League: After playing a shorter 2020-21 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the MASL announced teams will play a full 24-game schedule from late November 2021 through early April 2022. The league will make a future announcement concerning the participating teams and league alignment for the 2021-22 season. Only 7 of the league's 17 teams participated in the 2020-21 season and the league currently lists only 16 teams without the Orlando SeaWolves team, which was taken over by the league during the team's last season of 2019-20.
Major Arena Soccer League 2: The MASL2, or M2, which is a developmental second-level league affiliated with the Major Arena Soccer League, announced the San Diego Sockers-2 team will be part of the 2021-22 season. The Sockers-2 team was previously part of the first two MASL2 seasons (2017-19). The league plans to add additional expansion teams for the 2021-22 season.
Major Arena Soccer League 3: The amateur-level MASL3, or M3, announced it will add a new five-team Eastern Division for the 2021-22 season consisting of the Baltimore Kings Philadelphia Spartans, Fredericksburg (VA) Fire, Northern Virginia FC (Leesburg) and the Virginia 757 Marauders (Virginia Beach). The Baltimore Kings will serve as the MASL3 affiliate of the MASL's Baltimore Blast. The league plans to have other regional divisions with a national championship among division winners.
United Soccer League W-League: The new version of the USL W-League, which plans to start in 2022 as a pre-professional women's soccer league, announced plans to add a team in Spokane (WA), possibly as early as the 2022 season. A new 5,000-seat soccer stadium was recently approved for downtown Spokane and it is expected to be ready for the 2023 season. The stadium would become home to a previously announced Spokane-based men's team in the Division-III professional USL League and the USL W-League team.
OTHER
North American Rugby League: The new professional NARL, which was to start its inaugural season last month with eight teams playing under the 13-man ¬Årugby league ¬Â rules, has postponed its start until the spring of 2022. The NARL's inaugural 2021 season was originally announced with 12 teams in the United States aligned in a six-team Eastern Conference and a six-team Western Conference, along with two Canadian teams that were to play a short Canada Series. Prior to the recent postponement, the NARL had announced in May that the six-team Western Conference would not start play until 2022 and only eight teams would play in 2021.
USA Rugby League: After cancelling its 2020 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), the USARL, which is associated with the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the United States, started its 2021 season last month with a three-team North and a five-team South. Since last season, three USARL teams called the Atlanta Rhinos, Brooklyn Kings and Boston Thirteens moved up to the new professional North American Rugby League, and a new Miami-based team called the South Florida Speed joined the USARL South. A new seven-team California Rugby League that is affiliated with the USARL has also started play in its inaugural 2021 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.
National Arena League Stories from July 5, 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.
