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Major League Soccer

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
September 27, 2021 - Major League Soccer (MLS)


BASEBALL

Western Canadian Baseball League: The Edmonton Prospects of the summer-collegiate WCBL played the 2021 season on the road as work continues on its new home field in suburban Spruce Grove that will be ready for the 2022 or 2023 season.

Liga Mexicana de Beisbol: Although the Leones de Yucatan team in Mexico's top LMB (Mexican Baseball League) has been mentioned as possibly relocating to Mazatlan, another potential relocation candidate for Mazatlan is the Generales de Durango team.

Major League Baseball: With MLB's Oakland Athletics not making progress on a proposed new waterfront ballpark in Oakland, the team's president said an announcement will be made after the MLB playoffs as to the finalists for the location of a new ballpark in Las Vegas for the team. It is uncertain whether the city of Oakland will go along with changes suggested by the Athletics on the city's revised version of the Athletics' original waterfront ballpark proposal.

BASKETBALL

East Coast Basketball League: The semi-pro ECBL is preparing for its 2022 season and recently announced several new teams. The Greensboro (NC) Rock Out has been added to the Mid-South Conference, while the Electric City Steam (Scranton, PA), Lehigh Valley Flight (Allentown, PA) and the NOVA Bulls (Alexandria, VA) will join five other returning Mid-Atlantic Conference teams in 2022. The league also announced the Bishopville (SC) Devils will play an eight-game schedule as a 2022 travel team. The Devils played some 2021 games as part of the Official Basketball Association.

Great Lakes Basketball League: After cancelling a proposed eight-team 2020 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the semi-pro GLBL played a short six-week 2021 season in July and August with four teams called the West Michigan Red Raiders, Michigan Heat, Kalamazoo County Elites and the Southwest Michigan Stampede.

Official Basketball Association: The semi-pro OBA, which recently completed its 2021 spring-summer season with 35 teams aligned in 4 regional divisions along with an independent division, announced it will operate a fall season starting next month with an eight-team OBFL North Conference and an eight-team OBFL South Conference.

Professional Basketball Association: The PBA, which recently completed its inaugural 2021 season with 43 teams in 8 regional divisions across the United States, announced the River City Dream (Danville, VA) and a yet-to-be-named San Gabriel Valley (CA) team will join the league for the 2022 season.

The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL announced teams called the Lebanon (IN) Leprechauns and the Potawatomi Fire (Shawnee, OK) have been added as 2022 expansion teams.

FOOTBALL

Major League Football: The commissioner of the proposed new fall-season MFL, not to be confused with another proposed new developmental spring-season league called Major League Football (MLFB), stated the 32-team league is still in development for a start in the fall of 2022 with teams to be based in markets without National Football League teams.

United Football League: The proposed new 12-team UFL announced its inaugural 2022 season schedule will feature each team playing an 18-game schedule from April 2 to August 6. The UFL has teams aligned in three-team South, North, Mid-West and Central divisions.

National Women's Football League: The NWFL was unable to organize for a 2021 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), but plans to start play in 2022 and currently lists 14 potential teams.

Women's Football Alliance: The WFA announced the Oregon Cougars (Eugene), Harrisburg (PA) Havoc and Columbus (OH) Chaos as new teams for the 2022 season. The WFA also announced the former New England Nightmare will return as the Northern Connecticut Nightmare (Windsor) in 2022 after a three-year absence.

Women's National Football Conference: The WNFC, which played its 2021 season this summer with 20 teams, announced the addition of the Los Angeles Legends team for the 2022 season.

Women's Tackle Football League: After cancelling an inaugural 2020 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the WTFL played a short inaugural 2021 season from late May through July with 11 participating teams, which included four in an Eastern Conference and seven in a Western Conference. The league has both 8-player teams and 11-player teams and held a championship for each category. The WTFL also lists several proposed teams that plan to start play in 2022.

Women's Football League Association: The WLFA did not play its inaugural season in 2021, but currently lists 20 proposed teams for a planned start in 2022.

HOCKEY

National Collegiate Development Conference: The Tier-II junior-level NCDC, which is part of the independent United States Premier Hockey League, started its 2021-22 season this week with same 13 teams based in the Northeast United States and aligned in a seven-team North and a six-team South.

Western Professional Hockey League: The new single-A WPHL is organizing in the western half of the United States as a developmental league. The WPHL currently lists one team called the Las Vegas Millionaires that will start play in a 2021-22 season.

Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League: The 12-team Canadian Junior-A SJHL started its 2021-22 season this weekend with the same teams as last season, but announced the 2021-22 games of the Melville Millionaires have been postponed until further notice due to coronavirus (COVID-19) cases among the players. The SJHL only played a partial 2020-21 season into November 2020 due to the coronavirus.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: This week the MLS and Mexico's top Liga MX completed the 2021 Leagues Cup competition, which included four MLS teams and four Liga MX teams. The MLS announced in 2023 the Leagues Cup will expand to a month-long tournament and include all MLS teams, which will be up to 29 with the addition of Charlotte in 2022 and St. Louis in 2023, and all Liga MX teams, currently at 18.

Major Arena Soccer League: The professional MASL announced it will hold a pre-season Central Cup tournament on the weekend of November 12, 2021 with four Midwestern teams. The tournament will feature the Kansas City Comets and St. Louis Ambush from the MASL and the Omaha Kings FC and Wichita Wings from the lower-level MASL2.

USL Super League (United Soccer League): The United Soccer League announced the addition of a new women's Division-II professional soccer league called the USL Super League that will start play in the 2023 season. The Super League will be a level below the current Division-I professional National Women's Soccer League. The USL will apply for Division-II sanctioning from the United States Soccer Federation.

USL W-League (United Soccer League): The men's Indy Eleven (Indianapolis) of the Division-II USL Championship announced it will place a women's team in the new women's pre-professional USL W-League that will start play in 2022.

USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced the Minneapolis City SC will join the league for the 2022 season. The team had been part of the National Premier Soccer League since the 2017 season.

OTHER

Arena Lacrosse League: Canada's seven-team Ontario-based ALL, which is an indoor winter amateur development league that has a partnership agreement with the National Lacrosse League, announced it will add an ALL West Division with four teams based out of the Langley Events Centre in Langley (British Columbia) starting in 2022. An ALL West Division player draft will be held in November 2021.

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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