Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on November 1, 2021 under Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)
BASEBALL
Independence League Baseball: Seven of the 12 teams that were part of the 2021 summer-collegiate Expedition League have left the league to form the new summer-collegiate Independence League. The teams in the new league include the Badlands Big Sticks (Dickinson, ND), Canyon County Spuds (Caldwell, ID), Casper(WY) Horseheads, Fremont (NE) Moo, Hastings (NE) Sodbusters, Spearfish (SD) Sasquatch and Western Nebraska Pioneers (Gering, NE).
Major League Baseball: MLB's Cleveland Guardians, formerly known as the Cleveland Indians, are being sued by a local roller derby team that uses the Cleveland Guardians name. After consulting with Cherokee officials, the Atlanta Braves received approval to continue to use the Braves nickname. Alameda County (CA) officials gave preliminary approval to create a financial district that will allow plans for a proposed ballpark for the Oakland Athletics to move forward.
Major League Baseball Draft League: The Frederick (MD) Keys team, which participated in the inaugural 2021 season of the MLB Draft League, has received a ballpark lease approval for next season. The Keys lost its MLB affiliation after the 2020 season and joined the new MLB Draft League, but city officials eventually want upgrades to the local ballpark so an affiliated team can return to the city.
BASKETBALL
American Basketball Association: The semi-pro ABA started its 2021-22 season this week. The current team listing for this season includes 129 teams aligned in 7 geographic regions (Pacific, South Central, Midwest, North Central, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast). The list also includes 14 expansion teams for the 2022-23 season.
Canadian Elite Basketball League: The professional CEBL announced an expansion team called the Montreal Alliance has been added as the league's ninth team and will start play in the 2022 season. The CEBL completed its 2021 season with seven teams and recently announced another new team called the Scarborough Shooting Stars will be added for 2022.
Women's National Basketball Association: The group trying to bring a WNBA expansion team to Oakland has strengthened its membership and continues to move forward with obtaining a WNBA team for the vacant Oakland Arena.
FOOTBALL
Arena Professional Football League: The new APFL is reported to be trying to get off the ground for the 2022 season.
Indoor Football League: The IFL announced its 2022 season schedule that will feature 15 teams each playing a 16-game schedule from mid-March to mid-July 2022. All 11 teams from last season will return along with the Quad City Steamwheelers (Moline, IL) and San Diego Strike Force teams that sat out last season. A 2020 expansion team called the Oakland Panthers never played because the 2020 season was cancelled and the team sat out the 2021 season. The Panthers team has since relocated to San Jose as the Bay Area Panthers and will start play in 2022. The IFL has also added a Las Vegas-based team called the Vegas Knight Hawks as a 2022 expansion team.
National Football League: The NFL is looking at Germany to host future regular-season games as part of the league's International Series with the cities of Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich under consideration.
National Arena League: The NAL's Wheeling-based West Virginia Roughriders stated the team is in talks with the group that owns two other NAL teams (the Albany Empire and Orlando Predators) about a possible purchase of the Roughriders and keeping the team in the NAL.
United States Football League: The city of Birmingham and the new version of the USFL appear close to an agreement that would have Birmingham host the entire 2022 USFL season next spring. The USFL would have eight participating teams with one of them called the Birmingham Stallions.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The National Hockey League's Seattle Kraken team is supposed to announce next week the name of its AHL affiliate that will start play in the 2022-23 season at a new arena under construction near Palm Springs (CA) in Coachella Valley.
British Columbia Hockey League: Canada's Junior-A BCHL started its 2021-22 season earlier this month with 18 teams aligned in nine-team Coastal and Interior conferences. Only 16 of the league's 18 teams participated in the 2020-21 season that had teams playing games in 4 separate pods. After the season, the BCHL left the Junior-A organization known as the Canadian Junior Hockey League, which now has nine member leagues. The BCHL's only U.S. team called the Wenatchee (WA) Wild has started the 2021-22 season with only road games due to potential cross-border travel issues.
ECHL: The minor professional ECHL announced its new Savannah (GA) expansion team will be called the Savannah Ghost Pirates when it starts play in a new arena for the 2022-23 season. The league's Newfoundland Growlers (St. John's) have been in a dispute with the city over the team's arena lease and the owner is considering construction of a new suburban arena for the team. The team was locked out of its home arena this week and was going to play its first six home games at the home of the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies, but that has been switched to an arena in Conception Bay (Newfoundland).
Federal Prospects Hockey League: The FPHL started its 2021-22 season this week with seven teams aligned in one table. Of the four teams that participated in a shortened 2020-21 season, only the Elmira (NY) Enforcers did not return. The Danbury (CT) Hat Tricks, Watertown (NY) Wolves and Delaware Thunder (Harrington) teams, which voluntarily sat out last season, have also returned along with a new expansion team called the Binghamton (NY) Black Bears. The Danville (IL) Dashers and an expansion team called the Motor City Rockers (Fraser, MI) also sat out the 2020-21, but did not return for 2021-22.
Western Professional Hockey League: The group that owns the Billings (MT) Outlaws, Rapid City (SD) Marshals and Wyoming Mustangs (Gillette) football teams in the Champions Indoor Football has purchased two franchises in the proposed new WPHL. The group would like to place one WPHL team in Billings and another in Gillette, but other Montana cities of Bozeman, Butte and Helena along with the Wyoming cities of Casper and Cheyenne could also be considered. The WPHL is organizing in the western half of the United States as a developmental league and currently lists one team called the Las Vegas Millionaires.
SOCCER
National Independent Soccer Association: The Division-III men's professional NISA has accepted an application from the AC Syracuse Pulse team that will start play in the 2022 Spring Season. The NISA is currently playing its 2021 Fall Season with ten teams.
National Women's Soccer League: The professional NWSL's 2021 expansion team that was known as the Kansas City NWSL for its first season in the league announced the team's new name as the Kansas City Current during halftime of its final regular-season game. The team's ownership recently announced plans to build a new 11,000-seat soccer-specific stadium for the team on the Missouri River in Kansas City (MO). The stadium is expected to be ready in 2024.
USL Championship (United Soccer League): The owner of the Austin Bold FC in the Division-II professional USL Championship informed the players that the team will be relocating to Fort Worth after this season and the team will start playing there as early as next season, depending on progress of a proposed new soccer-specific stadium in Fort Worth. The eventual relocation of the Austin Bold FC was expected since Major League Soccer's Austin FC started play in the city this season. A new owner will take over the team in Fort Worth, while the current owner will try to bring a lower-level team to Austin.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced the Lafayette-based Louisiana Krewe has been added to the league for the 2022 season. The team has been around since the 2019 season as a member of the amateur Gulf Coast Premier League.
USL W-League (United Soccer League): The new women's pre-professional USL W-League announced the St. Louis Lions SC will place a women's team in the league's inaugural 2022 season. The men's St. Louis Lions SC team has been part of the USL League Two, formerly the Premier Development League, since the 2006 season and will return to the USL League Two after the league cancelled the 2020 season and the club voluntarily sat out the 2021 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
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.
Federal Prospects Hockey League Stories from November 1, 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.
