Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
December 6, 2021 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)
BASEBALL
Frontier League: The independent Frontier League, which is a Major League Baseball Partner League, announced its 2022 season schedule will feature 16 teams aligned in eight-team East and West divisions. The league operated with 14 teams in four regional divisions last season with the two Quebec-based teams (Trois Rivieres Aigles and Quebec Les Capitales) merged as the Equipe Quebec travel team. Each of those teams will return to their respective homes in 2022 and the new Ottawa Titans expansion team will start play in 2022. The league's Southern Illinois Miners (Marion) left the league in the off-season, so a travel-only team called the Frontier Greys was added for the 2022 season to keep the league at an even 16 teams. A previous Frontier Greys travel-only team was used for three seasons (2013-15) to even out the number of participating teams.
Pacific International League: The Highline Bears (West Seattle) of the summer-collegiate Pacific International League announced the team's new name will be the DubSea Fish Sticks. The nickname narrowly won in fan voting over the DubSea Seal Slingers. Dub Sea is a local reference to the team's home of West Seattle. The league also recently added the new Seattle Blackfins team for the 2022 season.
Northwoods League: The Battle Creek (MI) Bombers of the summer-collegiate Northwoods League announced seven nickname choices for its rebranding after the team came under new local ownership. The nicknames up for fan voting include the Balloon Animals, Cowbells, Crunchers, Doughnuts, Nut Smugglers, Sugartails and Thunder Chickens.
BASKETBALL
Canadian Elite Basketball League: The men's professional CEBL would like to add a future team in Calgary (Alberta) and is hoping the city's hosting a three-day round of the international Basketball Champions League Americas tournament next March will be a gauge of fan interest in the sport, possibly leading to a CEBL team.
Maritime Women's Basketball Association: The proposed new amateur MWBA is still working to start play in April 2022 with at least six teams from Atlantic Canada. The MWBA will have three Nova Scotia-based teams called the Halifax Hornets (originally called the Sirens), Halifax Thunder and Windsor Edge, and three New Brunswick-based teams called the Port City Fog (Saint John), Fredericton Freeze and Moncton Mystics (originally listed as the 506 Elite). The MWBA season will run through June.
Professional Basketball Association: The PBA has entered into a partnership with Mexico's Liga de Basquetbol Estatal de Chihuahua (LBE), or State Basketball League of Chihuahua, that will have a group of 44 PBA All-Stars playing games in Chihuahua later this month before LBE owners. Each LBE team is allowed 5 import players and the league plans to sign at least 18 PBA players during the event.
FOOTBALL
European League of Football: The ELF, which completed its inaugural 2021 season of American-style football with 8 teams aligned in 2 four-team North and South divisions, announced its 2022 season will feature 12 teams aligned in four-team Northern, Southern and Central conferences. All eight teams from last season will return and the league has added four new teams called the Vienna Vikings (Austria) Istanbul Rams (Turkey), Dusseldorf Rhein Fire (Germany) and Swarco Tirol Raiders (Innsbruck, Austria).
Major League Football: The proposed new developmental MLFB announced it has received financing that will help it move forward to its start with six teams in April 2022.
National Arena League: The NAL no longer lists the Trenton-based Jersey Flight as a 2022 team. After playing the 2018 and 2019 seasons as part of the American Arena League (AAL), the Jersey Flight joined the NAL prior to the cancelled 2020 season, so the team played only the 2021 season as part of the NAL. The Jersey Flight is reported to be returning to the AAL for the 2022 season.
XFL: Information released from the XFL indicates the league is planning a return to play in February 2023. The eight-team XFL played only half of its inaugural 2020 season before shutting down due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and eventually filing for bankruptcy. The XFL was then purchased out of bankruptcy by a new ownership group.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The ECHL's Newfoundland Growlers (St. John's) reached an agreement with the organization that operates the Mary Brown's Centre, which is the Growlers' regular home arena, so the team returned there this week. The Growlers played its first six-game homestand of the season in Newfoundland's Conception Bay South.
Federal Prospects Hockey League: A new ownership group has entered into a lease agreement for First Arena in Elmira (NY) and the group is looking to bring a FPHL team back to the city. The owner of the league's Elmira Enforcers team, which played three seasons (2018-21) in the FPHL, was unable to come to a lease agreement for this season. The new Elmira FPHL team could start play this season, possibly purchasing the Enforcers franchise and operating under a new name.
SOCCER
National Indoor Soccer League: The proposed new NISL, which plans to start play later this month with four teams each having men's division and women's division teams, has listed an unnamed Georgia team as its fourth member. Other announced teams include the Columbus (GA) Rapids, Fayetteville (NC) Fury and Memphis Americans.
USL Championship (United Soccer League): The Division-II professional USL Championship announced the Charlotte Independence will be moving to the Division-III USL League One for the 2022 season. This move was made because the expansion Charlotte FC will be starting play in 2022 as part of the Division-I Major League Soccer. The USL Championship also announced the Oklahoma City Energy FC will sit out the 2022 season due to planned renovations for its home stadium.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The pre-professional USL League Two announced teams called the Chicago Dutch Lions FC, Ballard FC (Seattle) and AC Houston Sur have been added for the 2022 season.
USL W-League (United Soccer League): The new women's pre-professional USL W-League has reached a total of 30 teams for its inaugural 2022 season with the addition this week of four more teams called the Manchester FC (New York), Westchester (NY) Flames, Detroit City FC and Chicago Dutch Lions FC. Manchester FC has had a men's team in the USL League Two, while the Westchester Flames men's team will start play in the 2022 USL League Two. A Detroit City FC men's team recently moved to the USL Championship league from the National Independent Soccer Association for 2022. The Chicago Dutch Lions FC were part of the 2021 Women's Premier Soccer League and will also have a men's team joining the USL League Two for the 2022 season.
United Women's Soccer: The pro-am UWS announced a team called the Los Angeles SC will join the league's Western Conference for the 2022 season.
OTHER
National Lacrosse League: The men's professional indoor NLL started its 2021-22 season this week with 14 teams aligned in an eight-team East division and a six-team West division. The NLL last played in the 2019-20 season with 13 teams aligned in 3 regional divisions. That season was cut short and the 2020-21 season was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Since the 2019-20 season, the NLL added the Panther City Lacrosse Club (Fort Worth) and the New England Black Wolves relocated from Uncasville (CT) to become the Albany (NY) FireWolves.
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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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.
