Sports stats



FPHL Federal Prospects Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
January 31, 2022 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)


BASEBALL

Northern League: The new independent pre-professional Northern League, which previously operated as the summer-collegiate Midwest Collegiate League since the 2011 season, announced its Crown Point (IN) expansion team will be called the Lake County Corn Dogs when it starts play in the 2022 season. Other nickname choices were Dune Bugs, K9s, Locomotives and Orbits.

Northwoods League: As a result of a name-the-team contest, the Battle Creek (MI) Bombers of the summer-collegiate Northwoods League announced the team's new name will be the Battle Creek Battle Jacks. Other nickname choices were the Crunchers, Blue Collars and Doughnuts.

Major League Baseball: Major League Baseball has decided to withdraw support for a plan that would have had the Tampa Bay Rays spend spring training and the first half of the season based in Tampa, then switching to being based in Montreal for the rest of the season. Oakland's planning commission approved an environment impact study for a proposed new 34,000-seat waterfront ballpark to be built for the Oakland Athletics, but the city council still needs to review and certify the report.

BASKETBALL

Athletes Unlimited -Basketball League: The organization known as Athletes Unlimited launched the inaugural season of its new four-team women's professional basketball league this week. All games in the five-week season will be played at the Sport Center of Las Vegas. Each week, players are scored through individual and team statistics and the top four performers become captains and select teams for the following week with one player selected as champion for the season. This basketball league follows the same format for similar Athletes Unlimited women's leagues in volleyball, field lacrosse and softball.

Eastern Canadian Basketball League: The proposed new ECBL, which was planning to start play in March 2022 with six league-operated teams based in Canada's Maritime provinces, announced it will postpone its inaugural season until 2023 due to the ongoing effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The previously announced teams included the Charlottetown Power and Summerside slam on Prince Edward Island, the Truro Tide and Valley Vipers (Annapolis Valley) in Nova Scotia, and the Saint John Union and Bathurst Bears in New Brunswick.

Canadian Elite Basketball League: The minor professional CEBL's Fraser Valley Bandits team, which spent its first three seasons based in Abbotsford (British Columbia), has officially relocated to Langley (British Columbia) and the Langley Events Centre for the upcoming 2022 season. The move was made after the arrival this season of the American Hockey League's Abbotsford Canucks team to the Bandits' former home at the Abbottsford Centre.

National Basketball League of Canada: The minor professional NBL-Canada, which plans to play its 2022 season with only four Ontario-based teams, has pushed back the start of the season from February 5 to February 21 due to current provincial COVID-19 restrictions that are expected to be lifted at that time.

FOOTBALL

American Patriot League: The proposed eight-team springtime APL recently announced it will push its start back to the spring of 2023. The APL has been trying to get off the ground since the 2019 season.

American 7s Football League: The men's semi-pro A7FL, which is a 7-on-7 full contact football league in which players do not wear hard pads or helmets, plans to grow from four to nine regional divisions across the United States for the 2022 season. In 2021, the A7FL had 20 teams in New Jersey, Maryland (Baltimore), Florida (Tampa/Orlando) and California (San Diego/Los Angeles) divisions. The league has added five new divisions: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Cincinnati/Kentucky, Boston and Washington (DC).

Extreme Football League (X-League): The women's indoor 7-on-7 full-tackle football league called the X League, which evolved from the Legends Football League (LFL) after a 2019 season, has been holding tryouts this month for eight teams that will be part of an inaugural 2022 season. Prior to the LFL, the league was known as the Lingerie Football League. The X-League cancelled both the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but will announce the 2022 schedule later next month. The X-League is also planning a United Kingdom league for 2025 and a Germany league for 2026.

United States Football League: The new eight-team springtime USFL announced the city of Birmingham (AL) will host all games in the league's inaugural 2022 season. Each team will play a ten-game schedule from April 16 through mid-June 2022.

Women's National Football Conference: The women's full-tackle WNFC has posted schedules for 17 teams that will each play six games in the league's 2022 season starting April 2. The WNFC had 20 teams across the United States in 2021 with a 9-team Pacific Conference and an 11-team Atlantic Conference.

HOCKEY

3ICE League: After pushing back its inaugural season from 2021 to 2022, the new six-team tour-based 3ICE independent three-on-three professional ice hockey league has posted its 2022 schedule that will feature eight Saturday tour stops in eight different cities from June 18 through August 6, followed by playoffs in Las Vegas on August 20. Regular-season tour stops will include Las Vegas, Denver, Grand Rapids (MI), Hershey (PA), London (Ontario), Pittsburgh, Quebec City and Nashville.

Federal Prospects Hockey League: The group that recently entered into a new lease agreement for the First Arena in Elmira (NY) plans to bring an FPHL team to the arena for the 2022-23 season. 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 group had hoped to have the new Elmira team start in the second half of the current FPHL season, but the arena needed too many renovations. The new Elmira FPHL team will operate under a new name to be announced next month.

SOCCER

League1 Ontario: Canada's Division-III pro-am League1 Ontario, which has been around since 2014 and operates men's and women's teams in a Premier Division and a Reserve Division, announced plans for a new league pyramid that will feature relegation and promotion between divisions starting in 2024. The new pyramid will feature a men's and women's Premier Division, Championship Division and a League2, which will be for expansion teams and reserve teams. The winner of the 2024 League2 will advance to the Championship Division in 2025 and the winner of the 2024 Championship Division will advance to the Premier Division in 2025. The last place teams in both the Premier and Championship divisions for 2024 will drop down one tier for 2025. For the 2022 season, the league plans to operate with 22 men's teams and 18 women's teams in a Premier Division, along with both a men's and a women's Reserve Division. League expansion will be paused over the next two seasons and teams will be placed in the new pyramid based on results in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

Liga de Expansión MX: Mexico's second division Liga de Expansión started the closing phase (Clausura) of its 2021-22 season this month with the same 17 teams as the opening phase (Apertura).

USL Championship (United Soccer League): The Division-II professional USL Championship announced the addition of a franchise in Des Moines (IA) to a group called Pro Iowa, whose majority owner has operated the Des Moines Menace team in the pre-professional USL League Two (formerly the Premier Development League) since 1998. Construction on a new 6,300-seat soccer stadium is expected to begin this fall and be ready for the team's start in the 2024 season.

USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced its 2022 season schedule will feature 110 teams competing from May 1 through mid-July. The league also announced three more teams called the Oly Town FC Artesians (Olympia, WA), Boston City FC and Davis (CA) Legacy SC have joined for the league's 2022 season.

USL W-League (United Soccer League): The North Carolina Courage (Cary) of the professional National Women's Soccer League announced it will place a women's developmental team called the North Carolina Courage U23's in the pre-professional W-League for the league's inaugural 2022 season. The Minneapolis/St. Paul team that was announced last year has selected Minnesota Aurora FC as its name.

Women's Premier Soccer League: The elite amateur WPSL recently announced six more teams called the Chicago KICS FC, Napa Valley 1839 FC (Napa, CA), Academica SC (Turlock, CA), Sioux Falls City FC (South Dakota), Arizona Arsenal SC (Mesa) and Utah Avalanche (Farmington) have joined the league for the 2022 season.

OTHER

Minor League Cricket: Minor League Cricket (MiLC), which is a development league for the proposed return of Major League Cricket in 2023, announced its second season in 2022 will be played over eight weeks starting on June 25. Last season, the MiLC had 27 teams across the United States aligned in two conferences (Pacific and Atlantic) with two regional divisions per conference. The MiLC plans to have a similar alignment in 2022 with teams and a final schedule to be announced later.

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.

Check out the Federal Prospects Hockey League Statistics



Federal Prospects Hockey League Stories from January 31, 2022


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.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central