AHL American Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on February 14, 2022 under American Hockey League (AHL)


BASEBALL

Atlantic League: The independent Atlantic League, which is a partner league of Major League Baseball, announced the second team to be based in Lexington (KY) for the 2022 season will be called the Kentucky Wild Health Genomes. The new name is part of a sponsorship with Wild Health, a Lexington-based healthcare provider, and the Genomes will share renamed Wild Health Field with the league's Lexington Legends for the 2022 season. The Legends' ownership will also operate the Genomes team for the 2022 season. This second Lexington team was needed as a tenth team to balance the 2022 schedule after playing with eight teams in 2021 and adding the expansion Staten Island Ferry Hawks for 2022. .

Frontier League: The independent Frontier League, which is a partner league of Major League Baseball, announced the addition of a new travel-only team called the Empire State Greys, which will be based in Tupper Lake (NY) and operated by the independent developmental Empire Baseball League (EBL). The EBL has been around since the 2016 season and operated a team called the Tupper Lake Riverpigs for the past two seasons. The Frontier League needed a 16th team to even out the scheduling in 2022 and prior to the Empire State Greys announcement, the league planned to operate its travel-only Frontier Greys team in 2022. The Frontier League will have eight-team East and West divisions in 2022 with the Empire Lake Greys placed in the East Division and playing 49 road games.

Double-A Northeast League: The Akron RubberDucks of the Double-A Northeast League will play two games in the 2022 season as the Akron JoJos as a tribute to a local potato wedge delicacy called the JoJo.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The semi-pro ABA announced a team called the Gulfport (MS) Kings has been added as a 2022-23 expansion team.

The Basketball League: The semi-pro TBL recently held its player draft for 44 teams that will be participating in the upcoming 2022 season. The TBL originally announced 43 teams for 2022, but the previously announced West Division team called the Temecula (CA) Eagles team will not be part of the 2022 season. A new San Diego Sharks team has been added to the West Division and the new Huntsville Hurricanes team has been added to the Southeast Division. Both of these teams participated in the draft.

Global Women's Basketball Association: The semi-pro GWBA recently posted its 2022 season schedule that will feature four teams playing from mid-May through July. The Flint Monarchs, St. Louis Surge and Wisconsin Glo (Oshgosh) return from last season, while a team called the Detroit Queens replaces the Detroit Dodgers. The Queens played an exhibition game against a GWBA team during the 2021 season.

Women's Universal Basketball Association: The semi-pro WUBA announced the California-based Western Conference of the WUBA Super League, which is a summertime off-season league for international players, will start play on June 4, 2022.

FOOTBALL

Fan Controlled Football: The 7-on-7 indoor fan-interactive FCF announced its second season will be played at the new Pullman Yards arena in Atlanta starting April 16, 2022. New teams called the Bored Apes, Gutter Gang, Knights and 8OKI will join returning Zappers, Glacier Boyz, Wild Aces and Beasts.

Arena Football Association: The Wichita Force, which was removed from the Champions Indoor Football's (CIF) 2022 season late last month for failing to meet league requirements, is now a member of the new six-team AFA for its inaugural 2022 season. The AFA evolved from last summer's five-team Texas-based Lone Star Series. Only two of those teams, the Texas Jets (Houston) and the CIF's former West Texas Warbirds (Odessa), are now part of the AFA. Another Lone Star Series team and former CIF team called the Amarillo Venom was previously listed as part of the AFA, but has disappeared. The other three AFA teams include the North Texas Bulls (Fort Worth) from the 2020 American Arena League, the new Magnolia State Spartans (Philadelphia), and the Rio Grande Valley Dorados (Hidalgo, TX) from the 2019 International Arena Football League.

West Coast Arena Football: The proposed new California-based WCAF recently stated the league still wants to start play in May 2022. An exhibition game scheduled for this past fall was cancelled and there has been no word on another exhibition game planned for this month. The WCAF currently lists six teams: the Bakersfield Pantheons, Stockton Scorpions, San Francisco Disruptors, Anaheim Orcas, Fresno Fog and the Rhinos (no assigned city).

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: The AHL's Springfield (MA) Thunderbirds played a game this weekend as the Springfield Ice-O-Topes, which was the fictitious name of a hockey team in ‚¬Å“The Simpsons ‚¬Â animated TV series that took place in a city called Springfield..

Manitoba Junior Hockey League: The Junior-A level MJHL announced an expansion team for the city of Niverville, about 25 miles south of Winnipeg, will be called the Niverville Nighthawks when it starts play in the 2022-23 season. Other potential names were Clippers, Northstars, Threshers and Nitro.

National Hockey League: Due to a dispute over the lease at its current home arena in Glendale (AZ), the NHL's Arizona Coyotes announced plans to play the next three seasons at a small 5,000-seat arena to be completed this fall on the campus of Arizona State University. This is a temporary option for the Coyotes, who are working on a proposal to build a permanent new home arena in Tempe (AZ).

SOCCER

National Women's Soccer League: As it did with the 2021 season, the professional NWSL announced details for a 2022 Challenge Cup tournament that will start off the league's 2022 season next month. The league's 12 teams will be aligned in 3 four-team divisions (East, Central and West) for regional round-robin play with each team playing 6 games through April followed by playoffs. The NWSL's 2022 regular season will start shortly after the Challenge Cup championship game.

National Independent Soccer Association: The Division-III professional NISA announced its 2022 season schedule that will feature ten teams aligned in a single table and each playing 18 games from March 16 to October 15, 2022. The league has done away with its separate Fall and Spring seasons this year. The NISA had ten teams in its most recent Fall Season, but lost four teams. The Detroit City FC left for the USL Championship; the New Amsterdam FC and Chicago House AC are out after a dispute with the league and apparently are trying to start a new league for the 2023 season; and the Stumptown AC (Charlotte) is voluntarily sitting out the 2022 season. The league has added four new teams call the AC Syracuse Pulse (New York), Flower City Union (Rochester, NY), Bay Cities FC (Redwood City, CA) and the Valley United FC (Phoenix) for the 2022 season. The league's San Diego-based 1904 FC was renamed Albion San Diego for 2022 after a merger with the Albion SC. The NISA's New York Cosmos team, which last played in the 2020 Fall Season, is again sitting idle for the 2022 season.

United Women's Soccer: The pro-am UWS announced the FC Arizona (Chandler) has been added to the West Conference for the 2022 season. The league also announced a Michigan-based club called National FC will operate 2022 teams in both the UWS pro-am league and the UWS reserve League Two.

USL W-League (United Soccer League): As the new women's pre-professional USL W-League works to finalize the teams in the Mid-Atlantic Division, the league announced schedules for its six other divisions and stated the inaugural 2022 season will run from May 6 through July 10, 2022. The league currently lists 43 teams for the 2022 season.

Western Indoor Soccer League: The Northwest-based elite-level men's WISL is in the playoff stage of its 2021-22 season that featured six teams: the new Portland (OR) Blacktails and Snohomish County (WA) Steelheads, along with the returning Bellingham (WA) United Hammers, Oly Town Artesians (Olympia, WA), Tacoma Stars Reserves and Olympic Peninsula Force (Bremerton, WA). Each team played a ten-game regular-season schedule from early November 2021 through last weekend.

OTHER

Premier Lacrosse League: The tour-based, professional field lacrosse PLL announced its 2022 season will consist of 14 different weekend tour stops from June to September. The PLL announced the first five regular season stops will be held in Albany (NY), Charlotte, Long Island, Baltimore and Minneapolis, followed by an All-Star Game in Boston on July 16, 2022. The remaining eight tour stops will be announced later this month.

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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American Hockey League Stories from February 14, 2022


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