Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
October 3, 2022 - Champions Indoor Football (CIF)
BASEBALL
Pioneer League: After recently coming under new ownership, the Grand Junction (CO) Rockies of the independent eight-team Pioneer League announced the team will change its name for the 2023 season and it is accepting fan submissions for possible nickname suggestions. The team became the Grand Junction Rockies for the 2012 Pioneer League season as an affiliate of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies. The Pioneer League lost its rookie-level affiliation status with MLB prior to the 2021 season and it continued the past two seasons as an independent league, but still is considered an MLB Partner League.
Northwoods League: With the Canadian government considering the elimination of a vaccination requirement for cross-border travel by foreigners, the summer-collegiate Northwoods League's only Canadian team called the Thunder Bay Border Cats (Ontario) is hoping this will lead to its return to play after sitting out the 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.
BASKETBALL
Maximum Basketball League: The semi-pro MBL started its 2022-23 season this weekend with 39 teams aligned in four regional division: Southeast (8 teams), South (10 teams), Northeast (9 teams) and Midwest (10 teams). The MBL season runs through the first week of February 2023.
Professional Basketball Association: The PBA by 1891 announced the Mississippi Panthers (Water Valley) have been added to the Southeast Division for the 2022-23 season, and the Colorado Springs Crossovers have been added to the Southwest Division for the 2022-23 season.
The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL announced the Kalamazoo (MI) Galaxy has been added as a 2023 expansion team.
FOOTBALL
Champions Indoor Football: A new local ownership group has taken over the CIF's Topeka Tropics franchise just prior to the announcement of the league's 2023 schedule, so the Tropics will now be part of the 2023 CIF season. In August, the Tropics' previous owner decided to withdraw from operating the team. The team was to go dormant in 2023 until new ownership, locally or in another market, could be found. The CIF announced the 2023 schedule, which will include all eight teams returning from the 2022 season, with each team playing a ten-game schedule from early March through May 2023. The league's Gillette-based Wyoming Mustangs announced the team has been renamed the Gillette Mustangs for the 2023 season.
American Indoor Football Alliance: The AIFA, which struggled through its inaugural 2022 season with only a handful of games played, recently announced the addition of three teams called the Memphis Beatz, Florida Fear (Bradenton) and South Florida Thunder (Palm Beach) for the 2023 season. Of the five AIFA teams listed as members in 2022, the Carolina Predators (Fayetteville), Las Vegas Kings, Mississippi Raiders (Jackson) and Tampa Bay Cyclones are still listed as AIFA teams. A fifth 2022 team called the St. Charles Bandits (St. Louis area) never played in 2022 and is no longer listed.
XFL: The XFL has apparently postponed the official announcement of the nicknames for its eight teams until next week.
HOCKEY
Ontario Hockey League: The major-junior OHL, which is one of three leagues that comprise the Canadian Hockey League organization, started its 2022-23 season this week with the same 20 teams and league alignment as last season. The OHL includes 17 Ontario-based teams and 3 teams (Flint, Saginaw and Erie) in the United States. The Eastern Conference includes five-team East and Central divisions, while the Western Conference has five-team Midwest and West divisions. Each team will play a 68-game schedule through March 2023.
Greater Metro Hockey League: Canada's independent junior-level GMHL announced it will delay the start of the 2022-23 season until October 22 for its four British Columbia-based teams in the ten-team West Division. Three northern British Columbia expansion teams called the Kitimat Saax (originally named the Kitimat Spirit Bears), Burns Lake Timbermen and Tumbler Ridge Steel Kings were added to the West Division and have faced some challenges getting ready to play. The West Division also includes the returning British Columbia-based Mackenzie Mountaineers and the six Alberta-based teams that comprised last season's seven-team West Division. The GMHL also announced the Almaguin Spartans (Ontario) team has taken a leave of absence for the 2022-23 season.
Canadian Junior Hockey League: The nine Junior-A leagues that comprise the organization known as the CJHL all started play last month with seasons running into March 2023:
Alberta Junior Hockey League: The AJHL has the same 16 teams as last season and they are again aligned in the same eight-team North and South divisions.
Central Canada Hockey League: The CCHL has the same 12 eastern Ontario teams as it did last season and they are again aligned in the same six-team Yzerman and Robinson divisions.
Manitoba Junior Hockey League: The MJHL has 13 teams aligned in a seven-team East and a six-team West. The league had 12 teams last season, but added an expansion team called the Niverville Nighthawks to the East for the 2022-23 season.
Maritime Hockey League: The Junior-A MHL has the same 12 teams as last season and they are again aligned in six-team EastLink South and EastLink North divisions.
Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League: The NOJHL has the same 12 teams as last season and they are again aligned in six-team East and West divisions. The league's Espanola Express was renamed the Espanola Paper Kings starting with the 2022-23 season.
Ontario Junior Hockey League: The OJHL has the same 21 teams as last season but the five-team North and West divisions have been merged into a ten-team North/West Conference, while the six-team South and five-team East have been merged into an 11-team South/East Conference.
Quebec Junior Hockey League: The Junior-A QJHL has 13 teams aligned in a single-table format. Last season, the QJHL had 12 teams aligned in 3 divisions and added the VC de Laval as a 13th team. Also, the West Island Shamrocks (Pierrefonds) was renamed the Montreal Phoenix.
Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League: The SJHL has the same 12 teams aligned in the same four-team sponsor-named divisions called the Viterra, Sherwood and Global Ag Risk Solutions.
Superior-International Junior Hockey League: The SIJHL has seven teams in a single table. The Thief River Falls (MN) did not return after stopping play during last season, but the league added the Sioux Lookout (Ontario) Bombers expansion team to remain at seven teams this season.
SOCCER
Major League Indoor Soccer: The proposed new professional MLIS recently announced three more teams called the Austin Emerald, Wichita Selection and the Rockford-based Illinois State Line Falcons have been added for the league's inaugural 2022-23 season. The Austin Emerald and Wichita Selection join the MLIS from the amateur-level Premier Arena Soccer League (PASL) and will continue to operate PASL teams. The State Line Falcons, originally listed as the MLIS's ¬ÅNorthern Illinois ¬Â team, started play earlier this year and competed against some PASL teams in the U.S. Open Arena Soccer Championship before turning professional in the MLIS. The MLIS has now grown to nine teams.
USL W-League (United Soccer League): The women's pre-professional W-League announced the creation of a new four-team Northwest Division after four teams in the men's pre-professional USL League Two decided to launch women's teams in the 2023 W-League season. The new teams include Lane United FC (Eugene, OR), Capital FC Athletica (Salem, OR), Oly Town Artesians (Olympia, WA) and the OVF Alliance (Albany/Corvallis, OR). The W-League played its inaugural 2022 season with 44 teams.
Women's Independent Soccer League: The proposed professional WISL announced it will push back its inaugural season until 2024. The league is applying to the United States Soccer Federation for Division-II professional sanctioning. When the WISL was first announced in April 2021, it targeted a start for the 2022 season and announced the Los Angeles Force as its first team.
OTHER
Professional Box Lacrosse Association: The new indoor PBLA, which starts its inaugural 2022-23 season in December, announced an eighth team called the Salem (VA) Mayhem has been added for the inaugural season.
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.
Champions Indoor Football Stories from October 3, 2022
- 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.
