Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
October 10, 2022 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL)
BASEBALL
Arizona Fall League: Major League Baseball's AFL started its 2022 this week with the same six teams as last season using six spring training facilities in the Phoenix area. The AFL teams include the Scottsdale Scorpions, Mesa Solar Sox, Salt River Rafters, Glendale Desert Dogs, Peoria Javelinas and Surprise Saguaros. Each of the 30 MLB teams sends 6 top prospects to the AFL and each AFL team consists of prospects from 5 different MLB teams. Each team plays 30 games through November 10, 2022.
Frontier League: The independent Frontier League announced its 2023 season schedule this week and it will feature the same 16 teams as last season again aligned in eight-team East and West divisions. The Empire State Greys travel-only team will continue for its second season in 2023. Each team will play a 96-game schedule from May 11 through September 1, 2023. The Frontier League recently extended its agreement with the developmental California Winter League (CWL), which has been the ¬ÅOfficial Winter League of the Frontier League ¬Â since the 2015 season and plays all games in Palm Springs (CA). The CWL provides players the opportunity to showcase their talents for summertime leagues like the Frontier League and other independent leagues during a four-week season played in January and February.
Western Association of Professional Baseball: The proposed new independent Western Association recently announced its development was delayed two years due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), but the league plans to start play in the summer of 2023. The Western Association stated there are six teams set for 2023 with market reservations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. The league previously announced its first team called the Henderson (NV) Hoo, which will play home games at the College of Southern Nevada. The other five teams, two of which will be league-owned, will be announced over the next few weeks.
BASKETBALL
American Basketball Association: The semi-pro ABA announced the launch of a new 3-on-3 basketball league called the ABA3 that will start play in 2024 with a tour of promotional mini-tournaments in select cities across the United States.
The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL announced teams called the Wenatchee (WA) Bighorns and the Quebec-based L'Academie D'Alma have been added for the 2023 season. The league also confirmed the addition of an expansion team to be based in Montreal for the 2023 season and a Montreal team nickname will be announced in the next few weeks. With the previous addition of the Newfoundland Rogues (St. John's), the TBL now has three Canadian teams for the 2023 season. During the 2022 season, some TBL teams played interleague games against teams from the National Basketball League of Canada, which was comprised of four Ontario-based teams.
Professional Basketball Association: The PBA by 1891 announced the Kannapolis (NC) Pressure has been added to the Mid-Atlantic Division of developmental PBA D-League for the upcoming fall/winter season. The league also announced two Texas-based teams called the Waco Terror and the Dallas/Fort Worth-based Honcho Elite Sport Incorporated have been added to the PBA league for the 2022-23 Fall/Winter season that will start in November. The PBA recently completed its 2022 Summer Season with 30 teams aligned in a 14-team Eastern Conference and a 16-team Western Conference. The new PBA D-League will start play in the 2022-23 Fall/Winter Season.
FOOTBALL
Indoor Football League: The IFL's Bismarck (ND) Bucks announced the team will not participate in the 2023 season due to the high cost of state-mandated insurance coverage for players. The team hopes to return in 2024, but its future is uncertain. The Bucks started play in 2017 as part of the Champions Indoor Football league, but switched to the IFL for the 2019 season. It looks like the expansion Tulsa Oilers will take Bismarck's spot in the Eastern Conference and keep the league at 14 teams for 2023. A proposed new Columbus (OH) Wild Dogs expansion team is now listed as starting in 2024.
HOCKEY
British Columbia Hockey League: The independent Junior-A BCHL, which broke away from the Canadian Junior Hockey League after the 2020-21 season, started its 2022-23 season last month with the same 18 teams as last season and is again aligned in nine-team Interior and Coastal divisions. Each team plays a 54-game schedule through March 2023. The Wenatchee (WA) Wild is the league's only team not based in British Columbia.
Ligue Nord Americaine de Hockey: The Quebec-based minor professional LNAH, or North American Hockey League, started its 2022-23 season this weekend with seven teams each playing a 36-game schedule through March 18, 2023. All six teams have returned from last season and the league added an expansion team called the Bâtisseurs de Montcalm for the 2022-23 season.
Professional Women's Hockey Players Association: The tour-based PWHPA recently announced its first two tour events for the 2022-23 season will be held in Montreal next weekend and in Truro (Nova Scotia) on November 4-6, 2022. Each event will feature the four PWHPA teams called Team adidas, Team Harvey's, Team Scotiabank and Team Sonnet.
SOCCER
Major Arena Soccer League: The professional MASL announced the 2022-23 season schedule for its 14 teams this week. Each team will play a 24-game schedule from November 25, 2022 through April 2, 2023. The 14 teams will be aligned in seven-team Eastern and Western conferences.
Major Arena Soccer League 2: The professional MASL2, or M2, which is the second-division indoor league to the Major Arena Soccer League, recently announced the Des Moines United (Iowa) and the Kansas Bandits (Dodge City) teams have been added for the upcoming 2022-23 season. The Des Moines United was part of the amateur-level MASL3 for the 2021-22 season. The managing partner of the league's Wichita Wings has organized an investment group that will operate the Kansas Bandits, along with two other MASL2 teams that will join for the 2023-24 season. Those teams will also be located in the Midwest (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska or Oklahoma).
Major League Indoor Soccer: The proposed new professional MLIS announced the Detroit Waza has joined as the league's tenth team for its inaugural 2022-23 season. The Detroit Waza, also known as the Detroit Waza Flo, has been a past member of the Premier Arena Soccer League (PASL), the PASL-Pro league, the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL), and most recently the MASL2 for two seasons (2017-19).
World Futsal League: Four current National Indoor Soccer League (NISL) teams called the Central Florida Crusaders (Orlando), Fayetteville (NC) Fury, Memphis Americans and Tampa Bay Strikers will be part of the new professional WFL that plans to start play in June 2023. This will be an off-season league for the NISL teams that play a December-to-April regular season. Similar to the NISL, the WFL teams will feature both men's and women's teams hosting doubleheaders on gamedays. Each team will play a 12-game schedule in June, July and August. Additional teams could still be added before the 2023 season.
OTHER
National Volleyball Association: The men's indoor professional NVA completed its 2022 season with 12 teams aligned in six-team National and American conferences that were further split into three-team Central and Coastal divisions. New teams called the Colorado Kraken (Denver) and Seattle Sasquatch were added for the 2022 season. The 2022 season featured five weekend events during April to July with a championship event in early August. All games were held at the Pearce Center in San Bernardino (CA).
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.
Major Arena Soccer League Stories from October 10, 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.
