MLR Major League Rugby

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
October 31, 2022 - Major League Rugby (MLR)


BASEBALL

Pecos League: The independent Pecos League has made a change to the 2023 league map for the eight-team California-based Pacific Division. The Santa Cruz (CA) Seaweed, which started play in the 2021 season, has been replaced by the Vallejo (CA) Seaweed in the Pacific Division alignment. The league had previously listed Vallejo as a proposed 2023 market. A team called the Vallejo Admirals was part of the independent California-based Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs since the 2013 season, but the Admirals and the Pacific Association have not played since the 2019 season due to issues caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Pecos League again plans to hold its annual Pecos Spring League from March 5-28, 2023 with all games to be played at a complex in Houston. This is a showcase for rookie and undrafted free agent players looking to sign with an independent team for the summer season,

United Shore Professional Baseball League: The independent developmental USPBL recently posted its 2023 season schedule that will feature the same four teams from last season: the Utica Unicorns and Eastside Diamond Hoppers in the East and the Westside Woolly Mammoths and Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers in the West. Each team will play all games at the Jimmy John's Field in Utica (MI) from May 19 through September 2, 2023.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: Some of the teams in the semi-pro ABA have started playing games in the 2022-23 season. The ABA currently lists 118 teams aligned in 8 geographic regions (South East, Mid-Atlantic, North East, North Central, Mid-West, South Central, Pacific North and Pacific South).

Canadian Elite Basketball League: The Hamilton (Ontario) Honey Badgers, champions of the 2022 minor professional CEBL, will participate in the fourth annual Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA) tournament starting in December. The BCLA will feature 12 teams from Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico and Canada. The CEBL's 2022 champion Edmonton Stingers participated in the 2021-22 BCLA.

East Coast Basketball League: The semi-pro ECBL announced a team called the DC Heat, which is based in Alexandria (VA), will join the league's Mid-Atlantic Division for the 2023 season and play games in Washington (DC).

FOOTBALL

American West Football Conference: The Tri-Cities Rush (Kennewick/Pasco/Richland, WA) of the indoor AWFC might be shut out of its home arena in Pasco for the 2023 season, so the team has inquired about the possible use of the arena in Yakima (WA), about 80 miles to the northwest. An AWFC team called the Yakima Canines was part of the league's 2021 season, but was removed from the 2022 schedule in January 2022 for failing to meet certain league standards and was replaced by a travel-only team called the Washington/Northwest Elite.

Arena Professional Football League: The Charlotte Thunder, which was part of the inaugural 2022 season in the loosely organized APFL, announced the team will not play in the 2023 season. Also, the APFL's web site is currently no longer accessible.

HOCKEY

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association: The tour-based PWHPA has added a third stop on the 2022-23 tour in Pittsburgh later this month (November 26-27). The four-team PWHPA held its first event in Montreal two weeks ago and will hold the next event next weekend in Truro (Nova Scotia).

Southern Professional Hockey League: The Peoria Rivermen of the minor SPHL will rebrand as the Illinois Flying Carp for one regular-season home game on March 10, 2023.

West Coast Tier-I Junior Hockey League: The proposed new yet-to-be-named Tier-I junior hockey league to be based in the western United States is still organizing and is not expected to start play until the 2024-25 season. The new league is reported to have support from National Hockey League teams in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Anaheim and San Jose.

SOCCER

USL W-League (United Soccer League): The pre-professional women's USL W-League announced the Lexington (KY) Soccer Club, which will start a men's team in the Division-III professional USL League One in 2023, will also start a women's team in the USL W-League for the 2023 season. The W-League's Minnesota Aurora (Eagan) club, which competed in the inaugural 2022 season, wants to take the team professional by 2024. The new fall-through-spring Division-II professional USL Super League, which plans to start play in 2023, and the Division-I pro National Women's Soccer League are being considered.

Major Arena Soccer League 2: The professional MASL2, which is the second-division developmental league to the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL), announced a 15th team based in Tijuana (Mexico) and called the Club Deportivo de Baja California has been added to the West division for the 2022-23 season. The league announced its 2022-23 season schedule will feature a four-team North, a five-team Midwest and a six-team West with each team playing a 12-game schedule from December 2, 2022 through March 26, 2023. The league's Des Moines United has been rebranded to the Iowa Demon Hawks and the team will be the affiliate of the MASL's St. Louis Ambush for the 2022-23 season. With the MASL's Ontario (CA) Fury changing to the Empire Strykers for the 2022-23 season, the team's MASL2 affiliate known as the Ontario Fury 2 has changed its name to the Empire Jets ahead of the 2022-23 season.

Major League Indoor Soccer: The Cincinnati Swerve of the proposed new professional MLIS announced a new player development program will include four local affiliated teams called the Northern Kentucky Nitro, Valhalla FC, Cincy SC and Atletico Cincinnati playing in the 2022-23 season of the amateur-level Premier Arena Soccer League (PASL). These PASL teams will play home games out of the Swerve's home facility in Fairfield (OH) and top players will have a chance to be called up to the Swerve.

Major League Soccer: An investment group has been meeting with the MLS and is expected to file an MLS expansion application for San Diego. The new team could start play as soon as 2024 at San Diego State University's new Snapdragon Stadium, which can seat 32,000 for soccer games.

OTHER

Major League Rugby: The professional MLR, which plays the rugby-union style with 15 players aside, announced the Austin Gilgronis and Los Angeles Giltinis teams are no longer part of the league and players will be dispersed to other teams. The Austin and Los Angeles franchises were under the same owner and were suspended from the 2022 playoffs due to rules violations. The owner underwent some financial problems and the MLR was unable to execute a sale of the two franchises. The MLR had 13 teams aligned in a six-team Eastern Conference and a seven-team Western Conference in 2022. All of the 11 other teams will return in 2023 and the MLR will add a 12th team, possibly Chicago, to replace the loss of two Western Conference teams. The MLR intends to attempt a return to Austin and Los Angeles in the future.

Major League Pickleball: The professional MLP completed its 2022 season earlier this month (October 14-16) in Columbus (OH) with the last of three weekend events that comprised the season. Other events were held in Austin (June 3-5) and Newport Beach (August 5-7) with teams competing for prize money to include $100,000 for each event champion. All 12 teams called the Jackrabbits, The 5s, ATX Pickleballers, Mad Drops, Clean Cause, Chimeras, Lions, Florida Smash, The Bus, BLQK, Hard Eights and Ranchers competed in each event and were each comprised of two men and two women. Teams were aligned in three groups for each event and the top six teams from group-play moved on to a single elimination bracket. Each match consisted of a women's doubles game, a men's doubles game and two mixed doubles games. The league recently announced expansion to 16 teams for the 2023 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.



Major League Rugby Stories from October 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.


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