Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on November 7, 2022 under American Association (AA)
BASEBALL
American Association: The independent American Association, which is a Major League Baseball Partner League, announced its 2023 season schedule that will feature the same 12 teams as last season and again aligned in six-team East and West divisions. Each team will play 100 games from May 11 through September 4, 2023.
Pioneer League: The Grand Junction (CO) Rockies team in the independent Pioneer League, which is a Major League Baseball Partner League, has been renamed the Grand Junction Jackalopes after the mythical cross between a rabbit and a deer or antelope. The league also announced its 2023 season schedule that will again feature the same ten teams, other than the Grand Junction rebranding, and aligned in five-team North and South divisions. Each team will play 96 games from May 23 through September 9, 2023.
South Atlantic League: The Hudson Valley Renegades (Fishkill, NY) of the high Class-A SAL announced the team will be renamed the Hudson Valley Cider Donuts for four games in the 2023 season as a tribute to the apple cider donut, which is the unofficial signature food of the Hudson Valley.
BASKETBALL
National Basketball Association Gatorade League (G-League): The NBA G-League started the Showcase Cup portion of the 2022-23 season with 30 teams aligned in a 16-team Eastern Conference and a 14-team Western Conference. Each team will play 18 games with the top 12 teams moving on to a single-elimination tournament in Las Vegas in December. The regular season starts on December 27 with each of the 30 teams playing a 32-game schedule. The 30 teams include the 28 teams operating under individual affiliations with 28 of the 30 NBA teams, plus the league's developmental G-League Ignite team (now based in the Las Vegas area) and the unaffiliated Mexico City Capitanes team. Only the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns do not have affiliated teams in the G-League. There was one off-season team name change as the Aqua Caliente Clippers of Ontario (CA) were renamed the Ontario Clippers.
Professional Basketball Association: The semi-pro PBA by 1891, which plays both a spring/summer and a fall/winter season, started its 2022-23 fall/winter season this week and it runs through February 2023. The league currently lists 25 teams in a Professional Division and 7 teams in a new Development Division, also known as the PBA D-League.
FOOTBALL
XFL: The outdoor professional spring-season XFL, which plans to restart play in February 2023, announced this week the names for the eight teams that will be part of the 2023 season. The teams include the Arlington (TX) Renegades, D.C. Defenders (Washington, DC), Houston Roughnecks, Orlando Guardians, San Antonio Brahmas, Seattle Sea Dragons, St. Louis BattleHawks and Vegas Vipers (Las Vegas). The eight-team 2020 version of the XFL shut down operations midway through the season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and eventually was purchased out of bankruptcy. The Houston Roughnecks, St. Louis BattleHawks and D.C. Defenders took the same names as defunct 2020 XFL teams. The new Seattle Sea Dragons took a name similar to a defunct 2020 team called the Seattle Dragons. The Arlington Renegades, Orlando Guardians and Vegas Vipers took nicknames from defunct 2020 XFL teams called the Dallas Renegades, New York Guardians and Tampa Bay Vipers. The nickname of the defunct Los Angeles Wildcats from the 2020 XFL did not make it to 2023, as the San Antonio Brahmas took an entirely new team nickname in the 2023 XFL.
American Arena League 2: The AAL, which has not played since the 2021 season, recently announced seven teams for the inaugural 2023 of its new developmental league called the AAL 2. Teams include the Jersey Bearcats, Reading (PA) Raptors, Eastern Shore Rage, United Fire Power (Indian Trail, NC), Maryland Eagles, Western Maryland Warriors and Cali Gold (Bay Area).
HOCKEY
Premier Hockey Federation: The women's professional PHF started its 2022-23 season this week with seven teams aligned in a single-table format and each team playing a 24-game schedule. All six teams from last season have returned and the league added the expansion Montreal Force for the 2022-23 season. The Force will not have an official home this season for the team's 12 home games. The team will play two home games in Montreal and the remaining home games in five different cities across Quebec.
Southern Professional Hockey League: The SPHL's Huntsville (AL) Havoc played a game this week as the Lobos Diablos (Devil Wolves) in observance of the Day of the Dead.
SOCCER
National Women's Soccer League: The Minnesota Aurora FC (Eagan), which completed its first season in the inaugural 2022 season of the women's pre-professional USL W-League, announced the amateur community-owned team will submit an application for an expansion team in the professional NWSL. The Division-I NWSL recently announced its intent to expand from 12 to 14 teams for the 2024 or 2025 season and hired an entertainment investment firm to assist in the expansion process. The NWSL hopes to receive ten significant expansion bids from which it will select two markets over the next few months.
Canadian Premier League: Canada's Division-II professional CPL announced the Vancouver Football Club, or Vancouver FC, as the name of the league's ninth team that will start play in the 2023 season. The ownership of the league's Pacific FC, which is based on Vancouver Island, will also own and operate the new Vancouver FC. The future of the CPL's FC Edmonton club is still uncertain and the league could be back to eight teams for 2023. The CPL was forced to take over operations of FC Edmonton prior to the 2022 season when ownership stepped away, but the league has been unable to find new ownership for the team. The league will have to soon decide whether to continue operating the team in 2023, place it on hiatus for the 2023 season, or possibly fold the franchise.
Major Arena Soccer League 3: The MASL's amateur-level MASL3 has started some exhibition games ahead of its 2022-23 season and it appears the league is down to only four returning East Division teams after operating with a five-team East Division and a four-team Midwest Division in the 2021-22 season.
Major League Soccer: The MLS commissioner announced this week that both San Diego and Las Vegas are under consideration for expansion to be the league's 30th team. The MLS hopes to finalize the location for its 30th team sometime in the first half of 2023. The most recent San Diego expansion effort has a potential home stadium on the campus of San Diego State University, but Las Vegas would still need to build a soccer-specific stadium, which would most likely be an indoor stadium. The MLS just completed its 2022 season with 28 teams and the new St. Louis City SC will start in 2023 as the 29th team.
OTHER
Major League Rugby: The professional MLR, which plays the rugby-union style with 15 players aside, officially announced Chicago will be home to the league's 12th team for the 2023 season. Of the 13 teams from the 2022 season, the MLR recently dropped the Los Angeles and Austin teams for the 2023 season.
Professional Box Lacrosse Association: The new indoor PBLA announced the schedule for its inaugural 2022-23 season, which will feature nine teams each playing a 14-game schedule from December 29, 2022 through April 15, 2023.
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.
American Association Stories from November 7, 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.
