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NWSL National Women's Soccer League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
December 19, 2022 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)


BASEBALL

American Association: The independent American Association, which is a Partner League of Major League Baseball, has entered into a partnership with the Australian Baseball League. This could include exchanges of staff, coaches and umpires along with other cross-league promotions during each league's respective season, which runs November to February in Australia and May to September in the United States. The ABL has been around since 2010 and is currently playing its 2022-23 season with eight teams (six in Australia, one in New Zealand and one in Korea).

Northwoods League: The summer-collegiate Northwoods League announced its 2023 season schedule this week and it will feature 24 teams aligned in 4 regional six-team divisions. The league operated with 22 teams in the 2022 season and it will increase to 24 teams in 2023 with the addition of the expansion Minot (ND) Hot Tots and the return of the Thunder Bay Border Cats (Ontario, Canada) after a three-year absence due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A 2022 Twin Cities-based travel-only team called the Minnesota Mud Puppies will return in 2023 to keep the league at an even number of teams.

BASKETBALL

The Basketball League: Nine minor professional TBL teams will be part of select games on the 2023 schedule of the National Basketball League of Canada, whose season starts play next month with only four Ontario-based teams. The TBL teams will play anywhere from one to three inter-league games. The two leagues had a similar arrangement last season. The participating TBL teams include the Flint (MI) United, Jamestown (NY) Jackals, Kokomo (IN) Bobkats, Lansing (MI) Pharaohs, Syracuse (NY) Stallions, Academie D'Alma (Quebec), Glass City Wranglers (Toledo), Kalamazoo (MI) Galaxy and Newfoundland Rogues (St. John's). The Lansing Pharaohs are scheduled for one NBL-Canada game in January, but will not be part of the TBL's 2023 regular season starting in March due to a previously announced move to Pontiac (MI) and a return in 2024 as the Oakland County Pharaohs.

Women's National Basketball Association: The professional WNBA announced it will not be making an announcement about the next expansion team by the end of this year as planned, but still hopes a new team can start by the 2025 season. The league is currently considering ten potential ownership groups and the vetting process is taking longer than expected. Some of the markets said to be under consideration include Nashville, Portland (OR), Philadelphia, Oakland, San Francisco, Columbia (SC) and Toronto.

FOOTBALL

Canadian Football League: The CFL announced the 2023 season schedule, which will again feature nine teams aligned in a five-team West Division and a four-team East Division. Each team will play an 18-game schedule from June 8 through October 28, 2023.

American Indoor Football Alliance: The AIFA announced the addition of the Garland-based Texas Pride and this team replaces the recently announced Mesquite-based Dallas Outlaws on the league's team listing.

HOCKEY

ECHL: The ECHL's Atlanta Gladiators played a game this weekend as the Atlanta Thrashers to honor the city's former National Hockey League team that left Atlanta to become the Winnipeg Jets after 11 seasons (1999-2011) in the league.

American Hockey League: The AHL's 2022-23 Coachella Valley Firebirds expansion team, which is the affiliate of the National Hockey League's Seattle Kraken and based in the Palm Springs (CA) area, played its first home game this weekend at the new arena built for the team. The Firebirds' early schedule has been loaded with 22 road games, but those did include four ‚¬Å“home games ‚¬Â in the Seattle area.

Ontario Hockey League: The men's major-junior OHL announced plans to sponsor a 2022-23 tour event for the tour-based Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) in February 2023. The four PWHPA teams will be involved in four games played in four of the OHL's Ontario markets (Barrie, Kitchener, Niagara and Peterborough) over two days.

SOCCER

Major Arena Soccer League 2: The professional MASL2, which is the second-division league to the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL), recently started its 2022-23 season with 15 teams aligned in a four-team North Division, a five-team Midwest Division and a six-team West Division. Of the 13 teams from last season, the Chicago Mustangs, Cincinnati Swerve, Cleveland Crunch and Omaha Kings FC moved to the new Major League Indoor Soccer. The MASL2 added six teams: the Iowa Raptors FC (Cedar Rapids), Chihuahua Savage II (Mexico), Kansas Bandits (Dodge City), Rochester (NY) Lancers, Club Deportivo de Baja California (Mexico) and the Iowa Demon Hawks, which were renamed from the Des Moines United of the 2021-22 MASL3. The league announced the Demon Hawks will share the Cedar Rapids market this season and return to Des Moines next season. Since the MASL's Ontario (CA) Fury changed to the Empire Strykers for the 2022-23 season, their MASL2 team called the Ontario Fury 2 changed to the Empire Jets for the 2022-23 season. Each team plays a 12-game schedule through March 2023.

MLS NEXT Pro (Major League Soccer): Major League Soccer's Austin FC announced its new team in the developmental/reserve MLS NEXT Pro league will be called the Austin FC II when it starts play in the 2023 season. The league operated with 21 teams (20 MLS affiliates and 1 independent) in its inaugural 2022 season and plans to add 7 MLS affiliates for a total of 28 teams in 2023.

National Women's Soccer League: The San Francisco Bay Area, Tampa Bay and Boston are reported to be the three markets under consideration by the Division-I professional NWSL for one of two expansion teams to be added in the near future, possibly for the 2024 season. The other NWSL expansion team is expected to be the Utah Royals FC (Salt Lake City), whose rights to a NWSL franchise are held by Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake. The Utah Royals played three seasons (2018-20) in the NWSL, but ceased operations when the Real Salt Lake's previous MLS ownership was being dissolved. The Utah Royals players were transferred to a 2021 Kansas City NWSL expansion team, now the Kansas City Current. As part of its purchase, the new MLS Real Salt Lake ownership was granted the rights to restart the Utah Royals for a reduced franchise fee and it has mentioned 2024 as a possible start. Of the three new prospective markets, Boston was home to the NWSL's Boston Breakers for five seasons (2013-17) before folding.

USL League One (United Soccer League): The Lane United FC (Eugene, OR), which has been part of the men's pre-professional USL League Two for the past several seasons and will operate a 2023 expansion team in the women's pre-professional USL W-League, has obtained exclusive rights to pursue future professional teams in the men's Division-II USL League One and the new women's Division-II USL Super League, which starts play August 2023.

USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced the addition of three teams called the Capo FC (San Juan Capistrano, CA), North Alabama Soccer Coalition (Huntsville) and the United PDX (Portland, OR) for the 2023 season. North Alabama SC and United PDX are also adding women's teams to the pre-professional USL W-League for the 2023 season.

OTHER

Arena Lacrosse League: Canada's developmental indoor ALL has started its 2022-23 season and again features a men's division and a women's division. The men's division features a four-team ALL West with the same four British Columbia-based teams as last season and an ALL East with eight Ontario-based teams. The ALL East grew to eight teams this season by adding the Brampton Express, while the St. Catharines Shockwave was renamed the Ohsweken Bears. The women's division features an ALL East with four Ontario-based teams and an ALL West with six British Columbia-based teams. The new Lady Snipers replaced the Lady Shockwave in the ALL East. Last season's four ALL West teams called Team Blue, Team Black, Team Purple and Team White were replaced by six teams called the Bears, Hawks, Bats, Deer, Turtles and Flying Squirrels for this season. The ALL season runs through March 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.

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