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Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
February 20, 2023 - XFL (XFL)


BASEBALL

New England Collegiate Baseball League: The summer-collegiate NECBL, which is one of 12 member leagues in the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball (NACSB), recently announced its 2023 season schedule will start on June 7 and feature 13 teams aligned in a five-team Coastal Division and two four-team North and West divisions. The NECBL operated with 14 teams last season, but the North Division's Winnipesaukee Muskrats (Laconia, NH) folded after the 2022 season.

Atlantic League: As part of Cinco de Maya (May 5) and Hispanic Heritage Night (July 28) promotions during the 2023 season, the Atlantic League's Long Island (NY) Ducks will be renamed the Papas Playas or Beach Potatoes in English. This pays tribute to Long Island's beaches and history with potato farming.

Midwest League: The Fort Wayne (IN) TinCaps of the high Class-A Midwest League announced the team will be renamed the Hoosier State Tenderloins for a four-game series in the 2023 season, as the state legislature currently debates whether to make the breaded tenderloin Indiana's official state sandwich.

BASKETBALL

East Coast Basketball League: The semi-pro ECBL started its 2023 season this week with 28 teams playing through June 4. The alignment has a Southern Conference with a four-team Northeast and a five-team Northwest division; a Northern Conference with six-team Southeast and Southwest divisions; and a seven-team Mid-Atlantic Conference. New teams for this season include the DC Heat (Alexandria, VA), Virginia Dream (Martinsville), Letitfly Webdogs (Spartanburg, SC) and Georgia Kangaroos (Toccoa).

National Basketball Association G-League: The new owner of the National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns expressed interest in returning to the NBA G-League sometime in the future. The Phoenix Suns most recently owned and operated the Northern Arizona Suns (Prescott Valley), which played in the G-League for four seasons (2016-20) before being sold to the NBA's Detroit Pistons. The Phoenix Suns and the Portland Trail Blazers are the only two NBA teams without their own G-League affiliates.

BIG3: The ownership of the tour-based 3-on-3 BIG3 basketball league is reported to be negotiating to sell some of its 12 teams to outside investors in a move to a franchise ownership model. The league has owned and operated all teams since starting with 8 teams in 2017 and expanding to 12 in 2019.

FOOTBALL

XFL: A new version of the outdoor professional XFL, which shut down midway through its 2020 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and eventually was purchased out of bankruptcy, started its 2023 season this weekend with eight teams each playing a ten-game schedule through April 23, 2023. The XFL is aligned in a North Division with the D.C. Defenders (Washington, DC), Seattle Sea Dragons, St. Louis Battlehawks, and Vegas Vipers (Las Vegas), and a South Division with the Arlington (TX) Renegades, Houston Roughnecks, Orlando Guardians and San Antonio Brahmas.

Canadian Football League: The CFL has taken over operations of the league's Montreal Alouettes and is seeking new ownership for the team. The CFL claims to have several interested parties and would like to have a sale completed by the end of the 2023 season. The league also took control of the Alouettes in 2019 and new ownership took over in January 2020. One of the two owners with a 75 percent interest in the team passed away in 2021 and the remaining 25 percent owner has now relinquished control of the team.

American West Football Conference: The lower-level indoor AWFC, which is down to only three teams called the Idaho Horsemen (Nampa), Oregon High Desert Storm (Redmond) and Wenatchee Valley (WA) Skyhawks, has posted its 2023 season schedule that will feature a total of 20 games from April 1 through July 1. Of the 20 games, only 6 will be considered league games with each of the three teams playing the other two teams twice. The remaining 14 non-league games will consist of 11 games against teams from the American Indoor Football Alliance (AIFA) and 3 games against other non-AIFA/non-AWFC teams.

HOCKEY

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association: The four-team tour-based PWHPA announced its final 2022-23 tour stop will be sponsored by the National Hockey League's Washington Capitals and will take place March 4-5, 2023 at the MedStar Capitals Iceplex, which is the Capital's training facility in Arlington (VA). Each of the four teams will play one game during the two-day event.

SOCCER

Liga de Balompie Mexicano - Segunda División: The Segunda Division (Second Division) of Mexico's independent professional LBM (Mexican Football League) started its second season this week with eight teams. The league played its inaugural 2022 from September to November with six teams, but the Red Leones Naranjas and Arroceros de Cuautla did not return. The league added four teams called the Neza FC, Condor FC, Car Veolaia and Aguilas Naucalpan de Juarez. Each team is scheduled for 14 games through May 13, 2023.

USL W-League (United Soccer League): The women's pre-professional USL W-League announced the final expansion team for its second season in 2023 will be the PDX FC (Portland, OR), which also has a team in the men's pre-professional USL League Two. The W-League also announced the team alignment for the 2023 season. The league has grown from 44 teams aligned in seven divisions to 65 teams aligned in ten divisions with the addition of three new divisions called the NorCal, Northwest and Valley. The league has now further grouped the divisions into four conferences (Eastern, Central, Southern and Western), which will each consist of two or three divisions.

Women's Premier Soccer League: The elite amateur-level WPSL announced four of the latest teams to join for the 2023 season: the Kingston (NY) Capitals, Flatirons Rush (Arvada, CO), Cultures United FC (Seattle) and St. Louis Scott Gallagher. The league also announced the alignment for the 2023 season will feature 131 teams across four geographic regions (East, Central, South and West). Each region is further divided into conferences and some conferences further split into divisions.

OTHER

American Ultimate Disc League: The men's professional ultimate frisbee AUDL has posted the 2023 season for its 24 teams, which will each play a 12-game schedule from April 28 through July 23, 2023. Teams are aligned in a six-team East, a six-team Central, a five-team South and a seven-team West. The league operated with 25 teams last season but the Tampa Bay Cannons and Ottawa Outlaws did not return. The expansion Houston Havoc was added for the 2023 season.

Major League Rugby: The men's professional 15-a-side rugby union MLR started its 2023 season this week with 12 teams aligned in a six-team Eastern Conference and a six-team Western Conference. Each team is playing a 16-game schedule through June 18, 2023. The MLR operated with 13 teams last season, but it lost two Western Conference teams called the Austin Gilgronis and Los Angeles Giltinis in the off-season. An expansion team called the Chicago Hounds was added to the Western Conference. Also, the Rugby New York team was renamed the Rugby New York Ironworkers for the 2023 season.

Professional Box Lacrosse Association: Although the nine-team minor indoor PBLA suspended operation of its inaugural 2022-23 season last month, the league commissioner and a partner in the group that operates the First Arena in Elmira (NY) announced plans for a Challenge Series involving four of the PBLA teams. The Elmira Renegades, Binghamton (NY) Bombers, Syracuse (NY) Spark and Jim Thorpe (PA) All American will participate in four separate doubleheader weekend events in Elmira starting on February 25 followed by a playoff weekend.

Professional Volleyball Federation: The women's professional indoor PVF, which plans to start play in February 2024 with eight to ten teams, announced three more ownership groups in Columbus (OH), Omaha (NE) and Atlanta have been awarded first-season franchises. The league's first franchise was previously announced for West Michigan (Grand Rapids) back in December 2022.

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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