Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
May 1, 2023 - Canadian Premier League (CPL)

BASEBALL

Atlantic League: The independent Atlantic League started its 2023 season this week and again has ten teams aligned in five-team North and South divisions. A new still-to-be-named team based in Frederick (MD) has replaced the Kentucky Wild Health Genomes (Lexington, KY) in the South Division for 2023. Frederick was added as a tenth team for the 2023 season after the new ownership of the league's Lexington (KY) Legends decided not to continue operating the Genomes as second Lexington-based team. The Frederick team will wear uniforms with question marks until the team's official name is announced on June 23. The new ownership of the Lexington Legends renamed the team the Lexington Counter Clocks for the 2023 season. Each team plays a 126-game schedule through September 17, 2023.

Liga Mexicana de Beisbol: Mexico's top-level LMB, or Mexican Baseball League, plans to expand from 18 to 20 teams for the 2024 season. The league announced the Conspiradores de Querétaro as its 19th team and a second expansion team is expected to be located in Ciudad Juarez (Chihuahua).

South Atlantic League: The Winston-Salem (NC) Dash of the high Class-A SAL will play a game next week as the Winston-Salem Hyphens. The team's Dash name was first taken in 2009 for the punctuation that has separated the name of the two cities, but technically the punctuation is a hyphen and not a dash.

Texas League: The Springfield (MO) Cardinals of the Double-A Texas League will play three games of a homestand later next month as the Springfield Cashew Chickens to pay tribute to the popular Springfield style of cashew chicken.

BASKETBALL

Basketball Super League: The new 12-team professional BSL, which will be an offshoot of The Basketball League (TBL), announced a current TBL team called the Newfoundland Rogues (St. John's) will join the new BSL for its inaugural season starting in late December 2023. The TBL's Albany (NY) Patroons team is also reported to be considering the BSL. The BSL teams will play a 32-game schedule with 12 home and away games against BSL teams and 8 additional home games against TBL teams.

Global Women's Basketball Association: Teams in the semi-pro GWBA have posted their 2023 season schedules that will run from early June through July. The league will again have four teams with the Flint (MI) Monarchs, Wisconsin Glo (Oshkosh) and St. Louis Surge returning from last season, and the Kansas City (MO) Jazz replacing the Detroit Queens.

National Basketball Association Gatorade League (G-League): The NBA's Portland Trail Blazers announced the team has acquired the rights to own and operate a new NBA G-League team that will start in the 2023-24 season and play on the campus of the University of Portland in North Portland. The team's name is still to be announced. Of the 30 NBA teams, only the Phoenix Suns do not own or have an affiliation with a G-League team. With the addition of Portland, the G-League is up to 31 teams, which includes two unaffiliated teams-the G-League Ignite and the Capitanes de Mexico City. The new owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, which had a previous G-League team called the Northern Arizona Suns (Prescott Valley) for four seasons (2016-20), has expressed interest in restarting an NBA G-League team.

National Basketball Association: The NBA is planning a new in-season tournament for the 2023-24 season with semi-finals and finals held at a neutral site in December. Teams will be aligned in six pools of five and certain regular-season games in the first half of the season will be tournament games.

FOOTBALL

Champions Indoor Football: After completing a review of the Topeka Tropics' operations based on certain allegations concerning the team's ownership, the CIF expressed confidence in the ownership being able to successfully complete this season and continue operating next season.

United Football League: The proposed eight-man outdoor UFL, which is supposed to start its inaugural 2023 season on May 13 with 14 teams aligned in seven-team Eastern and Western conferences, announced its Louisville Firehawks team has been relocated and is now the Rochester (NY) Firehawks. The UFL was organized in 2021 and evolved from the failed National Gridiron League, which attempted to start in three different seasons (2019-21) but never played a game.

American Arena League 2: The American Arena League's developmental AAL2 recently started its inaugural 2023 season that will run through June 10. The league lists seven teams called the Jersey Bearcats (Roselle, NJ), Steel City Stampede (Bethlehem, PA), Eastern Shore Rage (Springfield, VA), United Fire Power (Wake Forest, NC), Maryland Eagles (Wheaton), Western Maryland Warriors (Frederick) and Georgialina Lions (Augusta, GA). An eighth team called the Houston Maulers (Canonsburg, PA) was announced, but it is now playing as an independent after playing one AAL2 game.

HOCKEY

National Collegiate Development Conference: The junior-level United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-II NCDC held its player draft this week for 18 teams that will be part of the 2023-24 season. The league had 14 teams this past season in seven-team North and South divisions, but the Boston Advantage and the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs (Hooksett) were not included. A Tier-II North American Hockey League (NAHL) team called the New Hampshire Mountain Kings is replacing the Monarchs in Hooksett for the 2023-24 season. The NCDC is expanding by adding a NCDC West with six teams moving up from the 2022-23 USPHL Tier-III Premier Conference. These include the Idaho Falls (ID) Spuds, Ogden (UT) Mustangs, Provo (UT) Predators, Pueblo (CO) Bulls and Utah Outliers (West Valley) from the USPHL Premier Mountain Division, and the Rock Springs (WY) Grizzlies (formerly the Prospectors) from the USPHL Premier Northwest Division. Rock Springs replaced another 2022-23 USPHL Premier Mountain team called the Northern Colorado Eagles (Greeley), which was originally announced as the sixth NCDC West team but was replaced in Greeley by a new Tier-II NAHL team called the Colorado Grit.

SOCCER

Canadian Premier League: Canada Soccer Business, whose investors are the team owners in the Division-2 professional CPL, came to a mutual agreement with the league's York United FC (Ontario) to buy back the franchise from its ownership. The CPL felt the franchise was underperforming in the key Toronto market and an ownership change was necessary. The league will operate the York United FC until new ownership can be found. The CPL took over its FC Edmonton team prior to the 2022 season and decided to terminate that franchise after the season. The eight-team CPL is still planning future expansion with Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), Kelowna (British Columbia), Quebec City (Quebec) and Windsor (Ontario) mentioned as possible future team locations.

League1 Ontario: Canada's provincial Division-3 pro-am League1 Ontario recently started the 2023 season for its men's and women's divisions. The Men's Premier Division features 21 teams aligned in a single table with play through August 20, while the Women's Premier Division features 19 teams aligned in a single table with play through July 23. Last season, the Men's Premier Division had 22 teams and the Women's Premier Division had 20 teams, but both the men's and women's teams of the Pickering FC were removed for the 2023 season. The Men's Division will also have U-21 and U-19 reserve divisions, while the Women's Division will also have U-19 and Open reserve divisions.

United Women's Soccer: The UWS announced a new team called the Chicago Rush has been added to the UWS pro-am league for the 2023 season.

Canadian Soccer League: The men's Ontario-based semi-pro CSL recently announced the FC Dynamo Toronto and Weston United FC have been added for the 2023 season that starts next month.

OTHER

American Ultimate Disc League: The men's professional ultimate frisbee AUDL started its 2023 season this weekend with 24 teams each playing a 12-game schedule 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 Houston Havoc was as an expansion team 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.

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