Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
October 23, 2023 - National Arena League (NAL)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: The independent Atlantic League announced its 2024 season schedule that will again feature ten teams aligned in five-team North and South divisions. Teams will play a 126-game schedule in a two-part season from April 25 through September 15. Of the ten teams from last season, the 2023 expansion team called the Spire City Ghost Hounds (Frederick, MD) will sit out the 2024 season and is expected to return in 2025. The league's 2024 expansion team called the Hagerstown (MD) Flying Boxcars has been added to the North Division, while the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs will move to the South Division taking Spire City's spot.
Pecos League: The independent Pecos League recently stated the Santa Rosa (CA) Scuba Divers could return to the Pacific Division in 2024 and replace the loss of the Lancaster (CA) Sound Breakers whose ballpark is being converted to a soccer stadium. Santa Rosa was a new team in 2022 but was unable to obtain a license to sell beer last season and was relocated to become the Dublin (CA) Leprechauns.
Mid-America League: The proposed new summer-collegiate Mid-America League, which plans to start play in 2024 with six teams based in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana, announced Abilene (TX) and Sherman (TX) as the first two markets to host teams in the league.
Pacific Coast League: The Salt Lake Bees of the Triple-A PCL broke ground on a new 7,500-seat stadium in the Daybreak area of South Jordan (UT), about 20 miles south of its current home in Salt Lake City. The stadium is expected to be ready for the 2025 season. Ownership has not confirmed a possible name change for the team as part of the move, but it filed a trademark registration for the ¬ÅUtah Bees ¬Â in December 2022. The Bees' ownership is also leading the efforts of a group called Big League Utah, which wants to bring a Major League Baseball team to a proposed new stadium on the west side of Salt Lake City.
Northwoods League: The summer-collegiate Northwoods League announced the Detroit-area team called the Royal Oak Leprechauns will join the league for the 2024 season. The Royal Oak Leprechauns have been part of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League for the past three seasons (2021-23). The Royal Oaks team will be the Northwoods League's fourth team located in Michigan.
BASKETBALL
The Basketball League: The men's semi-pro TBL announced plans to add a team based out of Santa Ana Pueblo (NM) and it hopes to start in 2024 with home games played at the Rio Rancho Events Center in the northern suburbs of Albuquerque. Fans will be able to vote for the team's name starting next month. The TBL plans to start its 2024 season in March with over 40 teams.
Evolution Basketball Association: The Texas-based semi-pro EBA is about midway through its 2023 season that features eight teams in four-team Northern and Southern divisions. The EBA season runs through December 9, 2023.
National Basketball Association Gatorade League (G-League): The G-League's Oshkosh-based Wisconsin Herd, the NBA affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks, announced the team will change its name to the Wisconsin BEHERD for the game on December 15, 2023, to support suicide prevention awareness.
Women's American Basketball Association: The semi-pro WABA announced a team called the Philadelphia Fury has been added to the league.
FOOTBALL
National Arena League: The NAL has added the Enid-based Oklahoma Flying Aces as the league's eighth team for the 2024 season. The Flying Aces were a dormant team from the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league and played only the 2019 season in the CIF. The CIF's 2020 season was cancelled due to the coronavirus and the Flying Aces sat out the CIF's 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons. The NAL also announced its 2024 season schedule that will feature eight teams aligned in a single-table format. Of the seven NAL teams from last season, only the Carolina Cobras (Greensboro, NC) have returned. The Albany (NY) Empire and Fayetteville (NC) Mustangs dropped out near the end of the 2023 NAL season and did not return. The Jacksonville Sharks and San Antonio Gunslingers moved to the Indoor Football League, while the Orlando Predators and West Texas Warbirds (reborn as the West Texas Desert Hawks) moved to the new Arena Football League. The NAL added seven teams for 2024: the new Colorado Spartans (Loveland); the Idaho Horsemen (Nampa) from the American West Football Conference; the North Texas Bulls (Fort Worth), a 2021 American Arena League team; the Omaha Beef, Sioux City Bandits, and Topeka Tropics from the 2023 CIF; and the Oklahoma Flying Aces. Teams will play 10 to 12 league games from March 15 through June 8, 2024.
The Arena League: The Waterloo (IA) Woo team of the proposed new professional TAL, which plans to start play in June 2024 with four teams playing six-man indoor football, has come under new ownership, and was renamed the Iowa Woo before ever playing a game.
XFL: The springtime XFL has filed for trademark protection on the "United Football League" and the "UFL" leading to speculation that a combined XFL and USFL league could take that name. The USFL, which is owned by a subsidiary of FOX Sports, holds the trademark for the "National Spring Football League" and "NSFL." A proposed professional spring-summer eight-man outdoor league called the United Football League has failed in attempts to start play over the past couple of seasons.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The AA-level professional ECHL started its 2023-24 season this week with the same 28 teams as last season and each team playing a 72-game schedule through April 14, 2024. The league has the same alignment with seven-team North and South divisions in an Eastern Conference and seven-team Central and Mountain divisions in a Western Conference. Each of the ECHL teams has an affiliation with 28 of the 32 National Hockey League teams and their AAA-level American Hockey League affiliates.
SPHL: The A-level SPHL, which was known as the Southern Professional Hockey League prior to this season, started its 2023-24 season this week with ten teams aligned in a single-table format and each team playing a 56-game schedule through April 6, 2024. The league started last season with 11 teams but the Vermilion County Bobcats (Danville, IL) ceased operations during the second half of the season.
SOCCER
Major League Soccer: The MLS announced its new San Diego expansion team will be known as the San Diego Football Club, or San Diego FC, when it starts play as the league's 30th team in the 2025 season.
National Women's Soccer League: The Cleveland Soccer Group along with the Rock Entertainment Group, which is part owner of the American Hockey League's Cleveland Monsters and the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers, is making a push to bring the NWSL's 16th team to Cleveland in 2026. The group previously announced plans to bring an independent men's team to Major League Soccer's developmental league called MLS Next Pro for the 2025 season. The NWSL will expand to 14 teams in 2024 with the addition of the Salt Lake City Royals FC and Bay FC, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Boston group was recently granted the league's 15th team for a start in 2026.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced the league's NC Fusion club, based in the Winston-Salem (NC) area, has been purchased and will operate as the Salem City FC starting with the 2024 season.
OTHER
Northwoods League Softball: The Northwoods League, a men's summer-collegiate baseball league, will start a women's summer-collegiate softball league known as Northwoods League Softball, in 2024. Initially, the new league will feature teams in current markets served by the baseball league with teams playing a 40-game schedule from mid-June to early August. The baseball league's La Crosse (WI) Loggers will be the first baseball team to host a team in the new softball league and a team name will be announced in the future. The baseball league's Mankato (MN) MoonDogs team, which includes some Loggers' management, was reported to have reached a lease agreement that would allow a Northwoods League Softball team to share the MoonDogs' home field starting in 2024.
TGL Golf (The Golf League): The new indoor TGL Golf league, which plans to start play in January 2024 with six teams playing all matches at a 2,000-seat custom-built virtual indoor golf course simulator in Palm Beach (FL), announced San Francisco as its fifth team. The league's Atlanta team announced it will be called the Atlanta Drive GC and the Los Angeles team will be the Los Angeles Golf Club (LAGC). The other two yet-to-be-named teams are Boston and New York with a sixth team still to be announced.
Dan Krieger is the creator of the Weekly Sports League & Franchise Report, which has been tracking the changes in the sports world's leagues, teams, and nicknames since April 2007.
National Arena League Stories from October 23, 2023
- 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.
