Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
December 26, 2023 - United States Football League (USFL)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: A judge has granted the city of Gastonia (NC) relief from the bankruptcy case involving the ownership of the independent Atlantic League's Gastonia Honey Hunters. This allows the city to move forward with eviction of the team from the local ballpark and add a new Atlantic League team for 2024.
Texas Collegiate League: The summer-collegiate TCL announced the addition of a new team called the Lake Charles (LA) Gumbeaux Gators for the 2024 season. This increases the size of the league from five to six teams-three in Louisiana and three in Texas.
Pacific Empire League: The new summer-collegiate PEL is organizing for the 2024 season with six existing teams based in Oregon and Northern California. The teams include the Healdsburg (CA) Prune Packers, Humboldt Crabs (Arcata, CA), Lincoln (CA) Potters, Medford (OR) Rogues, Solano Mudcats (Vacaville, CA), and West Coast Kings (Pleasant Hill, CA).
Major League Baseball: The owner of MLB's Tampa Bay Rays stated the team will not change its name from "Tampa Bay" to "St. Petersburg" as part of a proposed new stadium deal in St. Petersburg.
BASKETBALL
Women's National Basketball Association: The top professional WNBA announced its 2024 season schedule will feature the same 12 teams as last season and again aligned in six-team Eastern and Western conferences. Each team will play a 40-game schedule from May 14 through September 19, 2024. Each teams' schedule will include at least five games as part of the in-season Commissioner's Cup tournament that will be played during a two-week stretch in early June 2024. The league will also take a two-week break (July 21 through August 14) for the Paris Summer Olympics. The WNBA plans to add a new San Francisco Bay Area team in 2025 and has not ruled out also adding a 14th team for the 2025 season. If a 14th team is not ready by 2025, the league would operate with 13 teams until the following season.
American Basketball Association: The men's semi-pro ABA announced a team called the Winnermucca Golddiggers, based in the northern Nevada city of Winnemucca, has been added for the 2024-25 season. The league is trying to develop a division of teams in Nevada, Utah, and Idaho.
FOOTBALL
United State Football League: The USFL Players Association has confirmed only four of the eight USFL teams from the 2023 season will be part of the new merged USFL-XFL league that will start play in 2024. The Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gamblers, Memphis Showboats, and Michigan Panthers (Detroit) are reported to be moving to the new league. The USFL teams not included in the merged league are the New Orleans Breakers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars, and Pittsburgh Maulers. The XFL has informed players that only four of its eight 2023 teams-the Arlington (TX) Renegades, D.C. Defenders, San Antonio Brahmas, and St. Louis Battlehawks-will be moving to the new league. This leaves out the XFL's Houston Roughnecks, Orlando Guardians, Seattle Sea Dragons, and Vegas Vipers. The four USFL teams will be aligned in one conference while the four XFL teams will comprise another conference. The new league plans to use the setup implemented by the XFL with teams practicing in one training hub (Arlington) during the week and traveling to home or away games on the weekend. An official merger announcement is expected early next month.
American Spring Football League: The proposed springtime professional ASFL, which has been trying to get off the ground over the past few years, has pushed back its start from 2024 to 2025. The league just announced it has awarded a Texas franchise to the co-owner of the Wheeling (WV) Miners in the American Arena League 2 but a specific location for the team was not identified. Initial plans had the league starting with eight teams-four in Texas and four in neighboring states. Back in October 2022, the ASFL had announced Houston and Little Rock as locations for its first two franchises.
HOCKEY
Union Hockey League: The proposed new Senior-A semi-pro UHL is down from 16 to 12 teams aligned in six-team Eastern and Western divisions for its start next month. The Norwich (CT) Whalers and Vermont Loggers (Waterbury) are gone from the Eastern Division and the Chicago Mammoths (Dyer, IN) and Cincinnati Pilots are gone from the Western Division. These four teams, along with four previously announced 2025 teams, are listed as inactive for the inaugural 2024 season. The UHL season will run from January 6 through April 28, 2024, with teams playing a 20-game schedule.
SOCCER
Canadian Premier League: The commissioner of Canada's Division-2 professional CPL recently stated the league will remain at eight teams in 2024 but plans to add two teams in 2025 and another two teams in 2026. The CPL reports there are 15 different groups interested in investing in the league. The CPL would like to return to Edmonton where the FC Edmonton was terminated by the league after the 2022 season. Windsor (Ontario) and Kelowna (British Columbia) have been mentioned for expansion in the past and the league is interested in Quebec (Montreal and Quebec City) for future expansion. The issue with any new CPL market would be finding a suitable soccer venue. An announced CPL expansion team for Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) recently fell through when funding for a proposed new soccer stadium fell through.
Liga de Expansión MX: The proposed merger of the 15-team Mexican second division men's league known as the Liga Expansión MX and the 18-team Under-20 league of Mexico's top Liga MX to create a new Expansion Sub-23 league has been postponed until next season. The new merged league was to start play next month in the second part (Clausura) of the two-part 2023-24 Apertura/Clausura season. Instead, the Liga de Expansion will complete the Clausura portion of the season with the same 15 teams as the Apertura and the integration of the Under-23 league will start in the Apertura part of the 2024-25 season.
Major League Soccer: The Division-I professional MLS announced its 2024 regular-season schedule will feature the same 29 teams as last season and again aligned in a 15-team Eastern Conference and a 14-team Western Conference. Each team will play a 34-game schedule from February 21 through October 19, 2024. In addition, all teams will participate in the Leagues Cup tournament during July and August with the 18 teams from Mexico's top Liga MX. The 2024 soccer season will again feature the U.S Open Cup tournament with participation from teams across all professional soccer leagues. MLS voted to have the affiliated teams from its lower-level MLS NEXT Pro league represent MLS in the 2024 U.S. Open Cup but the United States Soccer Federation did not grant a waiver for this substitution.
National Women's Soccer League: The city of Jacksonville could see competing women's Division-I professional soccer teams from both the NWSL, whose season runs March to October, and the new USL Super League, which plans to start play in August 2024 with a season running through spring of the following year. The owner of the men's Jacksonville Armada FC, which operated an Under-23 amateur team in the men's National Premier Soccer League the past few seasons and will be joining Major League Soccer's Division-III MLS NEXT Pro league in 2025, has announced plans to pursue an NWSL expansion team for Jacksonville. The owner plans to break ground early next year on a new soccer stadium in downtown Jacksonville. A separate group under the Sporting Club Jacksonville (Sporting JAX) name also announced plans to have future teams in both the men's Division-II professional USL Championship and the women's Division-I professional USL Super League.
USL Championship (United Soccer League): The men's Division-II professional USL Championship announced its 2024 season schedule will again feature 24 teams aligned in 12-team Eastern and Western conferences with each team playing a 34-game schedule from March 9 through October 26, 2024. The league is losing the San Diego Loyal SC and Rio Grande Valley FC Toros (Edinburg) from last season's Western Conference and is adding the North Carolina FC (Cary) and the expansion Rhode Island FC (Providence) to the Eastern Conference. To balance out the conferences, the league's Memphis 901 FC and FC Tulsa will move from the Eastern to the Western Conference. The San Diego Loyal SC is leaving after four seasons due to a new Major League Soccer team coming to the city. Rio Grande Valley FC announced this week the team was ceasing operations after being part of the league since 2016. The North Carolina FC, which was part of the USL Championship from 2018 to 2020 and dropped down a level to the Division-III USL League One for the past three seasons, is returning to the USL Championship for 2024.
OTHER
LIV Golf League: The tour-based professional LIV Golf League recently announced its 2024 season schedule will feature the same 12 team names as last season and include 12 matches-5 in the United States and 7 others in Spain, Mexico, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia-from February 2 through August 18, 2024. Teams compete for individual and team points throughout the season, which ends with golfers and teams competing for prize money in an Individual Championship and a Team Championship.
Major League Rugby: The professional rugby union (15-player) MLR announced its 2024 season schedule will feature 11 teams each playing 16 games from March 2 through June 29, 2024. Last season, the MLR had 12 teams aligned in six-team Eastern and Western conferences but the 2024 season will feature all 11 teams aligned in a single-table format. The league's New York Ironworkers and Toronto Arrows recently dropped out but the league added the expansion Miami Sharks for 2024. The MLR also announced last season's Atlanta-based Rugby ATL, which relocated to Los Angeles under new ownership for the 2024 season, will be called the Rugby FC Los Angeles (RFCLA). Rugby-ATL, which was unofficially known as the Rattlers, joined the MLR as a 2020 expansion team. Los Angeles had been home to a former MLR team called the Los Angeles Giltinis for two seasons (2021 and 2022) but that franchise was terminated by the league after the 2022 season.
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.
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United States Football League Stories from December 26, 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.
