Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on March 4, 2024 under National Arena League (NAL)
BASEBALL
Appalachian League (Appy League): The ownership of the Danville (VA) Otterbots from the summer-collegiate Appy League announced the second team that will share its home field in 2024 as part of the summer-collegiate Old North State League (ONSL) will be called the Danville Dairy Daddies. The name honors the agriculture industry throughout southern Virginia. The Dairy Daddies will play 13 home games as part of its schedule when the Otterbots are on the road.
Atlantic League: The ownership of the new team that will replace the Gastonia (NC) Honey Hunters in the 2024 season of the independent Atlantic League announced it will be called the Gastonia Baseball Club until an official name is chosen next year. Team nickname suggestions are being requested from fans.
Frontier League: The independent Frontier League's 2024 expansion team called the New England Knockouts (Brockton, MA) officially announced the team's logos and nickname, which is a tribute to the city's history in the sport of boxing. The team was originally called the New England Chowdahhead after a name-the-team contest but this name was poorly received by fans and changed to Knockouts.
Mavericks Independent Baseball League: The Mavericks League will return on May 8, 2024, with the same four teams (Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Campesinos de Salem-Keizer, Salem Senators and Portland Mavericks) as last season and all games again to be played at Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer (OR).
Midwest League: The Great Lakes Loons (Midland, MI) of the high-A Midwest League will play three games in July of the 2024 season as the Great Lakes Pontooners to honor pontoon boats and their contribution to a laid-back life style on the lake.
Pacific Coast League: The Round Rock Express of the Triple-A PCL will play two games in the 2024 season as the Round Rock Briskets to honor the smoked brisket popular in Texas barbeque restaurants.
South Atlantic League: The Winston-Salem (NC) Dash of the high-A SAL announced the team will play a game in August of the 2024 season as the Winston-Salem Tobacco Beetles as part of a ¬ÅSalute to North Carolina ¬Â promotion. The name is a salute to the history of the tobacco industry in the area and the tobacco beetle, also known as the cigarette beetle.
BASKETBALL
The Basketball League: The TBL, which is affiliated with the new professional Basketball Super League, started its 2024 season this week with 38 teams playing at least 20 games through May 2024. Some TBL teams will be playing more than 20 games and additional road games against BSL teams during the season. The TBL had 49 teams last season but lost 20 teams and added 9 new teams called the Santa Ana (NM) Thunder, Frederick (MD) Flying Cows, Jacksonville 95ers, Rhode Island Kraken (Providence), Rocket City Flight (Huntsville), Emerald City Jaguars (Eugene, OR), Great Falls (MT) Electric, Los Angeles Ignite and the relocated Pontiac (MI) Pharaohs, which is the former Lansing Pharaohs team that sat out the 2023 season. The league's 2023 Rockwall (TX) 7ers merged with the Dallas Skyline team, which played three TBL seasons (2020-22) and sat out the 2023 season, to form the Texas 7ers for the 2024 season. After playing only the 2023 season, the league's Orlando-based Central Florida Force relocated to Bridgeport (CT) as the Connecticut Crusaders. The Shreveport Mavericks are now listed as the Shreveport Bossier Mavericks. The TBL has been realigned into six regional divisions-the Atlantic Northeast (8), Atlantic Southeast (4), Central (7), Midwest (9), Pacific Northwest (6) and Pacific Southwest (4).
East Coast Basketball League: The semi-pro ECBL recently started its 2024 season with 18 teams playing through June 2, 2024. The league operated with 26 teams last season but lost 10 teams and added 2 teams called the Kingdom Life Basketball Club (Union County, NC) and the Seven Cities Vets (Norfolk, VA). Teams are aligned in a Southern Conference with a four-team Southeast Division and a five-team Southwest Division, and a Northern Conference with a four-team Northeast Division and a five-team Northwest Division.
FOOTBALL
Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional: Mexico's top professional American-style outdoor football league known as the LFA (Professional American Football League), started its 2024 season this weekend with nine teams aligned in a single-table format and each team playing an eight-game schedule through May 5, 2024. The LFA operated with ten teams last season but the Reds de la Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico City) team was removed for the 2024 season.
National Arena League: The NAL officially terminated the Topeka Tropics franchise this week after the league was unable to find new ownership to take over the team for the 2024 season. The NAL will move forward with six teams in the 2024 regular season that is supposed to start on March 15. The Topeka Tropics spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons in the now-defunct Championship Indoor Football (CIF) and joined the NAL when the CIF disbanded after the 2023 season.
HOCKEY
SPHL: The Peoria Rivermen of the minor professional SPHL will play a game next weekend as the Peoria Penicillin to celebrate the city's ties to the important advance of mass production of penicillin in the 1940s.
Professional Women's Hockey League: As the new six-team PWHL moves into the second half of its inaugural 2024 season, the league stated there will be no expansion teams added next season. The league is holding neutral-site games in Pittsburgh and Detroit later this month and plans to add more of those games next season to test various markets. The PWHL is still working on developing nicknames for each team.
SOCCER
Major League Soccer: MLS and the United States Soccer Federation have come to an agreement requiring only 8 of the 26 U.S.-based teams participate in the 2024 U.S. Open Cup tournament to reduce schedule congestion. MLS will instead be sending 11 developmental MLS NEXT Pro teams (2 independent teams and 9 MLS-affiliated teams) to the tournament this year.
National Premier Soccer League: After playing two seasons (2022-23) in the men's Division-III professional National Independent Soccer Association (NISA), the Flower City Union (Rochester, NY) announced the team has joined the elite amateur-level NPSL for the 2024 season. The city had a former NPSL team called the Rochester Lancers for six seasons (2016-21). For the 2023 NISA season, the City Union played games in Rochester as the Flower City Union and in Syracuse as the Salt City Union. The Flower City Union stated its 2024 NPSL home games will be played in Rochester. The NPSL has a current team called Syracuse FC. Also, the NPSL recently announced the Minnesota Blizzard (Twin Cities), New Jersey United Athletic Club (Holmdel) and a yet-to-be-named Chicago team have been added for 2024.
National Women's Soccer League: The NWSL's previously announced 2026 expansion team granted to a group called Boston Unity is facing a lawsuit from local residents over what they claim will be the team's unconstitutional privatization of the city's White Stadium, which is to be renovated for the NWSL team.
United Women's Soccer: The pro-am UWS announced the Back Mountain (PA) Torrent has been promoted from the reserve UWS League 2 to the UWS for the 2024 season. Also, a team called the Steel United Hudson Valley (Rhinebeck, NY) has been added to the UWS League 2 for the 2024 season.
USL W-League (United Soccer League): The women's pre-professional W-League announced the team previously listed as ¬ÅUSL-W Colorado ¬Â in the league's new five-team Mountain Division will be the Denver area's existing Colorado Storm club starting with the 2024 season.
OTHER
Major League Rugby: The professional rugby union (15-player) MLR started its 2024 season this week and again has 12 teams aligned in six-team Eastern and Western conferences. Each team will play 16 games through June 2024. The MLR had 12 teams last season but lost the Toronto Arrows and New York Ironworkers in the off-season. The league added the Miami Sharks and the Charlotte-based Anthem Rugby Carolina (Anthem RC) as new teams for 2024. Also, last season's Atlanta-based ATL Rugby club was sold and relocated to become the Rugby FC Los Angeles for the 2024 season.
Northwoods League Softball: The new Madison (WI) team known as Madison Softball, which will be one of the four teams in the new women's summer-collegiate Northwoods League Softball in 2024, announced a name-the-team voting contest. The contest recently started with 16 proposed names taken from fan submissions and will go through 3 rounds of voting to select the winning name next month.
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 March 4, 2024
- 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.
