Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
March 11, 2024 - Northwest League (NWL)
BASEBALL
Appalachian League (Appy League): The ownership of the Burlington (NC) Sock Puppets 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 Burlington Sock Pups. The name puts a canine theme to the Sock Puppets logo. The Sock Pups will play 13 home games as part of its schedule when the Sock Puppets are on the road.
International League: The Rochester (NY) Red Wings and the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Allentown, PA) of the Triple-A International League will both be renamed for a three-game series in Rochester as a tribute to the Great North American Eclipse next month. The Red Wings will become the Rochester Moon Rocs and the Iron Pigs will become the Lehigh Valley Space Pigs for the series.
Eastern League: The Double-A Eastern League's Harrisburg (PA) Senators, whose home field is located on the one-milelong City Island in the Susquehanna River, will be celebrating ¬Åisland life ¬Â with a Hawaii-themed Luau Night in August of the 2024 season and the team being rebranded as the City Island Luau.
Northwest League: The Hillsboro (OR) Hops of the high Class-A Northwest League will not have to consider relocation as a possible option after the Oregon State Legislature approved the last piece of funding needed for a new city-owned ballpark that is to be completed for the 2026 season. The Hops faced a March 15 deadline requiring a plan that their home ballpark met new Major League Baseball standards.
Major League Baseball: MLB's Oakland A's released the renderings for a proposed new 33,000-seat domed stadium to be built in Las Vegas, which is expected to become the team's new home starting with the 2028 season. The team's current Triple-A Pacific Coast League (PCL) affiliate called the Las Vegas Aviators plays at a ballpark in the Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin. The Utah Legislature recently approved funding for a new Salt Lake City entertainment district that is to include a new baseball stadium for a proposed MLB expansion team. The ownership of the city's Salt Lake Bees Triple-A PCL team is behind the MLB expansion effort and the stadium portion of the funding would only be triggered if the ownership is able to obtain an MLB franchise for the stadium. The Salt Lake Bees ownership is currently building a new stadium for the PCL team in the Salt Lake City suburb of South Jordan.
BASKETBALL
Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacifico (CIBACOPA): The Mexican spring-season men's professional CIBACOPA, or Pacific Coast Basketball League, started its 2024 season last weekend with ten teams aligned in a single-table format and teams playing a 36-game schedule through May 18, 2024. All eight teams have returned from last season and the league added the new Angeles de la Ciudad de Mexico (Angels of Mexico City) and the returning Frayles de Guasave (Sinaloa) team, which that last played in the league's 2018 season.
Women's National Basketball Association: Although the group called Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), which owns the National Basketball Association's Toronto Raptors among other major sports franchises, pulled out of pursuing a WNBA expansion team for Toronto back in October 2023, a minority owner and chairman of MLSE is now seeking a Toronto WNBA expansion team through his own holding company. This new Toronto effort plans to meet with WNBA officials and an announcement could come in the near future. The WNBA wants to expand to 14 teams by the 2025 season and the league granted its 13th franchise to the NBA's Golden State Warriors in October 2023.
FOOTBALL
American Indoor Football: The newly reborn AIF started its 2024 season this weekend with six teams called the Amarillo Venom, Columbus (GA) Lions, Cedar Rapids (IA) Riverkings, Harrisburg (PA) Stampede, Mississippi Raiders (Batesville) and Corpus Christi Tritons all aligned in a single-table format. Teams are scheduled between six to nine games, including non-league games scheduled for four teams, through June 8, 2024. A seventh team called the Albany (GA) Flint Rivergators was on the AIF's original 2024 schedule but the team could not find a home arena and was removed last month from the 2024 season.
National Gridiron League: It looks like the once-failed NGL, which plans to play 8-man outdoor football on a 60-yard field, is trying to make a return for a proposed start in March 2025. The original NGL was announced in 2017 but failed to get off the ground for proposed 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons. The league then morphed into the United Football League, which also failed to get off the ground for proposed 2022 and 2023 seasons, before disbanding. The current NGL lists a nine-team Eastern Conference with the Atlanta Wildcats, Charleston (SC) Pirates, Cleveland Gladiators, Columbus (OH) Destroyers, Grand Rapids Rampage, Richmond Iron Horses, Rochester (NY) Ragin Rams, Tampa Bay Storm and Virginia Beach Nighthawks, and a nine-team Western Conference with the Arkansas Twisters, Austin Wranglers, Louisville Firehawks, Mississippi Mudcats, Oklahoma City Owls, Portland (OR) Roughriders, San Jose SaberCats, Utah Blaze and Wichita Wild.
HOCKEY
American Premier Hockey League: Eleven of the 12 teams that started the inaugural 2024 season as part of the Senior-A semi-pro Union Hockey League (UHL) have left the league to form the new APHL for the remainder of the season. The Flint Apollos were the only UHL team not making the move to the APHL. The team win-loss records from the UHL games have transitioned to the APHL. The UHL was originally organized as the North Eastern Hockey League prior to changing to the UHL in August 2023.
National Hockey League: The owner of the National Basketball Association's Utah Jazz wants to bring an NHL team to a new future downtown Salt Lake City arena and wants the NHL to initiate an expansion process. Currently, the NHL is not actively considering expansion but the commissioner recently stated the NHL has received expansion interest from groups in Houston, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha and Salt Lake City, which was noted to be the ¬Åmost aggressive ¬Â candidate. Salt Lake City has been mentioned as a destination for the Arizona Coyotes, if that team cannot find a new home in Arizona.
SOCCER
MLS Next Pro (Major League Soccer): Major League Soccer's D.C. United is analyzing sites in the Baltimore area for a potential soccer stadium that could host an affiliated reserve team in the Division-III MLS Next Pro league. The stadium could also become home to a future team in the women's Division-I professional USL Super League. The D.C. United has used the Loudoun United FC (Leesburg, VA) of the Division-II USL Championship as its reserve team since 2018. The former MLS-affiliated teams in the USL Championship have moved to the MLS Next Pro, but the Loudoun stadium lease requires a team in a Division-II league. Last year, the D.C. United sold its controlling interest in the Loudoun United FC but still wants an interest in the Virginia-based team even with the addition of a Baltimore MLS Next Pro team.
WPSL Pro League (Women's Premier Soccer League): The elite amateur-level WPSL is moving forward on its proposed new Division-III professional WPSL Pro league that will start play in 2025. The Georgia Impact (Atlanta) and AC Houston Sur recently signed letters of intent for the 2025 season, while the Dakota Fusion FC (Fargo, ND) signed a letter of intent for a 2026 start. Previous teams that have signed letters of intent for 2025 include the Oklahoma City FC, Sioux Falls (SD) City FC, SouthStar FC (Fort Worth), Austin Rise FC and The Town FC (Moraga, CA).
USL Championship (United Soccer League): The men's Division-II professional USL Championship started its 2024 season this weekend and again features 24 teams aligned in 12-team Eastern and Western conferences with each team playing a 34-game schedule through October 26, 2024. The league lost the San Diego Loyal SC and Rio Grande Valley FC Toros (Edinburg, TX) from last season's Western Conference and added the North Carolina FC (Cary) and Rhode Island FC (Providence) to the Eastern Conference. To balance out the conferences, the league's Memphis 901 FC and FC Tulsa were moved from the Eastern to the Western Conference. The San Diego Loyal SC left after four seasons due to a new Major League Soccer team coming to the city in 2025. Rio Grande Valley FC ceased operations after being part of the league since 2016. The returning North Carolina FC was a previous member of the USL Championship for three seasons (2018-20) but dropped down to the Division-III USL League One for the past three seasons. The league has future teams listed for Milwaukee, Jacksonville, Des Moines (IA) and Oklahoma City.
USL League One (United Soccer League): The men's Division-III professional USL League One started its 2024 season this weekend and again features 12 teams aligned in a single-table format. The league lost the North Carolina FC (Cary) team that moved up to the Division-II USL Championship for 2024 but added the new Spokane (WA) Velocity FC. Each team will play 22 games as part of the regular season through October 26, 2024. The league added a new in-season Cup Competition for 2024 with teams aligned in three four-team groups and playing at least eight additional games as part of tournament group-play. The league has four future expansion teams listed for Brooklyn, Santa Barbara (CA), Naples (FL) and Portland (ME).
OTHER
Major League Pickleball: The professional team-based MLP has finalized its merger with the PPA Tour that will combine team (MLP) and individual (PPA Tour) events in an expanded schedule throughout the year. The MLP will have 24 teams-12 at the Premier Level and 12 at the Challenger Level-with each team consisting of both men and women players.
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.
Northwest League Stories from March 11, 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.
