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Federal Prospects Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
March 25, 2024 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)


BASEBALL

Minor League Baseball: Of the 120 affiliated teams in Minor League Baseball, 98 teams will be participating in the 2024 Copa de la Diversión (Fun Cup) program in which teams assume alternate identities for select games to celebrate their region's Hispanic fan base. Five teams have joined the 2024 Copa while three teams have changed their Copa identities. New for 2024 are the Peces Dorados (Gold Fish) de Altoona (Altoona Curve; Double-A Eastern League), Luces (Lights) de Buffalo (Buffalo Bisons; Triple-A International League), Duraznos (Peaches) de Roma (Rome Emperors; High-A South Atlantic League), Cafecitos (Cup of Coffee) de Spokane (Spokane Indians; High-A Northwest League), and Rocas Azules (Blue Rocks) de Wilmington (Wilmington Blue Rocks; High-A South Atlantic). The Midland RockHounds of the Double-A Texas League will change from the Matamoscas de Midessa to the Midland Amigos; the Peoria Rivermen of the High-A Midwest League will change from the Peoria en el Rio to the Perros Bomberos (Fire Dogs) de Peoria; and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the Low-A California League will change from the Temblores de Ranch Cucamonga to the Chaquetas (Jackets) de Rancho Cucamonga.

International League: The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Allentown, PA) of the Triple-A International League will become the Lehigh Valley Cats as part of a "Caturday" game next month and a tribute to cats.

Mid-America League: The new summer-collegiate MAL, which will have six teams throughout Texas, Arkansas and Missouri when it starts play in the 2024 season, announced its Joplin (MO) team will be an existing team called the Joplin Outlaws. The Joplin Outlaws were part of the 2023 summer-collegiate MINK League (Missouri-Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas) but came under new ownership and moved to the MAL.

Southern League: The Biloxi (MS) Shuckers of the Double-A Southern League will play four games in the 2024 season as the Biloxi Beach Chickens to honor another name for the area's Gulf Coast seagulls.

Texas League: The Wichita Wind Surge of the Double-A Texas League will play two games next month as the Wichita Chili Buns in a tribute to a midwestern culinary treat featuring a cinnamon bun in a bowl of chili. The league's Springfield (MO) Cardinals will return as the Springfield Cashew Chickens for eight games in the 2024 season as a tribute to the popular Springfield style of cashew chicken.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The semi-pro ABA announced teams called the Waco Terror and the Florida Tropics (Broward County) have been added for the 2024-25 season. The league's Nashville-based Music City Jazz has relocated to Dothan (AL) as the Circle City Pythons. The ABA's River Region Generals (Montgomery, AL) team will return after last playing in the 2021-22 season. The ABA also announced its proposed summertime league for players over 40 will be a 3-on-3 league.

National Basketball Association Gatorade League (G-League): The NBA announced it will shut down its G-League Ignite team after the 2023-24 season. The Ignite team was added to the G-League for the 2020-21 season as a development program allowing potential NBA pre-draft college prospects to be paid to play basketball rather than attend college. With some of these draft-eligible college prospects now being able to be compensated while in college as part of the name, image and likeness (NIL) program, a team like the Ignite was no longer considered necessary. The Ignite trained in Walnut Grove (CA) for its first two seasons (2020-22) but did not play home games there. The Ignite was moved to the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson for the 2022-23 season and have since played a home schedule at the city's Dollar Loan Center.

Florida Basketball Association: The independent semi-pro FBA recently started its 2024 season with five teams called the Florida Flight (Orlando), Volusia County Serpents, Winter Park Storm, Clermont Crocs and Polk County Royals, formerly the Lakeland Royals. Of the six teams from last season, only the Kissimmee Lambs did not return. Also, the FBA approved the Daytona Beach Bandits as an expansion team for the 2025 season.

FOOTBALL

Great Lakes Arena Football: The semi-pro GLAF recently started its 2024 season and lists six teams called the Detroit Knights (originally the Detroit Dark Knights), Michigan Avengerz (Farmington, MI), Ohio Boom (Dayton), Ohio Shamrocks (also listed as the Toledo Extreme Shamrocks), West Michigan Ironmen (Muskegon) and Tri-State Bucks (Pioneer, OH), representing Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

Spring Indoor Football: The new semi-pro developmental SIF started its inaugural 2024 season earlier this month with four teams each playing four games through March. Teams include the Ohio Blitz (Lima), Kentucky Herd Kings (Louisville), Ohio Legends (Columbus) and Second City Ronin (Lexington, KY).

HOCKEY

National Collegiate Development Conference: The junior-level United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-II NCDC announced a new team called the West Chester (PA) Wolves will join the league for the 2024-25 season. The club will also place a lower-level team in the Tier-III USPHL Premier Conference.

Federal Prospects Hockey League: A previous FPHL team called the Danville (IL) Dashers is close to finalizing a lease agreement at the city's David S. Palmer Arena that would bring the team back to the FPHL for the 2024-25 season. The Danville Dashers played nine seasons (2011-20) in the FPHL and sat out a shortened 2020-21 season. The Danville arena board replaced the Dashers with an SPHL team called the Vermilion County Bobcats, which started play in 2021 and folded in February 2023 of its second season in the league.

3ICE League: The independent eight-team tour-based 3ICE professional hockey league will return for its third season in June 2024 with each team representing individual markets. For its first two seasons, 3ICE teams were named after their coaches who were former National Hockey League players. The 2024 season will feature eight events from June 12 through August 7 with each team hosting one event involving all teams followed by a Patrick Cup Championship in Phoenix on August 14. Newly named teams and host cities include Tennessee (Clarksville), Dallas (Allen, TX), Chicago (Geneva, IL), Minnesota (Minneapolis), Boston (Lowell, MA), New York/New Jersey (Newark), Buffalo (Buffalo) and Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh).

SOCCER

National Independent Soccer Association: The Division-III professional NISA, which was to start its 2024 season this weekend with a five-team East Conference and a four-team West Conference, has delayed the start of the 2024 season until April 6 because the league's four new expansion teams need additional time to prepare for the 2024 season. This week, one of those four expansion teams called the Georgia Lions SC (Conyers) unexpectedly withdrew from the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament.

National Women's Soccer League: The Division-I professional NWSL announced a new 2024 in-season tournament called the NWSL x Liga MX Summer Cup, which will feature all 14 NWSL teams competing with the 6 top 2023 teams from Mexico's professional 18-team women's league called Liga MX Femenil. The teams will be aligned in five four-team groups for group-play (July 19-August 2), followed by a semi-final round (week of August 4) and a championship round (October 25-27).

Women's Premier Soccer League: Over the past three months, the elite pro-am developmental WPSL announced 28 new teams as it prepares for its 2024 season. New teams include the Chicago House AC, Iron Rose FC (Roseville, CA), Keystone FC (Harrisburg, PA), West-Mont United (Philadelphia), Miss Kick FC (Los Angeles), Green Bay Glory, Corktown WFC (Detroit), Trinity Fire W (Raleigh, NC), Alexandria (VA) Reds, PSD Academy (Premier Soccer Development, Denver), Vancouver (WA) Victory FC, AGC Football (Miami), Futbolera Select (Houston), UK F.C. (Unknown; Richmond, VA), Jacksonville Armada FC, UFA (United Futbol Academy) Gunners (Atlanta), Arlington (VA) Soccer, Beach Futbol Club (Long Beach), FC Nashville Wolves, Niagara 1812 (Buffalo), Southern California Eagles (Los Angeles), BC United (Binghamton, NY), Junction FC (Urbana, IL), RSL Southern Arizona (Tucson), Sioux City (IA) Sol, Dade County Football Club (Miami) and Decatur FC (Atlanta).

USL Super League (United Soccer League): The Charlotte (NC) team that will compete in the new eight-team professional women's Division-I USL Super League starting in August 2024 announced its name will be the Carolina Ascent FC.

OTHER

PBA Elite League (Professional Bowlers Association): The 2024 season of the team-based PBA Elite League started in January with eight teams participating in 14 rounds of matches through April 27, 2024, followed by playoffs to be held in Portland (ME) in September 2024. PBA Elite League matches are incorporated into regular PBA Tour events. The 2024 PBA Elite League teams include the Las Vegas High Rollers, Portland (ME) Lumberjacks, New Jersey KingPins, Akron Atom Splitters, Motown Muscle, Lucky Strike L.A.X., GoBowling Dallas Strikers and Waco Wonders.

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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