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PL Pioneer League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
May 20, 2024 - Pioneer League (PL)


BASEBALL

Arizona Complex League: Major League Baseball's pure rookie-level Arizona Complex League, which was known as the Arizona League prior to the 2021 season and plays at MLB spring training complexes in Arizona, recently started its 2024 with 15 teams aligned in five-team East, Central and West divisions. The league had 17 team last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants each operating two separate teams but both returned to operating only one team. The 2024 season runs through July.

Florida Complex League: Major League Baseball's pure Rookie-level Florida Complex League, which was known as the Gulf Coast League prior to the 2021 season and plays at MLB spring training complexes in Florida, recently started its 2024 season with the same 15 teams as last season and again aligned in a five-team East, a six-team South and a four-team North. The 2024 season runs through July.

Pioneer League: Major League Baseball announced an extension of its partnership with the independent Pioneer League through the 2028 season. The Pioneer League became an independent MLB Partner League for the 2021 season after the restructuring of Minor League Baseball. Prior to 2021, the league operated as an affiliated short-season Advanced Rookie league under Minor League Baseball.

United Shore Professional Baseball League: The independent developmental USPBL started its 2024 season this week with the same four teams as last season-the Utica Unicorns and Eastside Diamond Hoppers in the East and the Westside Woolly Mammoths and Birmingham-Bloomfield Beavers in the West. The 2024 season will consist of a total of 70 games all played at Jimmy John's Field in Utica (MI) through August 31, 2024, followed by playoffs.

BASKETBALL

Women's National Basketball Association: The professional WNBA started its 2024 season this week with 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 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 next month. The league will take a two-week break (July 21 through August 14) for the Paris Summer Olympics. The WNBA also announced its new San Francisco Bay Area expansion team will be called the Golden State Valkyries when it starts play in the 2025 season.

FOOTBALL

Arena Football League: The new 16-team AFL was reorganized this week and announced plans to complete the 2024 season with only 10 teams. Six teams called the Philadelphia Soul, Louisiana Voodoo (Lafayette), Iowa Rampage (Council Bluffs), Oregon Blackbears (Salem), Georgia Force (Atlanta area) and Minnesota Myth were all shut down for the season. A short time after this announcement, the Oregon Blackbears were reinstated and the league currently lists 11 active teams and 5 inactive teams.

The Arena League: The new professional TAL, which plans to start play in June 2024 with four teams playing six-man indoor football, announced Eau Claire (WI) as the second of two locations for a 2025 expansion team. Last month, Hot Springs (AR) was announced as the other location for a 2025 expansion team. The TAL will start play next month with teams called the Duluth (MN) Harbor Monsters, Kansas City (MO) Goats, Waterloo (IA) Woo, and Ozarks Lunkers (Springfield, MO).

HOCKEY

Federal Prospects Hockey League: The minor professional FPHL's new Athens (GA) expansion team announced it will be called the Athens Rock Lobsters when starting play in the 2024-25 season. The Rock Lobsters name, which comes from the name of a popular song by the B-52s band, won out over the Classic City Panic. Although the FPHL's Elmira (NY) River Sharks team is being replaced at the city's arena by a Tier-II junior-level team in the North American Hockey League, the River Sharks reported the Elmira FPHL franchise has been sold and will be moving to a new location in the state of New York.

Ligue Nord Americaine de Hockey: The Quebec-based minor professional LNAH, or North American Hockey League, announced the Bâtisseurs de Montcalm team, which played its first season in 2022-23 and sat out the 2023-24 season, will not return for the 2024-25 season.

National Collegiate Development Conference: The United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-II junior-level NCDC announced the Provo (UT) Predators team has come under new ownership and will move to Casper (WY) for the 2024-25 season. A team called the Casper Roughnecks played the 2023-24 season as part of the USPHL's Tier-III Premier Conference but that team recently announced a move to Enoch (UT) as the Iron County Yetis for the 2024-25 season. The Tier-II NCDC's West Chester (PA) Wolves will have two Tier-III USPHL Premier Conference affiliates in 2024-25, the West Chester Wolves and the recently purchased Atlanta Mad Hatters.

North American 3 Hockey League: The Tier-III junior-level NA3HL, which is affiliated with the Tier-II North American Hockey League (NAHL), announced a new team called the Binghamton (NY) Buzz has been added for the 2024-25 season and the team will be affiliated with the Tier-II NAHL's recently announced Elmira (NY) Aviators team. The NA3HL's Oregon (WI) Tradesmen team is moving to Blaine (MN) as the Minnesota Moose for the 2024-25 season. A team called the Minnesota Moose was part of the United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-III Premier Conference in the 2023-24 season. The NA3HL also announced a new team called the Carolina Rage (Greer, SC) will be added for the 2025-26 season.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: A proposed new tax district was introduced to the Indianapolis City-County Council this week to help fund a new downtown soccer stadium for a possible future MLS expansion team. After cutting ties with a proposed tax district at another stadium site for the Indy Eleven of the Division-II USL Championship, the Indianapolis mayor is backing the MLS stadium proposal. The city can select only one tax district to send to the state budget committee by June 30. Although the Indy Eleven ownership added a major new investor this week, there is some uncertainty about its proposed stadium site where cemetery remains were recently recovered.

United Women's Soccer: The pro-am UWS started its 2024 season this weekend with 40 teams aligned in an 18-team East Conference, a 17-team Midwest Conference and a 5-team West Conference. The UWS also has a lower-level UWS League Two with a 14-team East Conference and a 4-team West Conference.

USL League One (United Soccer League): The new soccer team to be based in Lancaster (CA) as part of the Division-III professional USL League One announced the team will be called the Antelope Valley Alta Football Club, or AV Alta FC. The team is expected to begin playing in 2025 at the city's former baseball stadium that is being converted to a soccer stadium.

Women's Premier Soccer League: The elite pro-am developmental WPSL has started its 2024 season with 136 teams aligned in 15 regional conferences with some conferences further aligned in regional divisions. The WPSL has developed a plan to partner with developing regional women's soccer leagues to assist teams looking to eventually join the WPSL. The WPSL announced its first such partnership for 2024 will be with the five-team Michigan Super League that has three Michigan teams and two Canadian teams.

OTHER

Major League Pickleball: The professional co-ed MLP recently held its first event of the 2024 season in Atlanta. The MLP features 12 teams at the top Premier level and 10 teams at the Challenger level and each team consists of two men and two women. The team-based portion of the regular season will feature eight three- or four-day events through October followed by playoffs with each team participating in at least five of the eight events. The remaining regular-season event sites include Washington (DC), Salt Lake City, Kansas City, New York, Virginia Beach, Las Vegas and Miami.

USA Rugby League: The USARL, which is the governing body for the l3-player ‚¬Å“rugby league ‚¬Â version of the sport, recently announced a reorganization of its affiliated leagues for the upcoming 2024 season. In the east, the competition formerly known as the USARL South is now called the Florida Rugby League (FRL) and will feature the men's teams called the Jacksonville Axemen, Southwest Florida Copperheads (Naples), Tampa Mayhem and Atlanta Rhinos along with some teams in a women's division. Also in the east, the northeastern teams that previously played as the USARL North will return in 2024 as part of a Rugby League United (RLU) conference and will include men's teams called the Boston 13s, Brooklyn Kings, DC Cavalry and Delaware Black Foxes. In the west, the Pacific Coast Rugby League (PCRL), which played last season with a four-team California division and a four-team Utah division, will see the Utah teams branch off into its own league called the Utah Rugby League Association (URLA) under the USARL. The PCRL currently lists seven men's teams (six full-schedule and one affiliate member) and four women's teams. The URLA currently lists five men's teams. At the end of the season, the PCRL and URLA champs will play for the Western Championship, while the FRL and RLU champs will play for the Eastern Championship. The Eastern and Western winners will then compete in a national championship.

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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