Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
June 3, 2024 - American Association (AA)
BASEBALL
American Association: The commissioner of the 12-team independent American Association, which is a partner league of Major League Baseball, recently stated the league is looking to expand and is interested in proposed ballpark developments in Clarksville (TN), Waco (TX), Blaine (MN) and Jersey Village (TX), located in Houston's northwest suburbs.
Northern League: The independent pre-professional Northern League, which previously operated as the summer-collegiate Midwest Collegiate League through the 2021 season, started its 2024 season this week with five returning teams based in northern Indiana and each team playing a 50-game schedule through August 3. The league had six teams last season but the Lake County Corn Dogs (Crown Point, IN) team left to play an independent schedule for the 2024 season.
Northwoods League: The summer-collegiate Northwoods League started its 2024 season this week with 26 teams aligned in a seven-team Great Lakes East, a six-team Great Lakes West, a seven-team Great Plains East and a six-team Great Plains West. Teams will play 70 games through August 10, 2024, except the league-operated Minnesota Mud Puppies team that plays a 36-game travel-only schedule. The league has grown from 24 teams with the addition of two existing teams for the 2024 season. The Badlands Big Sticks (Dickinson, NE) joined from the Independence League Baseball, while the Royal Oaks (MI) Leprechauns joined from the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.
Texas League: To celebrate the return of Tulsa's Great Raft Race on the Arkansas River for this year's Labor Day, the Tulsa Drillers of the Double-A Texas League will rebrand as the Tulsa Raft Racers for five games (August 14-18) this season.
BASKETBALL
American Basketball Association: The men's semi-pro ABA recently announced six new teams for its 2024-25 season that will start in November. The new teams include the Dover (DE) Dawgs, Erie (PA) Elite, Midwest Monstarz (Chicago), Charlotte Flight, Indiana Kings (Columbus) and the Southfield Tigers (Detroit), formerly the Michigan Road Runners from the 2023-24 Maximum Basketball League.
Southern Conference Basketball League: The men's semi-pro SCBL started its second season early last month with 12 teams aligned in six-team North and South divisions. The SCBL teams are located in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and play a schedule running through September 22, 2024. The league is down to 11 teams since the Strong Steppers (Stone Mountain, GA) team, which also played in the early part of the American Basketball Association's 2023-24 season, decided to leave the SCBL after playing only two games.
FOOTBALL
The Arena League: The new professional six-on-six indoor TAL started its inaugural 2024 season this weekend with four teams called the Duluth (MN) Harbor Monsters, Ozarks Lunkers (Springfield, MO), Kansas City (MO) Goats and the Iowa Woo (Waterloo), which changed from the Waterloo Woo under new ownership. Each team will play an eight-game schedule through July 27, 2024. The TAL recently announced expansion teams in Hot Springs (AR) and Eau Claire (WI) will be added for the 2025 season.
Arena Football League: The AFL lost another team this week as the Salem-based Oregon Blackbears team has been removed and the league will move forward with only 9 of the original 16 teams that started the season.
HOCKEY
3ICE League: Less than a month before its previously announced third season was to start on June 12, 2024, the independent three-on-three professional 3ICE League announced the cancellation of its 2024 season and stated it will return in 2025. For its first two seasons in 2022 and 2023, the tour-based 3ICE League had six teams named after their coaches who were all former National Hockey League players. For the 2024 season, the league was to have eight teams assigned to specific markets 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 included Tennessee (Clarksville), Dallas (Allen, TX), Chicago (Geneva, IL), Minnesota (Minneapolis), Boston (Lowell, MA), New York/New Jersey (Newark), Buffalo (Buffalo) and Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh).
American Hockey League: The AHL's Tucson Roadrunners worked out a deal with the city of Tucson and the Rio Nuevo District to keep the team in Tucson where it will play at least 30 of 36 home games in the 2024-25 season and the majority of home games over the next three seasons. The Roadrunners' owner, who recently sold the National Hockey League's Arizona Coyotes team that is relocating to Salt Lake City, had talked of moving the AHL Roadrunners to the Coyotes' former home at the 5,000-seat Mullett Arena in Tempe. Prior to this deal, there was also talk of the Roadrunners playing a split schedule in both cities.
Federal Prospects Hockey League: One of the original owners of the Danville (IL) Dashers, which was a former team in the minor professional FPHL, announced the Dashers will return to the league for the 2024-25 season. The 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 for the 2021-22 season. The Bobcats folded in February 2023 of their second SPHL season.
National Hockey League: The owner of the NHL's new Salt Lake City-based Utah team, formerly the Arizona Coyotes, stated the list of 20 possible team names has been reduced to 4 names after recent fan voting. The Mammoth and Yeti were mentioned as two of the four finalists and dates of the final fan voting is still to be determined. The team will start simply as ¬ÅUtah ¬Â with the team's official name to be announced during the 2024-25 season.
SOCCER
Northern Super League: Canada's proposed new women's professional soccer league that went by the name of ¬ÅProject 8 ¬Â, announced the league will be called the Northern Super League (NSL) when it starts play with six teams in April 2025. Two new teams in Ottawa and Montreal will join the previously announced ¬ÅProject 8 ¬Â markets of Calgary, Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver. As of now, the Calgary Wild FC is the first team to officially announce its NSL name. Previously, the original four ¬ÅProject 8 ¬Â teams were listed as the Calgary Foothills WFC, Atlantic Women's Football Club (Atlantic Women's FC), AFC Toronto City and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC. The Calgary Foothills WFC, which secured the rights to a pro team under ¬ÅProject 8 ¬Â and currently plays in the pro-am league known as United Women's Soccer, will serve as the reserve team for the new Calgary Wild FC. Each NSL team will be operated by independent ownership groups.
USL Super League (United Soccer League): The new eight-team women's Division-I professional USL Super League announced the Fall Schedule for its inaugural 2024-25 season will run from August 17 through December 14, 2024, with each team playing a 14-game schedule. The league will take a Winter Break and resume play in February 2025 with teams playing another 14-game Spring Schedule.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two started its 2024 season this week with 128 teams aligned in 18 regional divisions across the United States. The League Two season runs through July 14, 2024.
OTHER
Premier Lacrosse League: The PLL tour-based professional field lacrosse league started its 2024 season this weekend with eight teams that are assigned to home markets for the first time since the league started play in 2019. The teams are aligned in an Eastern Conference with the Boston Cannons, Maryland Whipsnakes (Baltimore), Philadelphia Waterdogs, and New York Atlas (Albany), and a Western Conference with the Carolina Chaos (Charlotte), California Redwoods (San Diego), Denver Outlaws, and Utah Archers (Salt Lake City). The regular season will run through August 17, 2024, followed by playoffs, and include all eight teams participating in ten weekend events, plus an all-star event in Louisville. Each of the eight teams will host one regular-season event while the two other regular-season events will be held at neutral sites in Minneapolis and Fairfield (CT).
Pro Padel League: The co-ed Pro Padel League (PPL) started its second season in April with ten teams participating in two five-day events in Miami. The sport of padel, also known as padel tennis, is a racket sport that is a mix of squash and tennis and usually played in doubles on an enclosed court surrounded by walls of glass and metallic mesh. The remainder of the 2024 season will include two five-day events in Los Angeles in August followed by the PPL Cup Finals in New York in November. Last season, the PDL had seven teams called the Las Vegas Smash, Cancun Waves, Miami Padel Club, San Diego Stingrays, Los Angeles Beat, Arkansas Matrix (Northwest Arkansas) and Toronto Polar Bears playing the entire season in Tampa in May and June. All seven teams returned and the Flowrida GOATS (Orlando), New York Atlantics and Houston Volts were added for 2024.
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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