Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
September 2, 2024 - California League (CalL)
BASEBALL
California League: After previously announcing the team would not return in 2025, the Modesto Nuts of the Low-A California League and the city of Modesto have agreed to a one-year lease extension to keep the team in Modesto while terms for a long-term lease are worked out. If a long-term lease isn't finalized by April 1, 2025, then negotiations will end and the Nuts will vacate the local ballpark by October 1, 2025. A key issue to be worked out is who will pay for the required renovations to the team's home ballpark.
Major League Baseball Draft League: The Frederick Keys of the developmental MLB Draft League and the city of Frederick (MD) announced they have received funding from the Maryland Stadium Authority to make much-needed renovations to the team's Harry Grove Stadium. The condition of the stadium was the reason the team lost its Major League affiliation during the 2020 reorganization of Minor League Baseball. The Keys' ownership has been seeking a return of an MLB affiliated team and stated an affiliated team could be identified as a candidate for relocation to Frederick by the end of this year.
BASKETBALL
Basketball Super League: The professional BSL, which played its inaugural 2023-24 season with six Canada-based teams, announced the Toledo-based Glass City Wranglers team has been added as the league's eighth team and second team based in the United States for the 2024-25 season. The Glass City Wranglers join the BSL from the affiliated minor showcase league called The Basketball League (TBL). The team joined the TBL for the 2022 season as the Glass City Basketball Club (Glass City BC) from the Premier Basketball League and changed to the Glass City Wranglers for the 2023 season.
East Coast Basketball League: The semi-pro ECBL recently announced four teams called the Carolina Rattlers (Sumter, SC), Charlotte Devils, Goldsboro (NC) Wings and Park City Dreamers (Manassas, VA) have been added for the 2025 season. The Charlotte Devils team is the former Bishopville (NC) Devils team that played in the ECBL for parts of the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Women's National Basketball Association: The professional WNBA's new Toronto expansion team, which will start playing as the 14th team in the 2026 season, has received over 5,000 suggestions for a team name. The team will now work to select names for trademark registrations so an official team name can be announced sometime after November. The WNBA would like to grow to 16 teams by the 2028 season and several reports indicate Portland (OR) will be announced later this month for the next expansion team, possibly starting in the 2026 season. The WNBA had a previous team called the Portland Fire that lasted only three seasons (2000-02) before folding.
FOOTBALL
American Indoor Football: One of the co-owners of the 2024 AIF's Cedar Rapids (IA) River Kings is organizing a new team called the Iowa Power, which was originally called the Cedar Rapids Power. The team is reported to be negotiating with the Five Flags Center in Dubuque (IA) and a possible start in 2025 as part of the fall-season United Indoor Football Association. The other co-owner of the Cedar Rapids River Kings was removed from the AIF along with the team near the end of the 2024 season. That co-owner was planning to start the Coralville (IA) Chaos in 2025 as an AIF expansion team but the AIF is considered dead after four 2024 AIF teams recently left to join the National Arena League.
American Arena League 2: The Western Maryland Warriors and Maryland Eagles, two teams that were part of the 2024 season in the AAL2, announced the teams have merged to become the renamed Maryland War Eagles (Silver Spring).
HOCKEY
American Premier Hockey League: The Senior-A semi-pro APHL announced the Gaylord (MI) Grenadiers team has been granted a temporary suspension of play and will not be part of the league's 2024-25 season.
Greater Metro Hockey League: Canada's independent junior-level GMHL recently announced the Temiscaming (Quebec) Titans team will be taking a voluntary leave of absence for the 2024-25 season and hopes to return next season. With the departure of Temiscaming from the North Division, the GMHL is now aligned in a seven-team North Division and a nine-team South Division.
Ligue Nord-Americaine de Hockey: The Quebec-based minor professional LNAH, or North American Hockey League, recently announced its 2024-25 season schedule that will feature eight teams each playing a 36-game schedule from October 4, 2024, through March 9, 2025. All six teams from last season will return and the league added two expansion teams called the Bataillon de St-Hyacinthe and the National de Quebec City.
SOCCER
Canadian Soccer League: The Ontario-based semi-pro CSL is two months into its 2024 season and has six teams aligned in a single-table format. Of the seven teams from last season, the Dynamo FC Toronto, Weston United and OOTY Black Pearl FC did not return but the league added the Spanish Future Stars and Unity FC. The 2024 season runs through this month and all games are played at Centennial Stadium and Esther Shiner Stadium in Toronto.
Major League Indoor Soccer: As the men's MLIS tries to establish the first women's professional indoor soccer league called the Women's Major League Indoor Soccer (WMLIS) for the 2024-25 season, the league's Denver-based Colorado Bucks SC announced it will hold off on starting an affiliated WMLIS team for the 2024-25 season. As of now the WMLIS has four confirmed teams called the Chicago Mustangs, Zoo City FC (Kalamazoo, MI), Brew City Legends (Milwaukee) and Summit City United (Fort Wayne).
Northern Super League: Canada's proposed new six-team women's professional NSL announced its Vancouver (British Columbia) team will be called the Vancouver Rise FC when the league starts play in 2025. Other names reported to be under consideration were the Vancouver Queens and Vancouver Summit. The owner of Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps FC is also the owner of the Vancouver Rise FC. The NSL evolved from an organization called Project 8, which originally listed its Vancouver-based team as the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Western Indoor Soccer League: The men's elite amateur-level WISL has merged with the women's elite indoor league known as Northwest Premier League Indoor (NWPLI) to create an expanded WISL, which will include a seven-team men's division called the WISLm and a four-team women's division called the WISLw starting with the 2024-25 season. All WISL teams are based in the State of Washington. The WISL had a four-team women's division for the 2020 season consisting of teams from the women's elite amateur-level outdoor league known as the Northwest Premier League (NWPL). There was no 2021 WISL indoor season and the women's indoor teams started playing under the new NWPLI banner in 2022. Four of the five 2023-24 NWPLI women's teams will comprise the WISLw and are affiliated with four of the seven WISLm teams. Seven of the eight 2023-24 WISL teams are returning to the WISLm for 2024-25.
OTHER
National Lacrosse League: The professional indoor NLL announced its Fort Worth-based Panther City Lacrosse Club has ceased operations after only three seasons (2021-24) and all players will be part of a dispersal draft next week with the league's remaining 14 teams. The Panther City Lacrosse Club joined the NLL as an expansion team for the 2021-22 season and suffered from poor attendance.
Minor League Cricket: The MiLC, which is affiliated with the professional Major League Cricket, recently announced the schedule for its 2024 season that started this weekend with 26 teams aligned in an eight-team Central Division and six-team Eastern, Southern and Western divisions. All teams are basically the same as last season with the SoCal Lashings changing to the Los Angeles Lashings and the Empire State Titans to the NYC Titans. Each team will play six to eight matches through September 30.
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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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.
