Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
September 23, 2024 - Frontier League (FL)
BASEBALL
Frontier League: The independent Frontier League announced its second expansion team for the 2025 season will be called the Down East Bird Dawgs and based in Kinston (NC). Kinston has been home to the Single-A affiliated Down East Wood Ducks team since the 2017 season but that team is relocating to Spartanburg (SC) as the Hub City Spartanburgers for the 2025 season. The Frontier League now grows to 18 teams with the addition of Kinston and the previously announced expansion team in Pearl (MS).
Liga Mexicana del Pacifico: The 2024-25 schedule for Mexico's professional fall-winter season LMP, or Mexican Pacific League, will feature the same ten teams as last season and again aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play a 68-game schedule from October 11, 2024, through December 30, 2024, followed by playoffs.
BASKETBALL
Maximum Basketball League: The men's semi-pro MBL started its 2024-25 season this week with 44 teams aligned in a 9-team Midwest Division, a 10-team South Division, an 11-team Southwest Division and a 14-team Northeast Division. The MBL season runs through February 2, 2025. The MBL also announced it will start an MBL-Peru league that will begin in April 2025 and run to early September 2025.
Women's National Basketball Association: The WNBA awarded its 15th franchise to Portland (OR) where an expansion team will start play in the 2026 season. The WNBA had a previous team called the Portland Fire that lasted only three seasons (2000-02) before folding. The new Golden State Valkyries (San Francisco) will start as the league's 13th team in 2025, while a recently announced Toronto franchise and Portland will start as the 14th and 15th teams in 2026. The current 12-team league has stated it wants to grow to 16 teams by 2028, so it seems one spot still remains in this round of expansion.
FOOTBALL
International Football Alliance: The proposed new outdoor minor professional IFA, which plans to start play in the spring of 2025 with teams based in Mexico and the United States, is now down to only six teams-the Dallas Pioneros, Tampa Bay Tornadoes, Alabama Beavers, Baltimore Lightning, Chihuahua Rebelión (Mexico) and San Antonio Caballeros-that have invited players to tryout camps. Previously announced Mexican teams called the Cancun Sharks and Tequileros de Jalisco (Guadalajara), along with the Las Vegas Kings, have disappeared from the IFA's team listing.
United Football League: After completing its inaugural 2024 spring season with eight teams, the outdoor professional UFL announced it will return in 2025 with teams playing a ten-game schedule starting on March 28, 2025.
United Indoor Football Association: A previous co-owner of the 2024 American Indoor Football's Cedar Rapids (IA) River Kings, has organized the new Dubuque-based Iowa Power team that will start play in the 2025 fall-season UIFA. The UIFA also lists another new 2025 team called the Virginia Legion (Sterling). The UIFA currently lists eight teams for its upcoming 2024 season that starts late next month. Teams include the Brownsville Chiefs (Pittsburgh), Knoxville Bandits, Mad City Nightmares (Madison, WI), Michigan Avengerz (Detroit), Ohio Boom (Dayton), Ohio Elite (Columbus), Stateline Sting (Loves Park, IL) and the Wisconsin Aviators (Sturtevant/Milwaukee).
HOCKEY
National Collegiate Development Conference: The United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-II junior-level NCDC started its 2024-25 season this week with 21 teams aligned in a seven-team Atlantic Division, a six-team Mountain Division and an eight-team New England Division. The NCDC had 18 teams last season but added 3 teams called the Boston Jr. Rangers, Railers Junior Hockey Club (Worcester, MA) and Seacoast Spartans (Exeter, NH) from the Tier-III Eastern Hockey League. Also, the Boston Jr. Bruins were sold to become the West Chester (PA) Wolves, the Provo (UT) Predators were sold to become the Casper (WY) Warbirds, and the Twin City Thunder (Lewiston/Auburn, ME) was relocated to Middleton (MA) as the Thunder Hockey Club. The Mountain Division teams will play 53 games and teams in the other two divisions will play 54 games through March 23, 2025.
United States Hockey League: The Midwest-based Tier-I junior-level USHL, which is the highest-level junior hockey league in the United States, started its 2024-25 season this week and features the same 16 teams from last season again aligned in eight-team Eastern and Western conferences. Each team will play 64 games through April 12, 2025.
Manitoba Junior Hockey League: The MJHL, which is one of nine Junior-A leagues under the Canadian Junior Hockey League, started its 2024-25 season this weekend and features the same 13 teams as last season again aligned in a six-team MGEU West Division and a seven-team MGEU East Division. Each team will play a 58-game schedule through March 16, 2025.
Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League: The SJHL, which is one of nine Junior-A leagues under the Canadian Junior Hockey League, started its 2024-25 season this week with the same 12 teams as last season again aligned in four-team Sherwood, Nutrien and Vitera divisions. Each team will play a 56-game schedule through March 16, 2025.
Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League: The QMJHL, which is one of three major-junior leagues under the Canadian Hockey League, started its 2024-25 season this weekend with the same 18 teams as last season and again aligned in an Eastern Conference with a four-team East Division and a six-team Maritimes Division, and a Western Conference with a four-team Central Division and a four-team West Division. Each team will play 64 games through March 22, 2025.
Western Hockey League: The WHL, which is one of three major-junior hockey leagues under the Canadian Hockey League, started its 2024-25 season this weekend with the same 22 teams each playing 68 games through March 23, 2025. The only change in the league alignment is the move of the Swift Current Broncos (Saskatchewan) from the Central to the East Division. The Eastern Conference will have a five-team Central Division and a six-team East Division, while the Western Conference will have a five-team B.C. (British Columbia) Division and a six-team U.S. Division.
United States Premier Hockey League - Elite Conference: The USPHL's Tier-III junior-level Elite Conference, which acts as a feeder to the USPHL's Premier Conference, started its 2024-25 regular season this week and again has 28 teams in 5 regional divisions. The conference lost the Richmond Generals, Boston Jr. Bruins and Columbia (SC) Infantry but added the South Shore Kings, Hershey Cubs and Boston Jr. Bulldogs, who will play only a 24-game regular season while other teams play 44 games through March 31, 2024. As it did last season, the Elite Conference standings will feature an additional division of teams from the North Am Prep Hockey League. These teams will only participate in select showcase events.
SOCCER
Major League Indoor Soccer: The Omaha Kings FC of the men's MLIS is starting a women's team called the Omaha Queens FC in the new Women's MLIS (WMLIS) that begins in 2024-25. The Queens will play a limited exhibition schedule this season and become a full-schedule WMLIS team next season.
USL W-League (United Soccer League): The new Pittsburgh-based expansion team in the women's pre-professional USL W-League will be called the Pittsburgh Riveters SC when it starts play in the 2025 season. Other nickname options included the Confluence, Renegades and Strikers. The new team will be operated by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC of the men's Division-II professional USL Championship.
Women's Premier Soccer League - Pro League: The elite amateur-level WPSL's proposed new Division-III professional league called the WPSL Pro recently received letters of intent from the Indios Denver FC, Soda City FC (Columbia, SC) and a Wichita (KS) sports investment group to be part of the league's inaugural 2025 season. The new league now has commitments from 12 teams for the 2025 season.
OTHER
Major League Rugby: The professional rugby union (15-player) MLR, which recently completed its 2024 season with 12 teams aligned in six-team Eastern and Western conferences, announced the Dallas Jackals of the Western Conference will sit out the 2025 season. The team's ongoing evaluation of a potential transfer of ownership would not be completed in time to plan for the 2025 season. The Dallas Jackals were added to the Western Conference as an expansion team for the 2022 season.
National Lacrosse League: The men's professional indoor NLL announced its 2024-25 season schedule that will feature 14 teams aligned in a single-table format with each team playing 18 games from November 29, 2024, through April 19, 2025. The NLL had 15 teams last season but the Fort Worth-based Panther City Lacrosse Club recently ceased operations. One other change involved the New York Riptide moving from Long Island to Canada as the Ottawa Black Bears for the 2024-25 season. The New York Riptide was an NLL expansion team added for the 2019-20 season.
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.
• Discuss this story on the Frontier League message board...
Frontier League Stories from September 23, 2024
- Deck the Y'alls Lightfest Returns for Its Third Annual Celebration - Florence Y'alls
- Bobby Brown, Titans Agree to Multi-Year Contract Extension - Ottawa Titans
- 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.
