Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
October 21, 2024 - National Arena League (NAL)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: After testing fan reactions to several potential team names during the 2024 season and considering recent fan voting, the independent Atlantic League's Gastonia Baseball Club has chosen the Gastonia Ghost Peppers as its permanent name. The team held seven different "What If?" series during the 2024 season to test fan reaction to the Ghost Peppers name and six other team names-the Gastronauts, Bolognia, Galactic Dinos, Zombees, Garden Gnomes and the Yarniaks. The Gastonia Baseball Club was an eighth option for fan voting. The Ghost Peppers name was derived from the "Carolina Reaper" chili pepper that was once considered one of the hottest chili peppers. After sitting out the 2024 season, the Atlantic League's Spire City Ghost Hounds (Frederick, MD) are sitting out the 2025 season to keep an even number of ten teams. The Ghost Hounds plan to return in 2026 when the league expands to 12 teams.
Major League Baseball: Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays might have to find an interim home at a minor league ballpark for the 2025 season due to significant damage to its home at Tropicana Field from Hurricane Milton. The owner of the National Hockey League's Raleigh-based Carolina Hurricanes and a group called MLB Raleigh is behind an effort to create a public-private partnership to build a new baseball stadium for an MLB expansion team or relocated MLB team.
BASKETBALL
Women's National Basketball Association: The professional WNBA's commissioner wants to add a 16th team by the 2028 season and stated there are about a dozen cities that could host that team. The Golden State Valkyries will join as the 13th team in 2025, while recently announced new teams in Toronto and Portland will join as the 14th and 15th teams in 2026. The Toronto expansion team ended its request for potential team names in late August and plans to announce the name in November or December. The team will play most home games at Toronto's Coca Cola Coliseum, home of the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies, but plans to play some home games at neutral sites like Montreal and Vancouver.
FOOTBALL
Indoor Football League: The IFL will post its 2025 season schedule on October 31, 2024, but announced the league's Duke City Gladiators (Albuquerque) and Frisco (TX) Fighters will sit out the 2025 season with an option to return in 2026. The IFL's 14 other teams from the 2024 season will return and the league will add the new Fishers (IN) Freight team for a total of 15 teams. A former IFL team called the Bismarck (ND) Bucks, which last played in the IFL's 2022 season and has since changed its name to the Dakota Bucks, has been trying to return to the IFL but will again be inactive for the 2025 season.
National Arena League: The NAL announced its 2025 season schedule will feature 11 teams each playing 10 games from March 7 through June 1, 2025. The NAL started last season with six teams but the Oklahoma Flying Aces (Enid) dropped out midway through the season and will not return, while the other five teams called the Carolina Cobras (Greensboro, NC), Colorado Spartans (moving from Loveland to Denver), Omaha Beef, Sioux City (IA) Bandits and Idaho Horsemen (Nampa) will return in 2025. The NAL has added six teams for the 2025 season. The Amarillo Dusters (renamed from the Amarillo Venom), Columbus (GA) Lions and Harrisburg (PA) Stampede are joining from the 2024 American Indoor Football (AIF). The Wheeling (WV) Miners are joining from the 2024 American Arena League 2. The Beaumont (TX) Renegades, once listed as a 2025 AIF expansion team, and the Shreveport Rouxgaroux are joining the NAL as new teams. The Corpus Christi (TX) Tritons were also supposed to join the NAL from the 2024 AIF but the NAL stated the team did not meet league requirements and was left off the 2025 schedule.
Arena Football One: The new AF1, which was formed by eight teams from the 2024 Arena Football League and has since added three expansion teams, announced it has extended the deadline for additional expansion team applications until October 31, 2024. The AF1 will announce its 2025 season schedule no later than the second week of November.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The minor professional AA-level ECHL started its 2024-25 season this week with 29 teams aligned in an Eastern Conference with a seven-team North Division and a seven-team South Division, and a Western Conference with a seven-team Central Division and an eight-team Mountain Division. The ECHL had 28 teams last season but the Newfoundland Growlers (St. John's) were dropped at the end of the season and did not return, while two expansion teams called the Bloomington (IL) Bison and the Tahoe Knight Monsters (Stateline, NV) were added. Bloomington was placed in the Central, the Wheeling (WV) Nailers moved from the Central to the North to replace Newfoundland, and Tahoe was added to the Mountain. Each team will play 72 games through April 13, 2025. The ECHL also approved an expansion franchise for the Greensboro (NC) market where a team will start play in the 2025-26 season. The ECHL had two former Greensboro teams-the Greensboro Monarchs (1989-95) and Greensboro Generals (1999-2004).
Professional Women's Hockey League: The six-team PWHL announced the schedule for its second season will feature each team playing 30 games from November 30, 2024, through May 3, 2025. The season will include some yet-to-be-announced neutral-site games. One big change for the 2024-25 season is that all teams now have names-the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montreal Victoire (Victoire de Montreal), New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres.
SPHL: The minor professional SPHL, formerly the Southern Professional Hockey League, started its 2024-25 season this week with the same ten teams as last season and again aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play 56 games through April 5, 2025.
United States Premier Hockey League: The junior-level USPHL announced the Randolph-based New Jersey Renegades of the Tier-III Eastern Hockey League's EHL Premier league will move to the USPHL for the 2025-26 season and be part of the Atlantic Division in the USPHL's Tier-III Premier Conference.
SOCCER
Major Arena Soccer League 3: The professional MASL's amateur-level MASL3, which merged with the Premier Arena Soccer League (PASL) in the off-season, announced the 2024-25 schedule and teams for its new five-team East Division. Last season, the entire MASL3 was comprised of seven eastern teams but only five of those teams will return to the new East Division. The Salisbury (VA) Steaks moved up to the MASL2 and the Fredericksburg (VA) Fire are sitting out the 2024-25 season. A new East Division team called the Mountain to Sea FC (Raleigh, VA) was supposed to join but will wait until the 2025-26 season. Each East Division team will play ten games from early November 2024 through March 2025. The MASL3 added several PASL teams and other new teams to grow to 25 teams. In addition to the East Division, the league currently lists a six-team Great Lakes North Division, a five-team Great Lakes South Division, a four-team South Division and a four-team Heartland Division.
National Women's Soccer League: The NWSL's new Boston expansion franchise, which plans to renovate the city's White Stadium, announced the team will be called the BOS Nation FC when it starts play as the league's 15th team in the 2026 season. The letters of the new BOS Nation name can be rearranged to spell "Bostonian". The NWSL had a previous team called the Boston Breakers that played five seasons (2013-17) in the league. The NWSL has stated it plans to announce a 16th franchise this year and that team is also expected to start in 2026.
WPSL Pro (Women's Premier Soccer League): The elite amateur-level Women's Premier Soccer League's proposed new Division-III professional league called the WPSL Pro has received a letter of intent from a group in Southern California, currently listed as SoCal WPSL Pro, to operate a team in the league's inaugural 2025 season. The operators of the SoCal WPSL Pro have been associated with the FC Premier (Long Beach) amateur team in the WPSL and the Division-III professional Ventura County FC men's team in the MLS Next Pro league. The WPSL Pro now has 13 team commitments for the 2025 season.
OTHER
Ultimate Frisbee Association: The new owners of the Portland (OR) Nitro in the men's professional UFA recently announced a rebrand of the team to the Oregon Steel for the 2025 season. The Portland Nitro joined the league for the 2022 season. The owners of the Oregon Steel also announced the creation of a new women's team called the Oregon Soar that will begin play in the women's professional Western Ultimate League (WUL) starting with the 2025 season. The WUL had a previous Portland team called the Oregon Onyx that dropped out after the 2023 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.
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National Arena League Stories from October 21, 2024
- Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger
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