Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
December 2, 2024 - Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL)

BASEBALL

Midwest League: The Beloit (WI) Sky Carp of the High-A Midwest League will play as the Wisconsin Supper Clubbers for every Friday night home game during the 2025 season as a tribute to the traditional supper clubs that are part of Wisconsin's heritage. When the Beloit Snappers rebranded to the Sky Carp after the 2021 season, the Supper Clubbers was one of the nickname finalists.

Major League Baseball: Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays are in a dispute with Pinellas County and the city of St. Petersburg over repairs to their home at Tropicana Field that was damaged during Hurricane Milton. The Rays will play at a minor league complex in 2025 but now Tropicana Field is not expected to be ready for use in 2026. Also, plans for a new ballpark to be built on the Tropicana site by 2028 are in jeopardy leading to speculation that the team could consider relocation.

Pioneer League: The independent Pioneer League, which is a Major League Baseball Partner League, announced its 2025 schedule will again feature 12 teams each playing 96 games in a two-part season from May 20 through September 7, 2025. The only change is the relocation of the Yoho County High Wheelers from Davis (CA) to Marysville (CA) where the team will be called the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers. The Pioneer League teams are located in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana and California.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The men's semi-pro ABA announced the addition of a second team in Brooklyn (NY) to be called the Brooklyn Empire starting in the 2025-26 season. The league currently has the Brooklyn-based Coney Island Thunder.

BIG3 League: The 3-on-3 professional BIG3 league announced it will return in 2025 with an 11-week season starting on June 14, 2025, and a full schedule is still to be announced. The 12-team league is transitioning from a tour-based model to each team representing a specific home market. This will include previously announced teams in Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami along with other markets in the United States and internationally.

FOOTBALL

United Football League: The eight-team spring-season UFL announced it has initiated a process for future expansion but a specific timeline has not established. The league recently announced it would return for a second season starting in late March 2025 with the same eight teams aligned in a four-team XFL Conference and a four-team USFL Conference. The UFL could consider markets that were left out of the merger of the XFL and United States Football League to create the UFL ahead of the 2024 season.

X-League: The women's 7-on-7 indoor X-League, which evolved from the Lingerie Football League and the Legends Football League and has not played since the 2022 season, recently posted the schedule for its next season that will not be held until the summer of 2026. Of the eight teams previously listed, the Arizona Red Devils (Scottsdale), Austin Sound and Kansas City Force are gone and replaced by new teams called the Miami Tequestas, New England Defenders and the Dallas Sound. Miami and New England are in an Eastern Conference with the Atlanta Empire and Chicago Blitz, while Dallas is in a Western Conference with the Denver Rush, Los Angeles Black Storm and Seattle Thunders. Each team is scheduled to play four games from April 4 through August 1, 2026.

Professional Arena Independent Association: The proposed new PAIA has added the Dallas Falcons and the Knoxville Bandits for its inaugural season that will start in the spring of 2025. The Dallas Falcons were originally listed as part of the proposed new Southern Arena Football Association, which apparently has folded before its inaugural 2025 season. The Knoxville Bandits have been an independent team that has been playing games this fall as part of the United Indoor Football Association.

HOCKEY

ECHL: A developer has announced plans for a new arena as part of a proposed entertainment complex called Brickyard Junction in League City (TX) and an unnamed ECHL team would be ready to move to the new arena if it is built. League City is in Galveston County, midway between Galveston and Houston.

National Collegiate Development Conference: A team called the Boston Dogs, which started the 2024-25 season as the Boston Jr. Terriers in the Tier-III junior-level Eastern Hockey League (EHL), has now moved to the United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-II junior-level NCDC where it is now part of the NCDC's New England Division for the rest of the season. The EHL's Boston Jr. Terriers recently announced plans to move to the NCDC as the Boston Dogs for the 2025-26 season so the EHL decided to suspend the Terriers from the league. The NCDC also announced that a new Billings-based team called the Montana Buckaroos will be joining the league's Mountain Division for the 2025-26 season.

Professional Women's Hockey League: The six-team single-entity PWHL started its second season this weekend in the same six markets as last season with each team playing a 30-game schedule through May 3, 2025. 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. The PWHL plans to expand by two teams for the 2025-26 season and it will play neutral-site regular-season games in nine potential markets during the 2024-25 season.

SOCCER

Major Arena Soccer League: The men's professional MASL started its 2024-25 season this weekend with 12 teams each playing a 24-game schedule through March 30, 2025. The MASL had 13 teams last season but the Monterrey Flash (Nuevo Leon, Mexico) will be sitting out this season and is expected to return for the 2025-26 season. The MASL was aligned in Eastern and Western conferences last season but the 12 teams are now listed in a single-table format for the standings.

Canadian Premier League: The York United FC of Canada's top-tier professional CPL announced it will place a developmental under-20 amateur team called the York United FC Academy in the Division-3 pro-am League 1 Ontario for the 2025 season. The new team will play in the league's second level Championship Division, which includes the academy team for Major League Soccer's Toronto FC.

National Women's Soccer League: The NWSL's new Boston franchise has faced public backlash over the team's recently announced name, the BOS Nation FC. The ownership stated it will listen to fan feedback and consider a possible name change before the team starts its inaugural season in 2026.

Major League Soccer: The MLS is reported to be considering a change of its regular season calendar to coincide with those of most of the European soccer leagues. This would mean a fall-to-spring season with a first half running from August through mid-December followed by a winter break and a second half resuming in February. An opportunity for the change could come after the 2026 World Cup being hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States in June and July of 2026.

Major League Indoor Soccer: The MLIS officially announced the addition of a new Las Vegas-based team for the 2025-26 season. No other details on a team name or home venue were mentioned.

OTHER

Premier Ultimate League: The women's professional PUL ultimate frisbee league announced the Los Angeles Astra team, which played four seasons (2020-23) in the women's Western Ultimate League and recently came under new ownership, has joined the PUL and will be added to the league's South Division for the 2025 season.

National Lacrosse League: The men's professional indoor NLL started its 2024-25 season this weekend with 14 teams aligned in a single-table format with each team playing 18 games 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. The NLL had a previous team called the Ottawa Rebel that played three seasons (2000-03) before suspending operations.

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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