Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
December 23, 2024 - Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)

BASEBALL

Liga Mexicana de Beisbol: Mexico's top LMB, or Mexican Baseball League, recently announced its 2025 season schedule will have 20 teams each playing a 93-game schedule from April 18 through August 7, 2025. The LMB will feature the same 20 teams and ten-team divisional alignment as last season when the league added the Conspiradores de Queretaro and Dorados de Chihuahua as the 19th and 20th teams. Also prior to last season, the league suspended the Generales de Durango team that was replaced by the new Caliente de Durango, while the Charros de Jalisco of the fall-winter Liga Mexicana de Pacifico (Mexican-Pacific League) started an LMB team under the Charros Jalisco name after purchasing the LMB's Mariachis de Guadalajara.

Northwest League: The Everett (WA) city council approved plans to move forward on construction of a new multipurpose facility that would become home to the Everett (WA) AquaSox of the High-A Northwest League. The team's home at Funko Field did not meet the facility standards of Minor League Baseball and if the city did not agree to improvements or a new ballpark the team was considering relocation. The league's Eugene (OR) Emeralds announced earlier this year that the team will start looking for a new home after voters failed to approve an additional bond to help fund a new ballpark.

Futures League: The summer-collegiate Futures League announced its 2025 seasons schedule will feature only six teams located in Massachusetts (2), Connecticut (2), Vermont (1), and New Hampshire (1) with each team playing 62 games from May 28 through August 9, 2025. The league had eight teams last season but the Brockton (MA) Rox team, which last season shared the city's Campanelli Stadium with the independent Frontier League's New England Knockouts, will not return. The league dropped its Futures League Road Warriors travel-only team to keep an even number of teams.

BASKETBALL

The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL announced an expansion team called the San Antonio Clutch will join the league's Central Conference starting with the 2025 season.

Women's American Basketball Association: The semi-pro WABA announced a team called the Brooklyn (NY) Empresses has joined the league for the 2025 season.

FOOTBALL

Arena Football One: The new 12-team AF1, which was formed by 8 teams that left the Arena Football League after the 2024 season, announced its Wilkes-Barre (PA) expansion team will be called the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Mavericks when the league starts playing in March 2025. Wilkes-Barre had a team called the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers that played eight seasons (2002-09) in the defunct arenafootball2 (af2).

International Football Alliance: The proposed new outdoor minor professional IFA, which plans to start playing in May 2025 with six teams in the United States and one team in Mexico, reports it is vetting three potential expansion teams in Georgia, Ohio and Mexico.

National Eightman Football: The fall-season indoor NEF is organizing for a start in 2025 with teams called the Indianapolis Enforcers, Goshen (IN) Guardians, Ohio Elite (Columbus) and Eastern Shore Rage (Fruitland, MD) reported as current members.

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: The AHL's Ontario (CA) Reign played an "alternate identity" game last weekend as the Ontario Rain with special jerseys featuring a skating rain cloud logo.

National Collegiate Development Conference: The United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-II junior-level NCDC is reported to be considering applications from at least five junior-level teams based the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta for the 2025-26 season.

Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League: The major-junior QMJHL's Acadie-Bathurst (Quebec) Titan has been sold and the new ownership will move the team to St. John's (Newfoundland and Labrador) for the 2025-26 season. The team has been in Acadie-Bathurst since the 1998-99 season but was suffering from poor attendance. The QMJHL had a previous St. John's team called the St. John's Fog Devils that played three seasons (2005-08) in the league before moving to Montreal.

SOCCER

Major League Indoor Soccer: The men's MLIS started its 2024-25 season this weekend with nine teams aligned in a single-table format with each team playing a 12-game schedule through April 6, 2025. Of the six teams from last season, the Omaha Kings FC, Chicago Mustangs, Colorado Bucks (Denver) and Cleveland Crunch have returned, while the Ohio Extreme (Lima) and Rapid City FC (Grand Rapids, MI) are listed as inactive. The MLIS added five new teams called the Red Cedar FC (Lansing, MI), Chicago Panathinaikos, Summit City United (Fort Wayne), the Amarillo Bombers from the Major Arena Soccer League 2 (MASL2), and the Toronto-based Canadian Crusaders team that played as the Orlando-based Central Florida Crusaders in the 2023-24 National Indoor Soccer League (NISL). The MLIS is planning western expansion with new teams in Utah and Las Vegas announced for 2025-26. The league will also start the new Women's Major League Indoor Soccer (WMLIS) with four teams in January 2025.

Major League Soccer: The Division-I professional MLS announced its 2025 season schedule will feature 30 teams aligned in 15-team Eastern and Western conferences with each team playing a 34-game schedule from February 22 through October 5, 2025. The MLS had 29 teams last season and has added its 30th team called the San Diego FC to the Western Conference. The MLS will take a break (June 15-24) for the FIFA World Cup and MLS teams will participate in the League Cup (July 29-August 1) with teams from Mexico's Liga MX.

USL Championship (United Soccer League): The Division-II professional USL Championship league announced its 2025 season schedule will again feature 24 teams aligned in 12-team Eastern and Western conferences. There was only one off-season change as the Lexington (KY) Sporting Club, which played the past two seasons in the Division-III professional USL League One, replacing the departed Memphis FC 901 in the Western Conference. The Memphis franchise rights were transferred to a new owner who will operate a future USL Championship team called the Santa Barbara Sky FC starting in 2026. Each team will play a 30-game regular season from March 8 through October 10, 2025, and also play at least 4 games as part of an in-season USL Jägermeister Cup Tournament with the 14 teams from the USL League One.

USL League One (United Soccer League): The Division-III professional USL League One announced its 2025 season will feature 14 teams aligned in a single-table format. The league lost 3 of its 12 teams from last season and added 5 new teams. The Northern Colorado Hailstorm (Windsor) was dropped by the league; the Central Valley Fuego FC (Fresno) decided to leave the league; and the Lexington Sporting Club moved up to the Division-II USL Championship. New teams called the FC Naples (FL), Antelope Valley Alta FC (Lancaster, CA), Portland (ME) Hearts of Pine, Texoma FC (Sherman, TX) and Westchester FC (Mount Vernon, NY) will join for the 2025 season. Each USL League One team will play a 30-game regular season schedule from March 8 through October 25, 2025, and play an additional 4 games as part of an in-season USL Jägermeister Cup tournament with the 24 teams from the USL Championship league.

Major League Soccer Next Pro: Major League Soccer's primary developmental league known as MLS Next Pro announced a Grand Rapids franchise has been granted to a group currently known as West Michigan Soccer. The new Grand Rapids team would become one of the league's independent teams that does not have a direct affiliation with an MLS team and start playing at a proposed new 8,500-seat stadium in the 2027 season. The league played the 2024 season with 27 MLS-affiliated teams and 2 independent teams.

National Women's Soccer League: Several reports this week indicated the professional NWSL is in exclusive talks with a group representing Denver, which will become home to the league's 16th team that could start playing in the 2026 season along with a new Boston team. Groups from Cleveland and Cincinnati also applied for an NWSL expansion team and appear to be out of the running. The NWSL is expected to make an official announcement early in 2025.

OTHER

United Frisbee Association: Although it has not yet been officially announced by the league, a new Las Vegas team called the Vegas Bighorns is reported to be joining the men's professional UFA for the upcoming 2025 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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