Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

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FPHL Federal Prospects Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
January 13, 2025 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)


BASEBALL

Eastern League: The Double-A Eastern League's 2025 season schedule will again feature 12 teams aligned in a six-team Northeast Division and a six-team Southwest Division with all of the Major League affiliations remaining the same. There was one name change for 2025 as the Bowie (MD) Baysox were recently rebranded as the Chesapeake Baysox to represent the larger Chesapeake region. Each team will play a 138-game schedule from April 4 through September 14, 2025.

Southern League: The Double-A Southern League's 2025 season schedule will again feature eight teams aligned in four-team North and South divisions with each team playing 138 games from April 4 through September 14, 2025. All of the Major League affiliations will remain the same but there were two changes in the off-season. The Tennessee Smokies moved out of their stadium in the Sevierville area to a new stadium in downtown Knoxville where the team will become the Knoxville Smokies in 2025. The Mississippi Braves (Pearl/Jackson) relocated to become the Columbus (GA) Clingstones for 2025.

Texas League: The Double-A Texas League's 2025 season schedule will again feature ten teams aligned in five-team North and South divisions with each team playing a 138-game schedule from April 4 through September 14, 2025. All teams and Major League affiliations will remain the same as the 2024 season.

BASKETBALL

The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL announced an expansion team based in Cowlitz County (WA) has been approved for the 2026 season. The formal announcement and a naming contest will be held in the near future.

Women's American Basketball Association: The semi-pro WABA announced a team called the Kansas City (MO) Jazz has been added to the league's Midwest Division for the 2025 season.

Women's National Basketball Association: The owner of the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets has confirmed his efforts to bring a WNBA expansion team to Houston, which was home to the WNBA's Houston Comets for 12 seasons (1997-2008) before folding. The WNBA has stated it wants to grow to 16 teams by 2028. The Golden State Valkyries (San Francisco) will start as the 13th team in 2025 with the Toronto Tempo and a yet-to-be-named Portland (OR) team to join as the 14th and 15th teams in 2026. If Houston is selected, the Rockets' owner has stated the Houston Comets brand would be used.

FOOTBALL

Professional Arena Independent Association: The proposed new PAIA stated the previously announced teams called the Southern Scream (Macon, GA) and the Dallas Falcons have decided not to be part of the league for its inaugural 2025 season. The Dallas Falcons will play an independent schedule. The owner of the Knoxville Bandits also stated the team will most likely not be part of the PAIA's 2025 season.

International Football Alliance: The proposed new outdoor minor professional IFA, which plans to start playing in May 2025, announced the Baltimore Lightning has been removed from the league for not meeting league standards and will not be part of the inaugural 2025 season. The Baltimore Lightning claims the team voluntarily left the IFA due questions about league's financial management and it is looking to join another league, possibly with other IFA teams. The IFA is down to five teams in the United States and one team in Mexico and plans to move forward with six teams in the 2025 season.

National Gridiron League: The second version of the proposed NGL, which plans to play 8-man outdoor football on a 60-yard field, announced it will start the inaugural 2025 season in April with only 8 of its 18 teams playing this season and additional teams will be added in 2026. Teams called the Arkansas Twisters (Little Rock), Atlanta Wildcats, Austin Wranglers, Charleston (SC) Pirates, Mississippi Mudcats (Jackson), Oklahoma City Owls, San Jose SaberCats and Tampa Bay Storm are listed on a schedule running from April 26 through July 19, 2025, with each team playing 12 games. The NGL also announced teams will be allowed to schedule non-league games against other professional and semi-pro teams in 2025. The original NGL was announced in 2017 but failed to get off the ground for proposed 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons. The league then morphed into the United Football League, which also failed to get off the ground for proposed 2022 and 2023 seasons, before disbanding and reemerging as the current NGL.

Indoor Football League: The IFL announced the Albuquerque-based Duke City Gladiators team, which has been part of the league since 2020 and was not included in the league's 2025 season schedule, has come under new ownership that plans to rebrand the team for a return in 2026 at a new home venue. The Rio Rancho Events Center in suburban Rio Rancho (NM) had been the team's home arena.

HOCKEY

Federal Prospects Hockey League: The minor professional FPHL confirmed three teams will participate in four neutral-site regular-season games in Topeka (KS) starting on January 24, 2025. The league also announced it has entered into a three-year agreement for a new Topeka expansion team that will be added for the 2025-26 season. The neutral-site games will feature the league's Danville Dashers playing the Baton Rouge Zydeco on January 24 and 25, while Danville will face the Port Huron Prowlers on January 31 and February 1. For these games, the Dashers will be renamed the Topeka Scarecrows and the Zydeco and Prowlers will play as the Topeka Road Runners as a tribute to two of the city's past hockey teams.

Professional Women's Hockey League: As the PWHL considers possible expansion for the 2025-26 season, the second-year league started its "Takeover Tour" this week consisting of nine neutral-site games to test fan reaction in nine potential expansion markets. PWHL regular-season games were played this week in Seattle, Vancouver and Denver with additional games scheduled this season in Quebec City, Edmonton, Buffalo, Raleigh (NC), Detroit and St. Louis.

North American Hockey League: The Tier-II junior-level NAHL is reported to be considering the addition of a new six-team western division with four teams in California, one in Arizona and one in Nevada, possibly starting in the 2026-27 season. The NAHL is competing this season with 35 teams in four regional divisions (Central, East, South and Midwest).

SOCCER

National Women's Soccer League: The Division-I professional NWSL announced the overall format for the 2025 season will feature the same 14 teams as last season with each team playing a 26-game regular season schedule from March 14 through November 12, 2025. The in-season tournament called the "NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup," which debuted in 2024 with all 14 NWSL teams competing with the 6 top 2023 teams from the 18-team Mexican women's professional league known as the Liga MX Femenil, will not return in 2025. The NWSL will take a break in late June and in the month of July to allow certain players to take part in international events and allow NWSL teams to schedule non-league games against other professional women's teams, including international opponents.

Liga MX: The top Mexican men's pro soccer league known as Liga MX started the Clausura (closing) phase of its two-part 2024-25 Apertura/Clausura season this week with the same 18 teams that were part of the 2024 Apertura (opening) phase. Teams are again aligned in a single-table format and will play 17 games through April 20, 2025.

Liga MX Femenil: The top Mexican women's soccer league known as the Liga MX Femenil, whose 18 teams are each associated with a team in the top men's league known as Liga MX, started the Clausura (closing) phase of its 2024-25 Apertura/Clausura season last week with the same 18 teams it had in the Apertura (opening) phase. Teams are again aligned in a single-table format and will play 17 games through April 18, 2025.

OTHER

TGL Golf: The new men's indoor TGL Golf league, which will have six teams playing all matches at a 2,000-seat custom-built virtual indoor golf course simulator in Palm Beach Gardens (FL), started its inaugural 2025 season this week with each team scheduled to play five matches through March 4, 2025, followed by playoffs. The six teams are comprised of players from the PGA Tour and are called the Jupiter Links Golf Club (Jupiter, FL), Boston Common Golf, Atlanta Drive GC, Los Angeles Golf Club, New York Golf Club (New York City) and the Bay Area Golf Club (San Francisco).

League One Volleyball (LOVB Pro): The new women's professional indoor volleyball league known as LOVB Pro, which developed out of the organization's network of various amateur volleyball clubs across the United States, started its inaugural 13-week season this week with six teams known as LOVB Atlanta, LOVB Austin, LOVB Houston, LOVB Madison (WI), LOVB Omaha and LOVB Salt Lake. The season will run through April 5, 2025, and one of the weeks will feature an in-season tournament in Kansas City (MO). For each of the other 12 weeks, two teams will play a head-to-head match in a LOVB market while the other four teams participate that week in a three-match "Weekend with LOVB" event in one of the LOVB markets. Each team will host two weekend events during the season.

Pro Volleyball Federation: The women's indoor professional PVF started its second season this week with eight teams aligned in a single-table format and each team playing 28 matches through May 4, 2025. All seven teams from the inaugural 2024 season have returned and the league added an expansion team called the Indy Ignite, based in the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers.

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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