
Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
February 3, 2025 - Frontier League (FL)
BASEBALL
Frontier League: The New England Knockouts (Brockton, MA) team in the independent Frontier League has come under new ownership and will be renamed the Brockton Rox for the 2025 season. A former independent professional team called the Brockton Rox played ten seasons (2002-11) in three different leagues before switching to become a summer-collegiate team in the New England-based Futures Collegiate Baseball League starting with the 2012 season. Last season, the Frontier League's expansion team called the New England Knockouts, originally named the New England Chowdahheads, and the Futures League's Brockton Rox shared Campanelli Stadium in Brockton. The summer-collegiate Brockton Rox team was reported to have folded and is not listed as part of the Futures League's 2025 schedule.
California League: The Single-A California League's 2025 season will feature the same eight teams and affiliations as last season with teams again aligned in four-team North and South divisions. Each team will play 132 games from April 4 through September 7, 2025. The California League recently announced some affiliate relocations along with team name changes that will go into effect for the 2026 season.
Carolina League: The Single-A Carolina League's 2025 season will again feature 12 teams aligned in six-team North and South divisions. Each team will play 132 games from April 4 through September 7, 2025. The league underwent some realignment since last season. Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers moved their Down East Wood Ducks (Kinston, NC) affiliate from the Single-A Carolina League to the High-A South Atlantic League (SAL) where the team is now the Hub City Spartanburgers, based in Spartanburg (SC), for the 2025 season. The Rangers also moved their Hickory (NC) Crawdads affiliate from the High-A SAL to the Single-A Carolina League where the team was placed in the South Division. The Carolina League's Fayetteville (NC) Woodpeckers were moved from the South Division to the North Division to replace the departed Down East Wood Ducks.
Florida State League: The Single-A FSL's 2025 season will again feature the same ten teams and affiliations as last season with teams again aligned in a four-team East Division and a six-team West Division. Each team will play 132 games from April 4 through September 7, 2025. Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays will play their 2025 home schedule at Steinbrenner Field, home of the FSL's Tampa Tarpons, due to hurricane damage to the Rays' home at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The Tarpons will play home games at other fields within the Steinbrenner complex during the 2025 season.
BASKETBALL
UpShot League: A new women's professional basketball league known as the UpShot League announced it will start in May 2026 with four teams each playing 40 games. The league's original four teams will be based in Greensboro (NC), Charlotte, Savannah and Jacksonville, and each team will be holding a name-the-team contest.
Women's National Basketball Association: Potential ownership groups in Nashville and Detroit have joined the list of cities interested in the next WNBA expansion team that would be the league's 16th team. The Nashville group wants to name its team the Tennessee Summitt after Pat Summitt, the late legendary coach of the University of Tennessee women's basketball team. The WNBA was reported to have registered the "Detroit Shock" as a potential name for a Detroit team that could take the name of a former WNBA team that played 12 seasons (1998-2009) in the league before moving to Tulsa. Groups in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Louis, Houston, Austin, Denver, Charlotte and Milwaukee have also expressed interest in the next WNBA expansion team that is expected to start playing in 2028.
FOOTBALL
Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional: The Fundidores (Foundrymen) de Monterrey team in Mexico's top professional American-style outdoor football league known as the LFA (American Football League) has come under new ownership and was renamed the Osos (Bears) de Monterrey ahead of the 2025 season.
United States Premier Women's Football League: The semi-pro USPWFL announced its 2025 schedule will feature nine teams each playing eight games from April 19 through June 14, 2025. Teams include the Florida Krewe (Pensacola), River City Sting (Richmond), Ardmore (TN) Tigers, Topeka Mudcats, Atlanta Catz, Cincinnati Sizzle, Gulf Coast Mystery (Biloxi, MS), New Orleans Sabercats and Houston Doom.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The AHL's Cleveland Monsters became the Cleveland Lumberjacks for two home games this weekend as part of a throwback tribute to the city's former International Hockey League team that played by that name for nine seasons (1992-2001). The owner of the AHL's Belleville (Ontario) Senators recently put to rest any relocation rumors involving the team and stated the team would not be relocating to Hamilton (Ontario) once renovations are completed to the arena in Hamilton.
Ontario Hockey League: The Guelph Storm of the major-junior OHL played two games as the Royal City Jockstraps in a tribute to a popular innovation to the jockstrap developed by a local company.
National Hockey League: The NHL's Utah Hockey Club has run into trademark issues with the "Yetis" or "Yeti" nickname, which was considered the top choice as the team's official name. The club narrowed the list of names for fan voting to the Utah Mammoth, the Utah Hockey Club, and the Utah Wasatch, but quickly replaced the Utah Wasatch with the Utah Outlaws. In-game fan voting on the three names has started and will be held over four home games. The naming process began with 20 potential nicknames.
SPHL: As part of a "Rebrand Night" promotion, the SPHL's Macon (GA) Mayhem played a game this weekend as the Ocmulgee River Monsters, named after the Ocmulgee River, which flows through the city.
United States Hockey League: The Midwest-based Tier-I junior-level USHL, which is the highest-level junior hockey league in the United States, stated all 16 teams have committed to compete in the 2025-26 season. Two USHL teams, the Muskegon (MI) Lumberjacks and Youngstown (OH) Phantoms, recently applied to and were accepted by the major-junior Ontario Hockey League (OHL), which is one of three leagues in the Canadian Hockey League, but the USHL did not approve the transfer to the OHL.
SOCCER
USL Championship (United Soccer League): The group known as Buffalo Pro Soccer, which is trying to bring a men's Division-II professional USL Championship team to Buffalo by the 2026 season, is evaluating a preferred downtown site and two other sites for construction of a 10,000-seat soccer stadium. Stadium financing has yet to be finalized and the timeline for completion by the 2026 season is tight.
MLS Next Pro: Major League Soccer's Division-III professional reserve league known as MLS Next Pro announced its 2025 regular-season schedule will feature the same 29 teams and divisional alignment as last season with each team playing 28 games from March 7 through October 5, 2025. All 27 MLS-affiliated teams will return from last season as will the same 2 independent teams from last season. The 2025 alignment features a 15-team Eastern Conference with a seven-team Southeast Division and an eight-team Northeast Division, and a 14-team Western Conference with a seven-team Frontier Division and a seven-team Pacific Division. The MLS Next Pro has additional independent teams in Jacksonville, Cleveland, Connecticut (Bridgeport) and Grand Rapids (MI) that are planning to join in the future.
National Women's Soccer League: The Division-I professional NWSL officially announced Denver has been awarded the league's 16th franchise with a team to start playing in the 2026 season. Cleveland and Cincinnati were also finalists in this round of expansion. The NWSL will have 14 teams in 2025 with a Boston team (BOS Nation FC) also joining in 2026 as the 15th team. The league has stated that it is not finished with expansion but the timeline for future expansion is still to be determined.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The St. Louis Ambush of the Major Arena Soccer League announced plans to start a St. Louis Ambush outdoor team as part of the men's pre-professional USL League Two starting in the 2025 season. The Erie (PA) Sports Center announced it will start a men's team in the USL League Two and a women's team in the pre-professional USL W-League for the 2025 season. The names of those two teams will be announced in the near future.
OTHER
Premier Lacrosse League: The men's tour-based professional field lacrosse PLL announced its 2025 season schedule will feature ten weekend events from May 30 through August 9, 2025, with each of the eight teams hosting one weekend event, plus there will be two neutral-site events in Fairfield (CT) and Chicago. The PLL will have the same eight teams as last season and again aligned in four team Eastern and Western conferences.
Women's Elite Rugby: The proposed new WER, which plans to become America's first professional women's rugby league and play the 15-player rugby union style, recently announced the names of the league's six teams that will start in March 2025. Teams include the Bay Breakers (San Francisco Bay Area), Boston Banshees, Chicago Tempest, Denver Onyx, New York Exiles, and the Twin Cities Gemini (Minneapolis-St. Paul). The WER evolved from the ÃÂ amateur-level pay-to-play Women's Premier League (WPL) that operated with seven teams in 2024. All six of the recently announced WER markets had teams in the 2024 WPL.
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 February 3, 2025
- Otters Unveil 2025 Promotional Night Schedule - Evansville Otters
- Wild Things Sign Tyler Young, Utility from Lehigh University - Washington Wild Things
- Three Arms Return to Crushers Pitching Staff for 2025 - Lake Erie Crushers
- Mississippi Mud Monsters Sign Mississippi Native Davis Bradshaw - Mississippi Mud Monsters
- 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.
