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MLS Major League Soccer

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
February 10, 2025 - Major League Soccer (MLS)


BASEBALL

Appalachian League: For the second season in a row, the summer-collegiate Appalachian League's Bristol State Liners, based in the Bristol (TN)/Bristol (VA) market, will not have their own home field and will share TVA Credit Union Ballpark, home of the league's Johnson City (TN) Doughboys, for the 2025 season. Boyd Sports, which owns the Doughboys and a few other Appalachian League teams, confirmed it has taken over operations of the State Liners and is working to build a ballpark for the team in Bristol (TN).

Eastern League: The Reading (PA) Fightin Phils of the Double-A Eastern League will be renamed the Reading Prost after the German word for "Cheers" for a game in September 2025. The team will honor the German heritage of the area's Pennsylvania Dutch community and the German celebration of Oktoberfest. The league's Hartford (CT) Yard Goats will become the Hartford Leaf Peepers for a game in September of the 2025 season to pay tribute to the tourists who come to New England to see the fall foliage. The team will also play a game in 2025 as the Hartford Thunder Chickens, which is the nickname for the wild turkey and ruffed grouse in the state of Connecticut.

Mid-America League: The developmental MAL, which completed its inaugural 2024 season with six teams mostly comprised of collegiate players and some former professional players, will return in 2025 with the same six teams (four in Texas and one each in Arkansas and Missouri). Each team will play a 64-game schedule from May 22 through August 3, 2025.

South Atlantic League: The High-A SAL's Fayetteville (NC) Woodpeckers will play one game in the 2025 season as the Cape Fear Crocs as part of a "Baseball Heritage Night" and a tribute to the city's former team by that name that played four seasons (1997-2000) in the SAL. As a tribute to the golden retriever dog breed, the SAL's Hudson Valley Renegades will become the Hudson Valley Retrievers as part of an "alternate identity" game in June of the 2025 season.

Texas League: The Amarillo Sod Poodles of the Double-A Texas League will play six games in 2025 under the Yellow City Pigweeds alternate identity. Amarillo (Spanish for yellow) is known as the Yellow City and the pigweed plant is found in parts of Texas and transforms into tumbleweed when it matures.

BASKETBALL

Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball: The women's Athletes Unlimited started the fifth season of its four-week five-on-five professional basketball league this week with four teams playing all games at the Nashville (TN) Municipal Auditorium through March 2, 2025. Each week's games are played over three days with each team playing three games per week and players being scored through individual and team statistics. The top four performers each week become captains and select teams for the following week. The one player with the highest total score at the end of the season is selected as the champion.

The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL has added a couple of more teams for its upcoming 2025 season. One new team is called the Western Oklahoma Skykings (Altus), which was the TBL's former Wichita Sky Kings team that played in the 2023 and 2024 seasons before relocating. Another team is the CYM Academy (Creating Young Minds), which is based in Lewisville (TX) and last played in the TBL's 2021 season as the Lewisville Leopards.

Women's American Basketball Association: The semi-pro WABA announced a team called the Winston-Salem (NC) Lady Warcats has been added for the 2025 season.

FOOTBALL

National Arena League: The NAL announced it has terminated the membership of the Amarillo Dusters for failing to meet league obligations. The Amarillo Dusters joined the NAL from the American Indoor Football league where the team played as the Amarillo Venom in the 2024 season and was renamed after the season as part of an ownership change. The NAL had already announced its 2025 season schedule for ten teams aligned in five-team divisions with Amarillo to be part of the National Division.

Women's National Football Conference: The women's professional full-tackle WNFC has posted the 2025 season schedules for 17 teams to be aligned in a six-team Pacific Division, a six-team Atlantic Division and a five-team Central Division. Each team will play eight games from March 29 through May 17, 2025. The WNFC had 16 teams last season but underwent some changes to last year's five-team Atlantic Division. The Atlanta Phoenix and Philly Phantomz will not return but new teams called the Atlanta Truth, Chicago Winds and Jersey Shore Wave (Paterson, NJ) were added for the 2025 season. The league also announced a new San Francisco Bay Area team will join for the 2026 season.

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: The AHL's Utica (NY) Comets held a "Retro Night" game this weekend as a tribute to the city's Mohawk Valley Stars minor league hockey team that played in the early 1980s. The AHL's Springfield (MA) Thunderbirds played their annual game as the Springfield Ice- O-Topes in a tribute to "The Simpsons" television series that was based in the fictional town of Springfield and had a fictional hockey team by that name.

Eastern Hockey League: The 21-team Tier-III junior-level EHL, which also operates a separate developmental EHL Premier league, announced it will reclassify as a Tier-II junior hockey league starting with the 2025-26 season. Currently, the North American Hockey League is the only Tier-II league designated by USA Hockey, but the EHL withdrew from USA Hockey sanctioning in 2022.

ECHL: The ECHL's Florida Everblades (Estero) played a game this weekend as the Florida Skunk Apes as part of a Skunk Apes Night promotion in a tribute to Florida's foul-smelling version of Bigfoot.

National Collegiate Development Conference: The junior-level United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-II NCDC will add four new teams for the 2025-26 season. The NY Dynamo youth hockey club has acquired the league's Seacoast Spartans (Exeter, NH) and will move the team to Clifton Park (NY). The Universel Academy (Sherbrooke, Quebec) team in the USPHL's Tier-III Premier Conference will add an NCDC team to its organization, while the Tier-III Premier Conference's Junior Bruins (Marlborough, MA) will move up to the NCDC next season. A new team called the Grand Junction (CO) RiverHawks will join the NCDC's Mountain Division next season.

United States Premier Hockey League: The junior-level USPHL will add three teams to each of its Tier-III Premier Conference and Elite Conference for the 2025-26 season. The Charleston (SC) Colonials will return to the USPHL with teams added to both the Premier and Elite conferences. The Universel Academy (Sherbrooke, Quebec) will add a Premier Conference team in Quebec City and the new NY Dynamo, which is purchasing the Seacoast Spartans (Exeter, NH) of the Tier-II National Collegiate Development Conference, will also add a Premier Conference team. The Premier Conference's current Junior Bruins and Red Bank Generals teams will add Elite Conference teams in 2025-26.

United States Hockey League: The Sioux Falls (SD) Stampede of the Tier-I junior-level USHL became the Sioux Falls Fighting Wiener Dogs for a game this weekend as part of the 18th annual Wiener Dog Night promotion to benefit the Dakota Dachshund Rescue.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: A federal jury ruled against the North American Soccer League (NASL) in its anti-trust suit against the MLS and the United States Soccer Federation (USSF). The NASL was seeking over $500 million in damages against the MLS and the USSF for illegally conspiring to protect the MLS from competition. The NASL was organized in 2009 with plans to challenge the MLS as a Division-I league but played as a Division-II through 2017. The NASL was denied Division-I status by the USSF in 2015 and the USSF withdrew the NASL's Division-II status for the 2018 season causing the NASL to fold.

USL League One (United Soccer League): The group called USL to Wilmington is still trying to obtain investors and financing to build a new soccer stadium for a proposed Division-III USL League One team in Wilmington (NC). The group was granted exclusive rights to a USL League One expansion franchise back in 2022 with initial plans to start playing in 2024.

USL League Two (United Soccer League): The Portland (OR) Bangers FC was announced as the name of the new pre-professional USL League Two team to be operated by the Portland Pickles of the summer-collegiate West Coast League starting with the 2025 season. The USL League Two has also added several other new teams called the Red River FC (Shreveport), Colorado Storm (Denver), Kings Hammer Columbus (OH), Lexington SC (Kentucky), and the Lonestar FC (Austin).

OTHER

Major League Pickleball: The professional mixed-gender team-based MLP announced its 2025 regular season will feature ten four-day (Thursday-Sunday) events from April 24 through August 3, 2025, followed by playoffs. The 2025 season will feature 22 teams-16 teams in the top Premier level and 6 teams in the Challenger level. Each event will feature a collection of the 22 MLP teams and all teams will participate in 5 of the 10 regular-season events and play a total of 25 matches over their 5 events. The ten regular-season events will be held in Orlando, Columbus (OH), Austin, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Clemente (CA), Washington (DC), St. Louis, Dallas and St. Petersburg.

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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