Sports stats



USL United Soccer League Championship

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
February 17, 2025 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)


BASEBALL

American Association: The Cleburne (TX) Railroaders of the independent American Association will play a game as the Cleburne Eagles in June of the 2025 season to honor the city's former Negro League team by that name.

Eastern League: The Double-A Eastern League's Reading (PA) Fighting Phils will play a game as the Reading Flapjacks for the team's 22nd annual morning game in September of the 2025 season.

Empire Baseball League: The independent developmental EBL recently held a player draft for the upcoming 2025 season that will feature the same four teams as last season. All of the EBL teams are located in upper New York State and include the Saranac Lake Surge, Malone Border Hounds, Tupper Lake Riverpigs and North Country Thunderbirds (Plattsburgh).

Northwest League: The Eugene (OR) Emeralds of the High-A Northwest League will play a game in the 2025 season under the Eugene Nine alternate identity to honor the history of Negro League baseball and Eugene's Black Community.

New England Collegiate Baseball League: The summer-collegiate NECBL, which is one of 12 leagues in the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball (NACSB), recently announced its 2025 season schedule that will feature the same 13 teams as last season now aligned in a six-team Northern Division and a seven-team Southern Division. Each team will play 44 games from June 3 through July 30, 2025.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The men's semi-pro ABA announced it will hold a 3-on-3 basketball tournament in April 2025 as part of its 2024-25 regular-season championship event to introduce the league's attempt at creating a new 3-on-3 league called ABA3. The ABA also announced that a 2025-26 expansion team will be added in Jefferson Parish (LA).

Women's National Basketball Association: The owners of the National Basketball Association's Charlotte Hornets are one of 13 groups that applied for the next WNBA expansion team, which would be the league's 16th team with a proposed start in 2028. The WNBA recently filed a trademark registration for the Charlotte Sting, which was the name of the WNBA's former Charlotte team that played ten seasons (1997 through 2006). The WNBA also filed trademarks for the Cleveland Rockers, Miami Sol, Houston Comets, and Detroit Shock, all former WNBA team names whose cities have groups that applied for a WNBA expansion team. Several reports indicate Cleveland is expected to be announced next month as home to the 16th team and the league could add two more teams in the future and grow to 18 teams.

FOOTBALL

American Indoor Football: A rebooted version of the AIF started its 2025 season this week with only three member teams called the Cedar Rapids (IA) River Kings, Coralville (IA) Chaos and the Muskegon-based West Michigan Ironmen. Each team will play six to seven games from February 4 through May 17, 2025, including teams playing two games against non-league teams. The AIF disbanded after the 2024 season with the four remaining active teams leaving for the National Arena League. The Cedar Rapids River Kings return after leaving the AIF near the end of the 2024 season and their owner also operates the Coralville Chaos, which was listed as a 2025 AIF expansion team last season.

Arena Football One: The new AF1, which was formed by eight teams from the 2024 Arena Football League (AFL) and four other teams, announced one of its new teams called the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (PA) Mavericks has decided not to participate in the 2025 season and the league has terminated the team's membership. Originally, AF1 announced an inaugural 2025 schedule for 12 teams aligned in four-team East, Central and West divisions. The league is down to 10 teams with the loss of the East Division's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Mavericks and the Central Division's Wichita Regulators, a former 2024 AFL team that dropped out of AF1's 2025 season in December 2024.

Indoor Football League: Two former players with the National Football League's Buffalo Bills are working to bring an IFL team called the Buffalo Destroyers to the city, possibly for the 2026 season. A team called the Buffalo Destroyers played five seasons (1999-2003) in the original Arena Football League.

International Football Alliance: The proposed new outdoor minor professional IFA, which plans to start playing in May 2025 with six teams, announced an expansion team called the Arkansas Storm (Little Rock) will start playing in the league's 2026 season.

Women's Football Alliance: The women's full-tackle WFA announced its 2025 schedule will feature a total of 55 teams at three levels (Pro, Division 2 and Division 3) playing six to eight games from April 26 through June 14, 2025. The 14-team WFA Pro is aligned in a 4-team Pro National division and a 6-team Pro American division. The 15-team WFA D2 has a 10-team National and 5-team American division. The 33-team WFA D3 has a 10-team North East, an 8-team South East, a 7-team Midwest and an 8-team Pacific division.

HOCKEY

Federal Prospects Hockey League: The minor professional FPHL has accepted the application for an expansion franchise to be based in Topeka (KS) and the team will start playing in the 2025-26 season. The city of Topeka recently hosted four fairly successful FPHL regular-season games. A name-the-team contest will be announced in the near future. A proposed team called the Dakota Ghost Drillers (Williston, ND) is reported to be interested in joining the FPHL, possibly by the 2026-27 season. If a proposed new arena moves forward in Dover (DE), the FPHL could see the return of a team called the Delaware Thunder that was based about 20 miles south in Harrington (DE) and last played in the league's 2022-23 season.

Western Hockey League: The 22-team major-junior WHL is looking to expand and several reports indicate the British Columbia-based Penticton Vees of the independent Junior-A British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) will be leaving the BCHL to join the WHL for the 2025-26 season. The WHL is also said to be considering the BCHL's Chilliwack Chiefs for addition in the 2026-27 season. Both Penticton and Chilliwack are currently leading their respective conferences in the 21-team BCHL. The WHL has not yet issued a statement about possible expansion.

SOCCER

Canadian Premier League: Canada's Division-2 professional CPL announced its 2025 season schedule will feature the same eight teams as last season and again aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play a 28-game schedule from April 5 through October 18, 2025.

United Soccer League Division-I Pro League: The USL, which operates the men's USL Championship league at the Division-II professional level and the USL League One at the Division-III professional level, announced plans to start a new men's Division-I professional league in 2027 to 2028. With an eventual three-tier system, the USL is expected to consider promotion and relegation of teams between the leagues. The new USL league would be in direct competition with Major League Soccer, which is currently the only men's Division-I professional league operating in the United States and Canada.

USL W-League (United Soccer League): The women's pre-professional USL W-League has added several new teams over the past few weeks to include the Sioux Falls City FC, Utah United (Orem), SC Dutch Lions (Carlsbad, CA), Dayton Dutch Lions, Virginia Beach United, Lonestar SC San Antonio, NJ Copa (Metuchen, NJ), Fort Lauderdale United FC and the yet-to-be-name Erie (PA) Sports Center team. The league also announced its 2025 season will feature 93 teams aligned in 15 regional divisions. The divisions are grouped by regions with the Central, East and Western regions having four divisions and the Southern region having three divisions.

USL League One (United Soccer League): A group called North Jersey Pro Soccer announced plans to bring a men's team to the Division-III professional USL League One for the 2026 season. The team will play at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson (NJ) and the group also plans to start a women's professional team in 2027. The city of Pico Rivera (CA), near Whittier (CA), and the USL signed an agreement to explore construction of a new soccer stadium for a men's professional soccer team. It is unclear if the team would play in the USL League One or the Division II professional USL Championship.

USL League Two (United Soccer League): The Fort Lauderdale United FC, which is currently playing in the inaugural 2024-25 season of the women's professional USL Super League, announced it will be adding a men's team in the pre-professional USL League Two and a women's team in the pre-professional USL W-League in 2025. The USL League Two announced its 2025 team alignment will feature 144 teams aligned in four conferences that are further aligned in regional divisions. The Eastern Conference, Central Conference and Southern Conference will each have five regional divisions while the Western Conference will have four regional divisions.

OTHER

Major League Rugby: The men's professional rugby union (15-player) MLR started its 2025 season this weekend with 11 teams aligned in a six-team Eastern Conference and a five-team Western Conference. The league had 12 teams last season but the Western Conference's Dallas Jackals informed the league in September 2024 that the team would sit out the 2025 season as it evaluates a potential transfer of ownership. Each MLR team will play 16 matches from February 15 through June 8, 2025.

Women's Lacrosse League: As part of the men's off-season Premier Lacrosse League Championship Series held this week in Springfield (VA), the new WLL was introduced with four teams called the Boston Guard, New York Charging, Maryland Charm, and California Palms each participating in a WLL Championship Series. The women's tournament featured each team playing three games, followed by playoffs, under the Olympic Sixes (six-player) format to be used in the 2028 Summer Olympics. The women's tournament is considered an initial phase that could lead to the WLL eventually playing a full summer schedule like the men's PLL. The PLL started the six-player Championship Series during its off-season in 2023, as the league plays a summertime regular season with ten players per side. Four of the eight PLL teams participated in this year's PLL Championship Series.

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.

Check out the United Soccer League Championship Statistics

• Discuss this story on the United Soccer League Championship message board...

United Soccer League Championship Stories from February 17, 2025


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.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central