Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
March 3, 2025 - Northwest League (NWL)
BASEBALL
Mavericks League: The independent Mavericks League announced its 2025 season schedule that will run from May 7 through August 24, 2025. The league will again consist of four teams called the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Campesinos de Salem-Keizer, Salem Senators and Portland Mavericks with each team playing a 48-game schedule and all games played at Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer (OR). The Mavericks League was created in 2021 by the owner of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. That team had been part of the affiliated short-season Class-A Northwest League but the league was reorganized as a High-A league for 2021 under the restructuring of Minor League Baseball and the Volcanoes were not awarded a Major League affiliate.
Carolina League: The Fredericksburg (VA) Nationals of the Single-A Carolina League will play five games during the 2025 season as the Fredericksburg Frogs to honor the city's former Negro League team by that name. The league's Delmarva Shorebirds (Salisbury, MD) will play a 2025 game as the Delmarva Wild Ponies as a tribute to the wild ponies that currently roam the area's Assateague Island.
Northwest League: Since voters in Eugene (OR) last year failed to approve an additional bond to help fund a new ballpark that meets Minor League Baseball (MiLB) standards, the Eugene Emeralds of the High-A Northwest League have started the process of looking for a new home and expressed interest in the city of Medford (OR), about 160 miles south. Medford is home to a summer-collegiate team called the Medford Rogues in the Pacific Empire League but does not have a ballpark meeting MiLB standards.
Midwest League: The Great Lakes Loons (Midland, MI) of the High-A Midwest League will play four games (July 24-July 27) in 2025 as the Great Lakes Pontooners in a tribute to summer fun on the lake. The league's Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Appleton) will take the Wisconsin Frozen Pizzas alternate identity for a game in 2025 to honor the state's title as the "Frozen Pizza Capital of the World."
BASKETBALL
The Basketball League: The men's minor professional TBL started its 2025 season this week with 34 full-schedule teams aligned in 7 regional divisions (Central Midwest, Mid Atlantic, North Atlantic, Pacific Northwest, Pacific South West, South Atlantic and Upper Midwest), plus an additional 6 partial-schedule teams not listed in the standings. The league had 38 full-schedule teams in 2024 but lost 14 teams and gained 10 new teams for 2025. Eight teams called the West Virginia Grind (Charleston), Derby City Distillers (Louisville), Los Angeles Ignite, Rocket City Flight (Huntsville), Santa Ana (NM) Thunder, Shreveport Bossier Mavericks, Texas 7ers (Rockwall), Medora (IN) Timberjacks did not return. Three teams called the Jamestown Jackals, Pontiac Pharaohs, Glass City Wranglers (Toledo) moved up to the 2024-25 Basketball Super League and three teams called the Western Oklahoma Skykings (last year's relocated Wichita Sky Kings), Rhode Island Kraken (Providence) and Tri-State Admirals (New Jersey) became partial-schedule teams in 2025. The ten new teams include the Tampa Bay Titans, Lake County (IL) Legacy, Logansport (IN) Iron Horses, Rochester (NY) Kingz, San Antonio Clutch, Halifax Hoopers (Nova Scotia), Tri-City Tide (Moncton, New Brunswick), New York Phoenix (Schenectady), Jersey Shore Breaks (Middletown, NJ) and Capital Seahawks (Washington, DC), originally the Waldorf-based Southern Maryland Seahawks. Three other partial-schedule teams include the new Port City Power (St. John, New Brunswick), the returning West Coast Breeze (San Marcos, CA), which played in the 2021 season, and the CYM Academy (Creating Young Minds), which last played in the TBL as the Lewisville (TX) Leopards in the 2021 season. Also, the Coastal Georgia Buccaneers were renamed the Savannah Buccaneers and the Emerald City Jaguars (Eugene, OR) are now the Willamette Valley Jaguars. Each full-schedule team will play 24 games through May 25, 2025. Partial-schedule teams will play from 2 to 11 games.
FOOTBALL
Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional: Mexico's top professional American-style outdoor football league known as the LFA held the player draft this weekend for eight teams that will participate in the league's 2025 season. The LFA had nine teams last season but the Galgos de Tijuana and Jefes de Ciudad Juarez are sitting out the 2025 season. The league added an expansion team called the Arcangeles de Puebla for the 2025 season. Tijuana was a 2022 expansion team while Ciudad Juarez joined the league in 2023. The LFA had a previous Puebla team called the Artilleros de Puebla for two seasons (2019-20). One other change is the Fundidores de Monterrey being renamed the Osos de Monterrey in the off-season.
National Gridiron League: The proposed NGL, which plans to play 8-man outdoor football on a 60-yard field starting in April, scheduled a player showcase this weekend in Fort Worth. Only 8 of the league's 18 teams are supposed to play in the inaugural 2025 season with the Atlanta Wildcats, Charleston (SC) Pirates, Mississippi Mudcats (Jackson) and Tampa Bay Storm in the Eastern Conference, and the Arkansas Twisters (Little Rock), Austin Wranglers, Oklahoma City Owls and the San Jose Sabercats in the Western Conference. 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.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The AHL's Milwaukee Admirals took the alternate identity of the Milwaukee Cowbells for two games this week in a tribute to a 2000 Saturday Night Live skit featuring an annoying cowbell-playing band member. The AHL president recently stated that the Oakview Group-Canada, which is renovating the FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton (Ontario), has expressed interest in bringing an AHL team back to the Hamilton arena that the group will operate when it reopens in late 2025. The AHL stated the group would have to find a team to move to Hamilton but there is nothing imminent. A previous AHL team called the Hamilton Bulldogs moved to St. John's (Newfoundland) after the 2014-15 season.
ECHL: As part of a Hispanic Heritage Night, the ECHL's Florida Everblades (Estero/Fort Myers) played a game this weekend as the Florida Tortugas (Turtles). As part of an annual Thrashers Night promotion, the ECHL's Atlanta Gladiators played two games as the Atlanta Thrashers, which was the city's former National Hockey League team that played 12 seasons (1999-2011) in the league.
Professional Women's Hockey League: The six-team PWHL is reported to be in the final stages of evaluating expansion proposals as it considers whether to add two more teams next season. A league official stated a decision on whether the league will expand next season should come in several weeks. This season, the league is holding a "Takeover Tour" consisting of nine regular-season neutral-site games to test fan reaction in the nine potential expansion markets.
Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League: The SJHL, which is one of nine Junior-A leagues under the Canadian Junior Hockey League, has approved the relocation of the Wilcox-based Notre Dame Hounds to Warman (Saskatchewan) for the 2025-26 season. The relocation is contingent on the approval by the Warman City Council and a successful season ticket drive and corporate sponsorship. The Notre Dame Hounds have been part of the SJHL since the 1987-88 season.
SOCCER
United Women's Soccer: The pro-am UWS recently added several new teams called the Connecticut Royals (West Haven), Dekalb County United (Illinois), FC Pontiac (Michigan), Crystal Lake Force (Illinois) and the Baltimore-based Racing Power FC-USA for the 2025 season. The developmental USL League Two will also add the Racing Power FC-USA, Team Chicago and Steel City FC (Chicago).
League1 British Columbia: Canada's Division-3 pro-am League1 BC recently announced the 2025 season schedules for both its men's and women's divisions that will each feature nine teams aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play 16 games from April 4 through July 26, 2025, with back-to-back women's and men's games on each game day. Each division had seven teams last season but each division has added teams called the Langley United and the Evolution FC, operated by the Coquitlam Metro-Ford Soccer Club. The Nanaimo-based Harbourside FC teams have been renamed the Nanaimo United and the Kamloops-based Rivers FC teams have been renamed the Kamloops United for the 2025 season. Also, the men's Vancouver Whitecaps FC, which is affiliated with Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps FC, has been renamed the Vancouver Whitecaps Academy, while the women's Vancouver Whitecaps FC is now the Vancouver Rise Academy and affiliated with the women's professional team called the Vancouver Rise FC in the new Northern Super League.
USL League One (United Soccer League): The Fort Wayne FC, which has played the past four seasons (2021-24) as part of the men's pre-professional USL League Two, announced plans to operate a Division-III professional team in the USL League One when the team moves into a new privately funded 8,400-seat stadium in 2026. The team will play the 2025 season in the USL League Two. The group called Boise Pro Soccer and Ada County (Idaho) have finalized a 30-year lease and development plan for a proposed 6,000-seat soccer stadium that is expected to become home to a men's team in the USL League One and a women's pro team in the USL Super League starting in 2026.
OTHER
League One Volleyball: An official with the women's professional indoor volleyball league known as LOVB, which is currently playing its inaugural 2025 season with six league-owned teams, recently stated the league is considering adding two more teams by 2027. The league also plans to shift to individually owned teams in the future. The LOVB is competing with other women's professional indoor volleyball leagues like the Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) and the five-week Athletes Unlimited volleyball league. Another new professional women's league called Major League Volleyball, which was started by the owner of the PVF's Omaha Supernovas team, recently announced a proposed start in 2026 with as many as ten teams.
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 Northwest League message board...
Northwest League Stories from March 3, 2025
- 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.
