Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
June 30, 2025 - ECHL (ECHL)

BASEBALL

National Alliance of College Summer Baseball: The 12 summer-collegiate baseball leagues that are members of the NACSB started their 2025 seasons in late May and early June. The NACSB is sanctioned by the NCAA and the non-profit leagues receive some funding from Major League Baseball. The 2025 leagues include the 12-team Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League, the 8-team Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League, the 14-team California Collegiate League, the 10-team Cape Cod League, the 6-team Florida Collegiate Summer League, the 8-team Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, the 6-team Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, the 13-team New England Collegiate Baseball League, the 10-team New York Collegiate Baseball League, the 6-team Southern Collegiate Baseball League, the 8-team Sunbelt Baseball League and the 12-team Valley League Baseball.

Eastern League: This weekend, the Chesapeake Baysox of the Double-A Eastern League played the first of five games this season as the Chesapeake Oyster Catchers. The league's Hartford Yard Goats were rebranded as the Hartford Schoolboys in a tribute to the Negro Leagues and to "Schoolboy" Johnny Taylor, a famous Negro League pitcher from Hartford.

Southern League: As part of a Korean Heritage Night promotion, the Double-A Southern League's Montgomery Biscuits played a game this weekend as the Montgomery Kimchi, a traditional Korean dish. The Montgomery Kimchi will return for another game on August 2.

Pioneer League: As part of a promotion this week with 15 local Wendy's restaurants in Boise, the independent Pioneer League's Boise Hawks played the first of five games this season as the Boise Baconators, a type of Wendy's burger. The league's Grand Junction (CO) Jackalopes are playing Wednesday home games in 2025 as the Humpback Chubs, a silvery green fish found in the Colorado River.

Prospect League: The summer-collegiate Prospect League started its 2025 season late last month with 18 teams each playing a 56-game schedule through July 27, 2025. The league had 18 teams last season but the Full Count Rhythm (Hendersonville, TN) left the league and an expansion team called the Quincy (IL) Doggy Paddlers was added for 2025.

Mid America League: The MAL, which features collegiate, post-collegiate and former pro players, started its second season earlier this month with the same six teams (four in Texas and one each in Arkansas and Missouri) as last season with each team playing a 64-game schedule through August 1, 2025. The MAL recently announced an expansion team in Beaumont (TX) will be added for the 2026 season. The league's previously announced 2026 expansion team for Fort Scott (KS) selected the Cavalry, Dragoons, Marmots, Sentinels, Saber Rattlers and Hay Balers as nickname finalists for a name-the-team contest. The new name will be announced on July 11.

BASKETBALL

BIG3 League: The men's professional 3-on-3 BIG3 announced a partnership with the Asian basketball league called the East Asia Super League (EASL) to bring some BIG3 events to cities in Asia in 2026 and expose fans to the BIG3 style of play. The professional EASL has ten teams located in Japan, South Korea, Macau, Taiwan, The Philippines and Hong Kong.

Women's American Basketball Association: As the semi-pro WABA prepares for the start of its 2025 season next month, a team called the Edgewood (SC) Lady Panthers announced it will be part of the league for the 2026 season.

FOOTBALL

Arena Football One: The AF1 commissioner stated the league plans to add two expansion teams for the 2026 season, one in Ohio and another in Michigan.

National Gridiron League: The proposed professional NGL, which has been trying to get off the ground since March 2024 and plans to play eight-man outdoor football on a 60-yard field, has postponed its inaugural 2025 full-season schedule that was to start this weekend. Due to poor ticket sales and sponsorships across its eight markets, the NGL will instead host four league-wide two-day showcase events at centralized locations. Events will feature four games with the eight teams each playing in one game.

Winter Indoor Football: The developmental fall-season WIF is preparing for its second season and announced the addition of teams called the NW Ohio Warlocks (Millbury/Toledo), Mid-Michigan Grizzlies (Detroit area), Southern New Jersey Panthers (Mt. Laurel) and the South Jersey Wave, which is the renamed New Jersey Roughnecks from the 2025 American Arena League 2 and previously listed as part of the 2025 fall-season United States Arena League.

HOCKEY

ECHL: The ownership of the ECHL's Utah Grizzlies (West Valley City), based in the Salt Lake City area, is considering a sale of the team that could lead to relocation. A potential new ownership group is reported to be interested in moving the team to Trenton (NJ), which last had an ECHL team in the 2012-13 season. The Utah Grizzlies will remain in the ECHL for the 2025-26 season.

British Columbia Hockey League: Canada's independent Junior-A BCHL will have one less team for the 2025-26 season since the former Penticton Vees franchise was unable to find a new home and will be inactive. The major-junior Western Hockey League awarded an expansion franchise to the ownership of the BCHL's Penticton Vees and the team retained their name and moved up to the WHL for the 2025-26 season. The ownership of the Vees will retain its BCHL membership and look to relocate the franchise.

Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League: Canada's Junior-A SJHL has officially approved the relocation of the Wilcox-based Notre Dame Hounds to the city of Warman near Saskatoon where the team will play as the Warman Wolverines starting with the 2025-26 season.

United States Hockey League: The Midwest-based Tier-I junior-level USHL announced its 2025-26 season schedule will feature the same 16 teams aligned in 8-team Eastern and Western conferences. Each team will play a 62-game schedule from September 17, 2025, through April 4, 2026.

Western Hockey League: The major-junior WHL announced its 2025-26 season schedule that will feature 23 teams each playing 68 games from September 19, 2025, through March 22, 2026. The league had 22 teams last season but added the Penticton Vees expansion team to the British Columbia Division. That was the only change in the league alignment that features an Eastern Conference with a five-team Central Division and a six-team East Division and a Western Conference with six-team British Columbia and United States divisions. The WHL is planning to add a team in Chilliwack (British Columbia) for the 2026-27 season.

SOCCER

USL League One (United Soccer League): The new Boise team that plans to start playing in the 2026 season of the men's Division-III professional USL League One announced the Athletic Club Boise as the team's name. Construction is moving forward on a new 6,600-seat soccer stadium for the men's team and a future women's professional soccer team.

USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced a 2026 expansion team based in Lynchburg (VA) has been added and a name-the-team process has started.

USL League Championship (United Soccer League): Although there is a $23 million funding gap for a proposed 6,300-seat soccer stadium in Des Moines for a Division-II professional USL Championship team, the development foundation plans to re-engineer the project to meet the available funding. Infrastructure work is expected to begin next spring and the stadium to be completed for the first game in 2028. The league's new Dallas Atletico expansion team signed a three-year lease at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas where the team will start playing in 2027. Original plans called for a 10,000-seat stadium to be built in Garland (TX) but that location will now be the site of the team's training facility and headquarters.

National Independent Soccer Association: The men's NISA, which lost its Division-III professional status from the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) after the 2024 season, announced the Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC (Windsor) will participate in the league's 2025 NISA Pro Cup tournament this fall. The Hailstorm played three seasons (2022-24) in the Division-III professional USL League One but was dropped after the 2024 season and is part of the new 2025 League for Clubs. The NISA's amateur league known as NISA Nation, which plays both spring and fall seasons, is nearing the end of its 2025 spring season with a 6-team Coast, a 7-team Southwest and a 5-team Tennessee alignment.

OTHER

National Lacrosse League: The ownership of the indoor NLL's Rochester (NY) Knighthawks has decided to step away from operating the team and the league will pursue new ownership to try to keep a team in Rochester. The Rochester ownership also owns the league's Buffalo Bandits. The Knighthawks joined the NLL as a 2019-20 expansion team after the city's previous Rochester Knighthawks team moved to become the Halifax Thunderbirds after the 2018-19 season. The NLL's Toronto Rock will be returning to the newly renovated and renamed TD Coliseum in Hamilton (Ontario) for the 2025-26 season. The Toronto Rock played three seasons (2021-24) at the previously named FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton but moved to the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga for the 2024-25 season due to renovations at the Hamilton arena.

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.

ECHL Stories from June 30, 2025

• Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger

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