Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on September 15, 2025 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
BASEBALL
Pioneer League: The independent Pioneer League announced the Grand Junction (CO) Jackalopes will be relocating to a yet-to-be-named market for the 2026 season due to poor attendance and ballpark lease issues. Grand Junction has hosted a Pioneer League team since the 2012 season. This week, the city of Modesto (CA) unanimously approved the addition of a Pioneer League team to the city-owned ballpark for 2026. The city has been home to a Single-A California League team called the Modesto Nuts that is moving to San Bernardino next season. The new Modesto ownership group also owns the Pioneer League's Billings Mustangs and two other affiliated teams. The city of Long Beach (CA) recently approved a Pioneer League team for 2026 and that would give the league 4 California-based teams and a total of 14 teams. The PBL has not officially announced the Modesto or Long Beach teams and there is still a question about the league's Colorado Springs Sky Sox. This team started the 2025 season as the Northern Colorado Owlz (Windsor) before resigning in late June and finishing the season as a league-operated team based out of the home of the league's Rocky Mountain Vibes in Colorado Springs.
Eastern League: The Reading (PA) Fightin Phils of the Double-A Eastern League played as the Reading Flapjacks for its 22nd annual Morning Game this week and its opponent, the Somerset Patriots, played as the Jersey Diners. The Fightin Phils also played as the Reading Prost, which translates to ¬Åcheers ¬Â from German, for a German Oktoberfest-themed game this weekend.
Major League Baseball: The owner of the MLB's Tampa Bay Rays has agreed to sell the team to a group of investors that plans to build a new stadium in the Tampa area. One of these investors had been a key investor in the Orlando Dreamers group trying to bring an MLB team to Orlando through expansion or possible relocation of the Tampa Bay Rays. With this news, a second key investor also decided to leave the Orlando group, which stated it will move forward with a proposed 45,000-seat stadium for an MLB team.
BASKETBALL
Unrivaled League: The Unrivaled 3-on-3 women's professional basketball league announced it will add two expansion teams called the Breeze Basketball Club (Breeze BC) and the Hive Basketball Club (Hive BC) for its second season starting in January 2026. The league played its inaugural eight-week 2025 season from January through March with six teams called the Laces BC, Lunar Owls BC, Mist BC, Phantom BC, Rose BC and Vinyl BC and all games played at one location in Miami. The Unrivaled owns all teams but wants to sell franchises in the next few years and potentially attach cities to these franchises.
Canadian Elite Basketball League: The ten-team professional CEBL announced a private ownership group has acquired the league's Ottawa BlackJacks franchise. When the CEBL started in 2019, all teams were controlled by the league through the Canadian Basketball Ventures (CBV) but since 2022 eight CEBL teams have been sold to private owners. Today, the CBV is involved with only the Saskatchewan Rattlers and the Niagara River Lions (St. Catharines). The CEBL co-founder Richard Petko brought his Niagara River Lions team from the National Basketball League of Canada to create the CEBL
FOOTBALL
American Arena League: The Columbus (GA) Lions and the Wheeling (WV) Miners, two teams that left the National Arena League (NAL) after the 2025 season, are joining the rebirth of the AAL for 2026. The AAL has not played since the 2021 season but has operated the lower-level AAL2 since the 2023 season. The West Virginia Miners were members of the AAL2 for the 2024 season before moving to the NAL.
Arena Football One: The AF1's Nashville Kats are considering a move about 50 miles northwest to the F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville (TN) for the 2026 season. The team was based out of the Nashville Municipal Auditorium for the 2025 regular season but hosted a well-attended playoff game in Clarksville. The team is now soliciting 2026 season ticket deposits for the arena in Clarksville.
Continental Football League: The new minor professional CoFL is organizing for a start in the summer of 2026 with eight teams to be aligned in two regional divisions. The league announced its first team is the Ohio Valley Ironmen (Wheeling, WV) that was part of the 2025 summer-season International Football Alliance before switching to an independent schedule. The new CoFL takes its name from another minor professional league by the same name that played five seasons (1965-69) before disbanding.
International Arena League: The proposed new IAL announced eight markets that will have teams in the league's inaugural season starting on April 18, 2026. The IAL currently lists Las Vegas, Greensboro (NC), Cincinnati and Salt Lake City in the North America Conference, and Nottingham (England), Glasgow (Scotland), Stuttgart (Germany) and Dusseldorf (Germany) in the European Conference.
United Football League: The springtime professional UFL is working to finalize the eight teams and markets for the 2026 season and hopes to have an update no later than October 8. The UFL is also looking to add two additional teams for the 2028 season.
United States Arena League: The new developmental USAL started its inaugural 2025 season this weekend with four teams called the Brownsville Chiefs (Valencia, PA), Indianapolis Enforcers, Michigan Island Boyz (Detroit) and Ohio Legends (Columbus). The original USAL schedule had eight teams but the Goshen Guardians dropped out due to a lack of players, the Michigan Eagles shut down for 2025, and the Detroit Bandits and Midwestern Bulldogs moved to the new Greatest Indoor Arena Football League.
HOCKEY
ECHL: The ECHL's Board of Governors has approved the sale and relocation of the Utah Grizzlies to Trenton (NJ) for the 2026-27 season. The Trenton team name will be selected through a fan voting process. The Utah Grizzlies will play in the ECHL's 2025-26 season before moving to Trenton. The ECHL had a team called the Trenton Titans that last played in the 2012-13 season.
Maritime Junior Hockey League: The MHL, which is one of nine Junior-A leagues under the Canadian Junior Hockey League, started its 2025-26 season this week and again has 12 teams aligned in 6-team EastLink North and EastLink South divisions. Each MHL team will play a 52-game schedule through March 8, 2026. The only off-season change involved the Fredericton (New Brunswick) Red Wings moving to Bathurst (New Brunswick) as the Chaleur Lightning. The Bathurst market had been home to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the major-junior Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League but that team move to St. John's (Newfoundland) for the 2025-26 season.
North American Hockey League: The Tier-II junior-level NAHL started its 2025-26 season this week with 34 teams aligned in a ten-team East and eight-team Central, Midwest and South divisions. Each team will play 59 games through April 11, 2026. The league had 35 teams last season but the Colorado Grit (Greeley) is sitting out the 2025-26 season due to arena lease issues. Also, the Wisconsin Windigo moved from Eagle River to the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield and the Lewiston-based Maine Nordiques moved across the Androscoggin River to Auburn (ME) for the 2025-26 season.
Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League: The NOJHL, which is one of the nine Junior-A leagues under the Canadian Junior Hockey League, started its 2025-26 season this week with 11 teams aligned in a single-table format. The league had 12 teams last season but the Elliot Lake Vikings are sitting out due to arena renovations. Each team will play 52 games through March 15, 2026. The Aurora-based St. Andrew's College is listed as a 12th team in the standings but will only play in a showcase event with NOJHL teams next month and those games will count in the standings for NOJHL teams.
Federal Prospects Hockey League: With the FPHL's Carolina Thunderbirds recently coming under new ownership, the team will be renamed the Twin City Thunderbirds and remain in Winston-Salem (NC). The league's Biloxi Breakers announced an affiliation partnership with the Tottenham Railers (Ontario) from Canada's independent Junior-A Greater Metro Hockey League.
SOCCER
Major Arena Soccer League 2: The MASL2, which is the second-tier league of the MASL, announced three new teams called the FC Baltimore 1729, Guadalajara Mariachis FC (Mexico) and the Soccer Central Black Hawks FC (Watsonville, CA) have been added for the 2025-26 season.
Major Arena Soccer League 3: The MASL's amateur-level MASL3 announced last season's DMV Gunners have come under new ownership and the team will compete as the Maryland Storm in the 2025-26 season and will remain based in Westminster (MD).
Major League Indoor Soccer: The men's MLIS announced a team called the Tampa Bay Terror, to be based in Fairview Shores (FL), has been added to the league's new amateur developmental league called the MLIS Extended, or MLISX, for its inaugural 2025-26 season.
Northern Super League: The Canadian women's professional NSL, which is currently playing its inaugural 2025 season with six teams, has launched an expansion process to add a seventh team for the 2027 season. Ownership groups from overseas have expressed interest in the NSL and the league is targeting markets in Central and Western Canada.
OTHER
Maybelline Women's Lacosse League: The new field lacrosse Maybelline WLL, which was started by the men's Premier Lacrosse League, will hold a full season of 11 weekend events in the summer of 2026 with teams called the Boston Guard, New York Charging, Maryland Charm, and California Palms playing a 10-on-10 outdoor format. These four teams participated in a one-week round-robin tournament called the WLL Championship Series this past February with teams playing a 6-on-6 format to introduce the WLL. The WLL also held an All-Star game in July featuring the 10-on-10 format. The 2026 WLL schedule will be announced at a later date.
Major League Rugby: The Houston SaberCats of the men's professional rugby union (15-player) MLR announced the team will not be part of the league's 2026 season. Since MLR completed its 2025 season with 11 teams, the league has lost the Miami Sharks, NOLA Gold (New Orleans) and Houston Sabercats, while Rugby FC Los Angeles and the San Diego Legion merged as the California Legion.
National Lacrosse League: The indoor NLL's former Albany (NY) FireWolves team, which recently relocated to Oshawa (Ontario, Canada), officially announced the team will be called the Oshawa FireWolves when it starts playing in the 2025-26 season. The city of Oshawa is in the Durham Region of the Greater Toronto Area.
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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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.
