Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
ECHL ECHL

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on October 20, 2025 under ECHL (ECHL)


BASEBALL

Banana Ball Championship League: With the growth of the tour-based Banana Ball, which features a timed two-hour modified version of a baseball game with various tricks and performance art by professional baseball teams, the sport has now grown to six teams that will play as part of the new Banana Ball Championship League in 2026 with teams playing at various minor and major league ballparks throughout the country. Previous teams called the Savannah Bananas, Party Animals, Firefighters and Texas Tailgaters will be joined in 2026 by two new teams called the Indianapolis Clowns and Loco Beach Coconuts. The tour-based league will feature each team playing 60 games from February 25 through September 27, 2026, followed by a Championship Weekend (October 1-4) in Savannah.

Major League Baseball Draft League: The developmental MLB Draft League announced its 2026 season schedule will again feature six teams in a single-table format with each team playing 80 games from June 2 through September 1, 2026. One off-season change involved the league's Frederick (MD) Keys switching to become an affiliated team in the High-A South Atlantic League (SAL) and the SAL's Aberdeen (MD) IronBirds moving to the MLB Draft League. The league operates under a hybrid amateur-professional format with the first half of the season featuring amateur, draft-eligible players and the second half featuring newer professional players.

Major League Baseball: The sale of the MLB's Tampa Bay Rays recently closed and new ownership wants to build a new stadium somewhere in the area by the 2029 season. The team will return to St. Petersburg in 2026 and the Tropicana Field, which has been undergoing major roof repair due to damage from Hurricane Milton.

Pioneer League: The independent Pioneer League's new Long Beach (CA) expansion team had six potential nicknames up for fan voting that ended this week. The names included the Long Beach Coast, Long Beach Cruisers, Long Beach Grit, Long Beach Groove, Long Beach Parrots and Long Beach Regulators. The league's new Modesto (CA) expansion team, which will replace the departing affiliated Modesto Nuts team, is soliciting potential nicknames that will not include the "Nuts". The submissions will be narrowed to five or six names and announced next week. These names will be put up for a vote and the contest winner will be announced on November 10.

BASKETBALL

Basketball Super League: A team called the Saginaw (MI) Soul, which was supposed to be an expansion team in the 2025-26 season of the men's professional BSL, announced the team will not be participating this season and will delay its start until the 2026-27 season.

National Basketball League - United States: The men's NBL-US professional development league recently announced the addition of several teams for its Texas-based conference that will start playing in January 2026. These teams include the Alvin Stallions, Houston Culture, Lake Houston Herd, Galveston Islanders, Montgomery County Dragons (Willis), and the East Houston United that last played in the 2023 season. The league's Texas Outlaws were renamed the Pasadena Outlaws. A Texas-based women's WNBL-US is also being planned. The NBL-US also announced the addition of a men's West Virginia Conference based in Charleston with six teams starting in January 2026 and a women's division starting in September 2026. A new men's Boise-based Idaho Conference will also start in January 2026 with a women's division starting in September 2026.

FOOTBALL

American Arena League 2: The professional developmental AAL2 announced the addition of three 2026 teams called the Michigan Raptors (Monroe), the Mid-Michigan Grizzlies (Detroit area), currently playing in the Winter Indoor Football (WIF), and the Tri-State Panthers, renamed from the Southern Jersey Panthers currently playing in the WIF. Also, the AAL2's Jersey Bearcats (Roselle) will move to the rebirth of the AAL in the 2026 season.

Arena Football One: The AF1 announced a new Saginaw-based expansion team called the Michigan Arsenal has been added for the 2026 season. The city was home to an indoor football team called the Saginaw Sting that started in 2008 and last played in the 2015 season of the American Indoor Football. A new team called the Oceanside (CA) Bombers reported it will be joining the AF1 but there has not yet been an official announcement from the league.

Indoor Football League: The IFL's Lowell-based Massachusetts Pirates announced the team will be moving out of the state with additional details on the team's new home to follow. After starting in Worcester (MA) as part of the National Arena League in 2018, the Pirates moved to the IFL for the 2021 season and relocated to Lowell prior to the 2024 season.

The League: Another fall-season developmental indoor football league known as the "The League" recently started its 2025 season with six teams each playing eight games through November 23, 2025. An East Conference includes the Kentucky Mafia, Ohio Savage and West Virginia Wild Hogs, and a West Conference has the Illinois Smoke, Indiana Redhawks and Missouri Trojans. All games are played at the Buckner YMCA in Buckner (KY)

HOCKEY

Alberta Elite Junior Hockey League: Canada's new independent AEJHL is down to four teams for its inaugural 2025-26 season that started late last month. The AEJHL hoped to have six teams but the Vegreville Vipers folded just before the start of the season and the Vulcan Rampage went dormant for the season without playing a game due to a lack of players. The AEJHL could lose another team as the league's Lac La Biche Islanders are supposed to cease playing based on a restraining order obtained by the National Junior Hockey League, where the team played last season as the Lac La Biche Lakers. The AEJHL teams are scheduled to play 24 games through March 8, 2026.

American Premier Hockey League: The amateur senior-level APHL recently started its 2025-26 season with ten teams aligned in five-team Eastern and Western divisions and each team playing 24 to 26 games through March 8, 2026. The league finished last season with seven teams but the Flint Lumberjacks did not return and the league added four new teams called the Ridgetown Royals (Chatham, Ontario), Thousand Island Raiders (Clayton, NY), Motor City Muskies (Lincoln Park, MI) and the Wooster (OH) Bulls. Ridgetown was a late addition to replace the new Jamestown (NY) Railriders team that was announced for the 2025-26 season but ran into arena issues. Last season's Kalkaska Battlers (Gaylord, MI) were renamed the Northern Michigan Warhounds for 2025-26.

ECHL: The minor professional ECHL started its 2025-26 season this week with 30 teams each playing 72 games through April 12, 2026. All 29 teams from last season have returned and the only change is the addition of the expansion team called the Greensboro (NC) Gargoyles to the Eastern Conference North Division. The Eastern Conference has an eight-team North Division and a seven-team South Division, while the Western Conference has an eight-team Mountain Division and a seven-team Central Division. Each ECHL team has a one-to-one affiliation with an American Hockey League team and its National Hockey League parent club. Only the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets with its AHL Cleveland Monsters affiliate and the NHL's Utah Mammoth with its AHL Tucson Roadrunners affiliate do not have ECHL affiliations this season.

SPHL: The minor professional SPHL started its 2025-26 season this weekend with the same ten teams as last season and again aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play a 58-game schedule through April 4, 2026.

SOCCER

Major Arena Soccer League: The men's professional MASL announced its 2025-26 season schedule that will feature eight teams aligned in a single-table format. Teams will play 24 games from November 28, 2025, through March 29, 2026. The league had 12 teams last season but lost the Chihuahua Savage (Mexico), Dallas Sidekicks, Harrisburg Heat and the Texas Outlaws (Mesquite) in the off-season. The Harrisburg Heat is listed as an inactive MASL team after relocating to Hershey (PA) where the team will play as the Harrisburg Heat in the lower-level MASL2 for the 2025-26 season.

Major Arena Soccer League 2: The Salisbury (MD) Steaks of the MASL2 have been unable to reach a lease agreement with the new ownership of its home facility so the team will play as a road team for the 2025-26 season.

National Independent Soccer Association: The men's NISA, which did not play this past season after losing its Division-III professional status from the United States Soccer Federation, started the inaugural NISA Pro Cup tournament this week with eight teams split into two groups. Group A featured the Arkansas Wolves (Little Rock), DC Hyper (Washington, DC), Los Angeles Force and Peak XI FC (Boulder, CO), while Group B included the Capo FC (San Juan Capistrano, CA), Modesto City FC, Northern Colorado Hailstorm (Windsor) and Sin City FC (Las Vegas). Each team played three games in group-play (October 13-17) with the top two teams in each group moving to the playoffs (October 19-21). All games will be played at the Michigan Stars Sports Center (Washington, MI).

MLS NEXT Pro (Major League Soccer): The Division-III professional MLS NEXT Pro league, which serves as a reserve league for the MLS and operated this season with 27 MLS-affiliated teams and 2 independent teams, announced a new independent team called The Island FC will join for the 2027 season and play at a new stadium to be built in Uniondale (NY) on Long Island. The league has other proposed independent teams in Jacksonville, Cleveland, Connecticut (Bridgeport), Grand Rapids (MI) and San Francisco that also plan to join in the future.

USL League One (United Soccer League): The USL and the city of Port St. Lucie (FL) announced a new men's team called the Port St. Lucie Soccer Club, or Port St. Lucie SC, will join the Division-III professional USL League One for the 2027 season. The team plans to build a new soccer stadium and also add a women's professional team in the future.

USL Championship (United Soccer League): The group in Reno (NV) called Reno Pro Soccer has been awarded a franchise in the men's Division-II professional USL Championship. Construction of a new 6,000-seat soccer stadium is planned to begin in early 2026 with the team starting in the 2027 season. The league's previously announced Santa Barbara Sky FC will push back its start from 2026 to the 2027 season. This team was a transfer of franchise rights by the league's Memphis 901 FC to the Santa Barbara ownership after the 2024 season.

OTHER

League One Volleyball: The women's professional indoor volleyball league known as League One Volleyball, or LOVB Pro (pronounced LOVE), announced a LOVB Los Angeles team will be added as the seventh team for the league's third season in 2027. The league completed its inaugural 2025 season with six league-owned teams in Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison, Omaha and Salt Lake City that plan to return in 2026. An eighth team is also expected to be added for the 2027 season.

Major League Volleyball: The MLV women's professional indoor volleyball league announced its Dallas expansion team will be based in Frisco (TX) and will be called the Dallas Pulse when it starts play as the league's eighth team in January 2026. The MLV was originally planned as a new separate league for 2026 but it merged this summer with the Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF), which operated with seven teams in 2024 and eight teams in 2025. Dallas had been listed as a PVF expansion market. Seven of the eight teams from the PVF's 2025 season are now part of the MLV along with Dallas, which replaces the PVF's Las Vegas-based Vegas Thrill team that dropped out and is seeking new ownership. The MLV plans to add two future teams in Washington (DC) and Northern California, most likely Sacramento.

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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