Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on November 10, 2025 under The Arena League (TAL)
BASEBALL
Carolina League: The Salem (VA) Red Sox of the Single-A Carolina League announced the team's new name will be the Salem RidgeYaks when starting the 2026 season. The name is inspired by the yak, which symbolizes strength and is also slang for a home run, and the area's Blue Ridge Mountains.
Coastal Plain League: The summer-collegiate CPL will place a new team in Zebulon (NC) for the 2026 season and the roster will be comprised of elite players from Australia. The city lost the professional Carolina Mudcats of the Single-A Carolina League after the 2025 season as that team relocated to become the Wilson (NC) Warbirds. A name-the-team contest has started for the CPL team with fan submissions accepted through November 21.
International League: Minor League Baseball has posted the 2026 Triple-A International League schedule that will feature the same 20 teams as last season and again aligned in ten-team East and West divisions. Each team will play 150 games from March 27 through September 20, 2026.
Midwest League: The Beloit (WI) Sky Carp of the High-A Midwest League will play all Wednesday home games during the 2025 season as the "Eerie Wearies" inspired by the legend of the haunted Weary Road in Evansville (WI).
Northwest League: Voters in the city of Medford (OR) approved a hotel tax this week to help finance a proposed downtown redevelopment project that could eventually include a new ballpark as the future home for the Eugene (OR) Emeralds from the High-A Northwest League. The Emeralds' current home at the University of Oregon's PK Park in Eugene does not comply with Major League Baseball's new standards for minor league ballparks.
Pacific Coast League: Minor League Baseball has posted the 2026 Triple-A Pacific Coast League schedule that will feature the same ten teams as last season and again aligned in five-team East and West divisions. Each team will play 150 games from March 27 through September 20, 2026.
BASKETBALL
National Basketball League Gatorade League (G-League): The NBA G-League started its 2025-26 season this weekend and features the same 31 teams as last season. The only change was the move of the Indiana Mad Ants from Indianapolis to a new arena in Noblesville (IN) where the team is now called the Noblesville Boom. Each of the 30 NBA teams again has an owned or operated G-League affiliate while the Mexico City Capitanes are again the only unaffiliated G-League team. Each team will play 50 games through March 28, 2026, in a two-part season. The first part is a Tip-Off Tournament with teams aligned in four regional pods and each team playing 14 games against one another in November and December. Eight teams will move on to the Showcase Cup, a single-elimination tournament during the NBA G-League Winter Showcase in December. The second part includes each team playing a 36-game regular season from January through March with teams aligned in a 16-team Eastern Conference and a 15-team Western Conference. The Long Island Nets, the G-League affiliate of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, will play four of their regular-season home games in Laval (Quebec) where the team will be known as "Les Nets". The Nets played six games in Laval last season.
Unrivaled Basketball: The Unrivaled 3-on-3 women's professional basketball league held its player draft for the eight teams that will participate in its second season starting in January. Each team will consist of six players along with a development pool of players to fill in for possible injuries. The league includes several players from the Women's National Basketball Association. All six teams will return from the inaugural 2025 season and two new teams called the Breeze and the Hive were added. All games will again be played at one location in Miami except for one tour stop in Philadelphia that will feature four teams playing two games on January 30, 2026.
United States Basketball League: The springtime professional USBL, which started in 1985 and has been dormant since completing its 2007 season, announced a rebirth of the league for a start in March 2026. As of now, the revived league has a total of 16 initial teams, 12 of which were members of the 2025 minor league called The Basketball League. Additional teams and league details are still to be announced.
FOOTBALL
Entertainment Football Association: The indoor ENTFLA, which failed to start as planned this past summer with four teams called the Danbury (CT) Diesel, Garden State Heroes (Middletown), New Jersey Ciphers (Morristown) and New York Dragons (Long Island), is now looking to start with a 2026 season. The league announced a tryout for the same four teams will be held in New Jersey on December 6, 2025.
European Football Alliance: The proposed EFA American-style football league, which is a new team-owned league created by ten teams that left the European League of Football (ELF) after the 2025 season, announced the addition of new teams to be based in London (England) and Milan (Italy). Milan previously hosted an ELF team called the Milano Seamen for two seasons (2023 and 2024).
International Arena League: The proposed new IAL, which plans to start in April 2026 with four teams in North America and four teams in Europe, announced the name of the first European Conference team will be the Glasow Tartans (Scotland). The league previously announced two of its four North America Conference teams will be called the Las Vegas Rockers and the Cincinnati Slingers.
The Arena League: The 7-on-7 TAL officially announced the addition of a new team in Memphis for the 2026 season and a name-the-team contest has been started. The league will operate the Memphis team as it seeks local ownership. Memphis had previous indoor football teams called the Memphis Pharaohs for two seasons (1995-96) in the original Arena Football League and the Memphis Xplorers for six seasons (2001-06) in the Arenafootball2. The TAL stated two more expansion teams will be announced in the near future and the league will have eight teams for the 2026 season.
HOCKEY
Federal Prospects Hockey League: The minor professional FPHL is expected to announce the addition of a new team based in Thief River Falls (MN) for the 2026-27 season.
Kootenay International Junior Hockey League: The British Columbia-based KIJHL, which is a Junior-A Tier 2 league under BC Hockey, is playing its 2025-26 season with the same 21 teams as last season and again aligned in four regional divisions. Each team is playing a 44-game schedule from September 19, 2025, through February 28, 2026. Earlier this year, the league announced it will split into two levels for the 2026-27 season by promoting several teams to the Junior-A Tier 1 level while other teams will remain at the Junior-A Tier 2 level.
Pacific Junior Hockey League: The British Columbia-based PJHL, which is considered a Junior-A Tier 2 league under BC Hockey, is playing its 2025-26 season with 16 teams aligned in eight-team Tom Shaw and Harold Brittain conferences. The league had 15 teams last season but added the Surrey-based Cloverdale Hockey Club to the Harold Brittain Conference. Due to off-season league in-fighting, plans were dropped this season to split the league into two levels, an eight-team Junior-A Tier 1 level and an eight-team Junior-A Tier 2 level to include the new Cloverdale team. Each team will play a 48-game schedule through February 22, 2026.
Professional Women's Hockey League: The PWHL announced the Seattle and Vancouver expansion teams will be called the Seattle Torrent and the Vancouver Goldeneyes when they start playing in the 2025-26 season later this month. The Torrent name derives from Washington's powerful waterways while the Goldeneyes name was inspired by a bird native to the Vancouver area.
United States Hockey League: Discussions have been initiated concerning the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), which includes three major-junior leagues called the Ontario Hockey League, the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League and the Western Hockey League, bringing the United States Hockey League, which is the only league in the United States operating at the highest Tier-I classification, into its organization as a fourth league.
SOCCER
USL Championship (United Soccer League): North Carolina FC (Raleigh) of the Division-II professional USL Championship announced the team has applied to join the new top-level USL Division One league that plans to start playing in the 2028 season. The team is suspending operations after this season and will no longer be part of the USL Championship league as it works toward building a new 15,000-seat soccer stadium, which is a requirement for admission into the new league. The USL Championship's Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and Louisville City FC have applied to the USL Division One, while the league's Detroit City FC and Sacramento Republic FC have initiated new stadium projects that would meet USL Division One requirements.
USL League One (United Soccer League): The men's Division-III professional USL League One announced a new North Texas team called the Rodeo SC, based out of Celina (TX) in the northern part of the Dallas-Fort Worth complex, will join the league for the 2027 season. The Texoma FC (Sherman, TX), which played its inaugural 2025 season in the USL League One and recently announced plans to move down to the pre-professional USL League Two for the 2026 season, will serve as a developmental affiliate for the new Rodeo SC.
USL W-League (United Soccer League): The women's pre-professional USL W-League announced the Los Angeles SC has been added as a new team for the 2026 season. The league's new Portland (OR) expansion team will be called the Portland Cherry Bombs FC when it starts playing in the 2026 season.
OTHER
Major League Rugby: The Utah Warriors (Salt Lake City) of the men's professional rugby union (15-player) MLR announced the club has suspended operations and will not participate in the 2026 season. The loss of the Warriors leaves the league with only six teams for the 2026 season. The MLR operated with 11 teams last season but has since lost 5 teams. Along with the Utah Warriors, the Miami Sharks, NOLA Gold (New Orleans) and Houston Sabercats announced they would not participate in the 2026 season, while the Rugby FC Los Angeles and San Diego Legion merged to create the new California Legion for the 2026 season.
National Lacrosse League: The professional indoor NLL announced 12 new markets have been added to its "UnBOXed" grassroots effort to introduce its fast-paced lacrosse game to elementary and middle schools. Participating schools receive lacrosse equipment for a physical education curriculum that is based on the 3-on-3 version of SPEED lacrosse. The new "UnBOXed" brand names for each market are the Arizona Gilazillas, Austin Vibes, Cincinnati Hammies, Detroit Drift, District Cherries (Washington, DC), Jacksonville Swamp Pups, Long Island Moon Jellies, Milwaukee Steel Steeds, Raleigh Rascals, Saint John Skippers (New Brunswick), San Francisco Gold, and Winnipeg Frostbite. This was the third wave of expansion of the "UnBOXed" effort into non-franchise markets. The NLL now has a presence in a total of 48 markets that includes its 14 NLL teams and the "UnBOXed" markets. The league's long-term vision is to reach 60 total communities.
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.
The Arena League Stories from November 10, 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.
