Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on December 1, 2025 under Major Arena Soccer League (MASL)
BASEBALL
Canadian Baseball League: Canada's semi-pro Intercounty Baseball League (IBL), which has been playing since 1919 and included collegiate prospects and players with professional experience, announced plans to become a full professional independent league starting in 2026 as the renamed Canadian Baseball League (CBL). The IBL operated with nine teams located in southern Ontario for the 2025 season and all of those teams are now listed as CBL members. These teams include the Barrie Baycats, Brantford Red Sox, Chatham-Kent Barnstormers, Guelph Royals, Hamilton Cardinals, Kitchener Panthers, London Majors, Toronto Maple Leafs and Welland Jackfish. The CBL teams will play a 48-game schedule starting in mid-May 2026.
Coastal Plain League: The summer-collegiate CPL announced five nickname finalists that have been put up for fan voting through December 1, 2025, for the league's 2026 expansion team to be based in Zebulon (NC). The five potential team names include the Zebulon Bushrangers, Zebulon Croc Hunters, Zebulon Devil Dogs, Zebulon Iron Horses and Zebulon Thunder Roos. The new CPL team will replace the city's Carolina Mudcats team from the affiliated Single-A Carolina League, as that team relocated after the 2025 season to become the Wilson (NC) Warbirds. The new CPL team was created by a partnership with Australia's Ozball, which creates opportunities for Australian athletes in the United States, and the team will consist of Australian players and coaches. Four of the five potential team names have an Australian theme.
Frontier League: The Sussex County Miners (Augusta, NJ) of the independent Frontier League will be rebranded as the Sons of Liberty for four Alter Ego nights during the 2026 season to commemorate the United States' upcoming 250th anniversary.
International League: The Worcester (MA) Red Sox, or WooSox, of the Triple-A International League, announced three alternate team identities that will be used on select dates during the 2026 season. These include the Pawtucket Hot Wieners, a reference to the Rhode Island version of a hot dog; the Worcester Kelley Squares, named for an intersection of seven streets near the team's ballpark; and, the Art of the Woo, in honor of the Worcester Art Museum and the city's art scene.
Major League Baseball Draft League: The State College (PA) Spikes of the MLB Draft League will play a game as the "Six-Sevens" on June 7 (6/7) of the 2026 season. The "six-seven" (6-7) expression is sort of a meaningless catchphrase that recently became popular with kids and teenagers.
Pioneer League: After a negative reception to the recently announced Modesto Glow Riders name, the ownership of the Modesto-based Pioneer League expansion team announced the new permanent name for the team will be the Modesto Roadsters when it starts playing in the 2026 season. The Modesto Classics and Modesto Graffiti were also under consideration as the new team name. The Modesto Glow Riders name will still be used as the team's alternate identity for select 2026 games that honor local Latino-owned businesses and the low-rider car culture.
BASKETBALL
The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL announced teams called the First State Misfits, based in Dover (DE), and the Hamilton County Huskers, based in Arcadia (IN), have been added for the upcoming 2026 season starting in March. The league also announced that the Providence-based Rhode Island Kraken, which was a previous full-schedule team in 2024 and played a few TBL exhibition games in 2025, will move to Boston as the New England Kraken and rejoin as a full-schedule team in 2026.
Upshot League: The proposed new women's professional basketball league known as the Upshot League, which plans to start an inaugural season in May 2026 with four teams in the southeastern United States, announced its first expansion team will be based in Baltimore starting in the 2027 season.
FOOTBALL
Canadian Football League: The CFL's BC Lions (Vancouver, British Columbia) will play two regular season games about 240 miles east in Kelowna (British Columbia) during the 2026 season due to its home stadium at the BC Place being used for FIFA World Cup games next summer. The two-game event to be known as the "Touchdown Kelowna" will feature BC Lions home games on June 27 and July 4, 2026.
European League of Football: The ELF American-style professional football league and the proposed European Football Alliance (EFA), which included several of the 16 ELF teams that broke away from the ELF after the 2025 season in an effort to create a new league for the 2026 season, have come to an agreement to reunify as one league for the 2026 season. The participating teams and schedule will be announced in the next few weeks. Since the end of the ELF's 2025 season, the proposed EFA had announced the addition of new teams in London and Milan (Italy) reported to be called the London Guard and Milano Giants. The ELF's 2025 champion Stuttgart Surge (Germany), which planned to move to the EFA, recently announced the team was filing for bankruptcy.
International Arena League: The proposed new IAL has confirmed 11 of the 12 teams that will be part of the league's inaugural season starting in April 2026. The North American Conference will feature the previously announced Las Vegas Rockers and Cincinnati Slingers along with the Arizona Juggernauts (Tempe), Utah Great 8's (Salt Lake City), Halifax Highlanders (Nova Scotia) and Saskatoon Krushers (Saskatchewan). The European Conference will include the previously announced Glasgow Tartans (Scotland) along with the Stuttgart Stallions (Germany), England Eruptors (Nottingham), Dusseldorf Warriors (Germany) and Zurich Ibexx (Switzerland). The league's twelfth team is to be announced on December 15, 2025.
The Arena League: The TAL plans to announce next week the addition of an expansion team in Grand Island (NE) for the 2026 season. The city had an indoor team called the Nebraska Danger that last played in the 2019 season of the Indoor Football League.
HOCKEY
Federal Prospects Hockey League: The minor professional FPHL announced it will play a regular season neutral-site game in March 2026 at the Mennen Arena in Morris Township (NJ) to showcase the league. The FHPL has not mentioned anything about possible expansion to the area. The league had a team called the New Jersey Outlaws about 20 miles north in Wayne (NJ) for the 2011-12 season but it moved to Williamsburg (PA) after one season.
Professional Women's Hockey League: After expanding from six to eight teams for the 2025-26 season with the addition of the Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes, the PWHL wants to expand to 12 teams and could add as many as four teams before next season. The league will base its decision on data from this season's "Takeover Tour" that will feature 16 regular-season games to be played in 11 different neutral sites that are considered potential expansion markets.
SOCCER
Canadian Premier League: The professional CPL's York United FC, which is based in the York Region of the Greater Toronto Area, announced the team is changing its name to the Inter Toronto FC. The team was a charter member of the league in 2019 as the York 9 FC but changed to the York United FC for the 2021 season. New ownership took over the team in November 2023 and initiated the latest name change. The CPL is reviewing new ownership offers for the league's Pacific FC (Langford, British Columbia) and stated the team will remain in Langford for the 2026 season.
Major Arena Soccer League: The men's professional MASL started its 2025-26 season this week with eight teams aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play 24 games through March 29, 2026. The league had 12 teams last season but lost the Chihuahua Savage (Mexico), Dallas Sidekicks, Harrisburg Heat and 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 Women: The MASLW started its second season this week with 24 teams aligned in four-team Great Lakes North, Great Lakes South and Midwest divisions and six-team Heartland and South divisions. Each team will play ten games through March 14, 2026. The league had 21 teams last season in 4 divisions but lost 4 teams and added 7 new teams for the 2025-26 season. The Kalamazoo United FC, West Shore Ambition FC (Holland, MI), Chihuahua Savage and San Antonio Slayers did not return but the league added the FC Berlin (Kitchener, Ontario), Iowa Demon Hawks (Des Moines), Iowa Raptors (Cedar Rapids), OKC Ghosts (Oklahoma City), Atletico Monterrey (Mexico), Texas Lone Star (Dallas) and the Kansas Astras, originally the Kansas City Astras who will now play home games in Des Moines. Also, the OKC Oblivion (Oklahoma City) was renamed the Side FC Cyclones and the Tulsa FC is listed as the Tulsa FC Channel Cats. A new team called the St. Louis Stallions was briefly listed as part of the new Midwest Division but disappeared and never made it to the start of the season. Only the San Antonio Slayers are currently listed as an inactive MASLW team.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two recently announced four new teams for the 2026 season. A new Lorain County (Avon, OH) team will play home games at the ballpark used by the Lake Erie Crushers of the independent Frontier League. The Appalachian Football Club (Boone, NC), or App FC, will join from the National Premier Soccer League. The third new team is the Lancaster-based Pennsylvania Classics AC. An existing club called the Rockford (IL) Raptors FC, which had a men's USL pro team for four seasons (1995-98) and a men's USL pre-professional team for two seasons (1999-2000), announced plans to add a men's USL League Two team and a women's team in the pre-professional USL W-League for the 2026 season.
OTHER
National Lacrosse League: The men's indoor NLL started its 2025-26 season this week and again has 14 teams aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play an 18-game schedule through April 18, 2026. Last season's Albany (NY) FireWolves moved to Canada as the Oshawa (Ontario) FireWolves for the 2025-26 season. This move gives the league seven teams based in Canada and seven teams based in the United States. The Albany FireWolves lasted only four seasons (2021-25) in the league after moving from Uncasville (CT) where the team was called the New England Black Wolves. The NLL's Toronto Rock has moved back to their home in Hamilton (Ontario) for the 2025-26 season after playing last season in Mississauga (Ontario) due to renovations at the Hamilton arena. After the 2024-25 season, the ownership of the NLL's Rochester (NY) Knighthawks decided to step away from operating the team but a new ownership group stepped in to purchase the team and keep it in the same market under the Rochester Knighthawks name.
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.
