Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on December 8, 2025 under The Arena League (TAL)
BASEBALL
Pecos League: The independent Pecos League is reported to be exploring the Grand Junction (CO) market for a proposed expansion team, unofficially called the Grand Junction Cliff Hangers. The new team would replace the independent Pioneer League's Grand Junction Jackalopes who announced plans after the 2025 season to move to a new yet-to-be-named market. The city is reviewing proposals for use of the local sports complex next summer.
Mid-America League: The developmental MAL, which completed its 2025 season with six teams (four in Texas and one each in Arkansas and Missouri) mostly comprised of collegiate players and some former professional players, recently announced its two new Texas-based expansion teams for 2026 will be called the Bryan Yard Dogs and the Nacogdoches Niners, or the Nac Niners. Two other 2026 expansion teams called the Beaumont (TX) Oil Barons and Fort Scott (KS) Dragoons were previously announced. The MAL is expected to operate with eight teams in 2026 since two Texas-based 2025 MAL teams called the Sherman Shadowcats and Abilene Flying Bison left the league to join the Texas Collegiate Baseball League for the 2026 season.
Prospect League: The Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp (Peru, IL) of the summer-collegiate Prospect League will become the Illinois Valley Radioactive Shrimp with radioactive green uniforms for one game during the 2026 season as part of a Radioactive Shrimp Halloween promotion.
West Coast League: The summer-collegiate WCL recently announced its 2026 season schedule that will feature 16 teams aligned in eight-team North and South divisions. The league had 17 teams last season but the Cowlitz (WA) Black Bears are no longer part of the South Division. Teams will play 54 games from May 29 to August 7, 2026.
BASKETBALL
BIG3 League: The professional 3-on-3 BIG3 basketball league, which played its 2025 summertime season with eight city-based teams, reported it is in talks to sell licensing rights for expansion teams in Arizona and New York. Prior to last season, the league operated all teams under a tour-based model since its start in 2017. Last season, all teams were assigned to home markets for the first time and half of the teams (Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Detroit) had been sold to local ownership groups. Original plans were to have 18 teams sold to individual owners by 2025 but now the league is hoping to expand to 12 teams by the 2027 season.
Maritime Women's Basketball Association: The women's amateur MWBA recently announced a new team called the Truro Tidal Queens (Nova Scotia) has been added as an eighth team for the league's fifth season to start in May 2026. All seven teams will return from last season and now with four teams in Nova Scotia and four teams in New Brunswick, the league will be split into two divisions in 2026. The Nova Scotia Division will feature the new Tidal Queens along with the Halifax Thunder, Halifax Hornets and Lake City 56ers (Dartmouth/Cole Harbour). The New Brunswick Division will include the Fredericton Freeze, Miramichi Her-icanes, Moncton Mystics and the Port City Fog (St. John).
The Basketball League: The minor professional TBL's proposed 2026 expansion team called the Cowlitz County Sasquatch (Longview, WA) has had issues obtaining a home arena and is apparently out for the 2026 season. The Los Angeles Ignite, which planned to return in 2026 after sitting out last season, and a previously listed 2026 expansion team called the Clark County (WA) Trash Pandas are now listed as 2027 teams. The TBL's 2026 expansion team to be based in Antigonish (Nova Scotia) is now listed as the Highland Herd. The Western Oklahoma Skykings (Altus) team, which played eight games as a TBL exhibition team in 2025, is now listed as a 2026 team called the Muskogee (OK) Skykings. The TBL's 2026 expansion team to be based in Desert Aire (WA) has been named the Grant County Red Tails, or the GC Red Tails.
FOOTBALL
American Football League Europe: Just after the American-style professional football league called the European League of Football and the breakaway European Football Alliance agreed last week to unify for the 2026 season, the new American Football League Europe (AFLE) was announced this week as a new league to challenge the ELF.
Arena Football One: The proposed Stockton Crusaders indoor football team, which had hoped to join the AF1 for the upcoming 2026 season, announced the team is still developing its ownership group and will work toward a start in the 2027 season.
Continental Football League: The proposed new minor professional CoFL, which plans to start playing in May 2026 with four-team Southern and Northern divisions, has finalized the teams in the Southern Division with the addition of a team called the San Angelo (TX) Sidewinders. This division will consist of all Texas-based teams to include San Angelo, the Tall City Black Gold (Midland), San Antonio Toros and the Texas Syndicate (Austin). So far, the CoFL has announced the Ohio Valley Ironmen (Wheeling, WV) and the Cincinnati Dukes as two of the four Northern Division teams. The San Angelo Sidewinders were originally announced as an indoor football team but due to arena construction issues the owner decided to switch to the outdoor 11-on-11 CoFL.
The Arena League: The TAL officially announced the addition of an expansion team in Grand Island (NE) for the 2026 season and a name-the-team contest has been started. The city had an indoor team called the Nebraska Danger that last played in the 2019 season of the Indoor Football League. Five of the six TAL teams from last season will return for the 2026 season, which will feature eight teams with the addition of new teams in Grand Island, Memphis and one other yet-to-be-named location.
HOCKEY
National Collegiate Development Conference: As part of a recent ownership change, the Connecticut RoughRiders (Norwalk) of the Tier-II junior-level Eastern Hockey League will move to the Tier-II junior-level NCDC for the 2026-27 season and the team will undergo a full rebranding.
National Junior Hockey League: The Claresholm Thunder from Canada's independent Alberta-based NJHL has relocated about 40 miles south to become the Kainai Raiders for the remainder of the season.
United States Hockey League: The 16-team Midwest-based USHL, which is the only league in the United States operating at the highest Tier-I classification, recently filed trademark registrations for the "National Junior Hockey League" and the "National Team Development League" indicating possible upcoming changes to the league's structure. A current Canadian independent league called the National Junior Hockey League operates with seven teams in the province of Alberta. As of now it is unclear how these trademarks relate to recent discussions by the USHL with the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), which includes Canada's highest-level major-junior leagues called the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League and the Western Hockey League, about the USHL possibly becoming a fourth league under the CHL. Last December, the CHL approved applications from the USHL's Muskegon (MI) Lumberjacks and Youngstown (OH) Phantoms to join the major-junior OHL but the USHL blocked the transfer and the teams remained in the USHL for the 2025-26 season.
SOCCER
USL Championship (United Soccer League): Plans were revealed for a new 10,000-seat soccer stadium that will become home to a revived Division-II professional USL Championship team in Oklahoma City that last played as the Oklahoma Energy FC in the 2021 season. The team has since come under new ownership and the new stadium will get underway in early 2026 for completion by the start of the 2028 season. A new team name will be announced in the spring of 2026. In March, the OKC United, OKC Bison FC, OKC Lightning FC, OKC Wind FC and OKC Thunderbird FC were listed as nickname finalists. A trademark application for the OKC United was filed in August.
Major Arena Soccer League 2: The MASL2, which serves as the developmental league for the MASL, started its 2025-26 season this weekend with 17 teams aligned in a five-team East Division, a five-team Central Division and a seven-team West Division. Each team will play 11 to 12 games through mid-April 2026. The league had 16 teams last season but lost 8 teams and added 9 teams. The St. Louis Ambush 2, Wisconsin Conquerors (Marshfield), San Diego Sockers 2, Chihuahua Savage II, Empire Jets, New Mexico Runners (Rio Rancho), Baltimore Arsenal and Muskegon Risers, who moved down to the MASL3, did not return. The league added teams called the Asunción de Mexico City, Guadalajara Mariachis FC (Mexico), Soccer Central Black Hawks FC (Watsonville, CA), Soles de Sonora (Hermosillo, Mexico), Texas Spurs (Allen), FC Baltimore 1729, the returning Iowa Raptors FC (Cedar Rapids) that sat out the 2024-25 season, the returning Omaha Kings FC that played the past three seasons (2022-25) in the Major League Indoor Soccer, and the Harrisburg Heat, now based in Hershey (PA), from last season's MASL. The league's Salisbury (MD) Steaks will play only a road schedule due to arena issues. The Youngstown Nighthawks club, which has teams in the MASL 3 and the women's MASLW, announced it will add an MASL2 team for the 2026-27 season.
Major League Indoor Soccer: The MLIS announced the Kansas City (KS) Barilleros have joined the new amateur-level Major League Indoor Soccer Extended (MLISX) league. The Lenexa-based team was part of the amateur-level Major Arena Soccer League 3 last season.
OTHER
Major League Rugby: The men's professional rugby union (15-player) MLR announced its 2026 season will consist of six teams called the Anthem Rugby Carolina (Charlotte), California Legion (Los Angeles/San Diego), Chicago Hounds, New England Free Jacks (Boston), Old Glory DC (Germantown, MD) and Seattle Seawolves aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play a ten-match schedule from March 28 through June 7, 2026. Last season, the league had 11 teams aligned in 2 conferences but the Miami Sharks, NOLA Gold (New Orleans), Houston Sabercats and Utah Warriors (Salt Lake City) 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.
Ultimate Frisbee Association: The professional UFA's Denver-based team previously known as the Colorado Summit had changed its name to the Colorado Apex ahead of the 2026 season. After the 2025 season, the UFA team gave the "Summit" nickname to the new Denver-based expansion team in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and that team will be called the Denver Summit FC when its starts playing in the NWSL's 2026 season.
Athletes Unlimited Softball League: The women's Athletes Unlimited professional AUSL, which operated with 4 teams called the Blaze, Bandits, Talons and Volts playing games across 12 venues during its inaugural 2025 season, recently announced a new team called the Cascade and an existing independent team called the Oklahoma City Spark have been added for the 2026 season. The AUSL is moving toward city-based teams next year and the addition of Oklahoma City was a move in that direction. The Oklahoma Spark most recently participated in the 2023 season of the Women's Professional Fastpitch league before switching to an independent schedule.
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 December 8, 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.
