Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on January 19, 2026 under Pioneer League (PL)
BASEBALL
Pioneer League: The independent Pioneer League's expansion team in Long Beach (CA) will be called the Long Beach Coast when it starts playing in the 2026 season. The name celebrates the 11 miles of coastline that connects the city and is a name broad enough to belong to the entire city The team also announced the Long Beach Regulators as a secondary brand that is a tribute to Long Beach's hip-hop roots from a 1994 song called "Regulate" by the team's co-owner. The Regulators "alter ego" will be used for a game each week during the season. Long Beach has had previous independent baseball teams called the Long Beach Barracudas (1995), Long Beach Riptide (1996), Long Beach Breakers (2001-02) and the Long Beach Armada (2005-09).
Eastern League: The Altoona (PA) Curve of the Double-A Eastern League announced the team will play five games during the 2026 season as the Pennsylvania Continentals to celebrate the country's 250th anniversary, or semiquincentennial. The name is a tribute to the Pennsylvania Line that was a formation in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
American Association: The Kane County (IL) Cougars of the independent American Association announced an "Alternate Identity" Contest that will run through January 25, 2026. The team is soliciting fans for a creative alternate identity that can be used for select games during the 2026 season.
BASKETBALL
Canadian Elite Basketball League: The minor professional CEBL announced its 2026 season schedule will again feature ten teams aligned in five-team Eastern and Western conferences with each team playing 24 games from May 9 through August 3, 2026. The Saskatoon-based Saskatchewan Rattlers team, which is owned by the league through the operating company called Canadian Basketball Ventures, has come under new management and is currently listed as the Saskatchewan Professional Basketball Club with a rebranding expected in the future.
Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball: The women's 5-on-5 AU Pro Basketball announced its four teams will be called the Eclipse (purple), Glow (orange), Gold Rush (gold) and Rhythm (blue) when it plays its four-week 2026 season at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium from February 4 through March 1, 2026. The four teams have previously worn purple, orange, gold and blue uniforms but were named after their team captain, who was selected based on points earned the previous week and resulted in team name changes each week. The league will continue its scoring system that counts points for each athlete's team and individual performance throughout the season with the top point-getter winning the championship. The AU Pro Basketball is an off-season opportunity for players from the Women's National Basketball Association along with college prospects and other elite players.
FOOTBALL
European League of Football: The future of the American-style professional football league known as the ELF is uncertain for the 2026 season. After the 2025 season, several ELF teams left to form the breakaway European Football Alliance (EFA) as a separate league before the ELF and EFA decided to reunite under the ELF in late November. This week, the teams that were part of the EFA terminated the cooperation agreement with the ELF and the EFA again plans to operate as a separate league in 2026. The EFA includes six former 2025 ELF teams called the Frankfurt Galaxy, Madrid Bravos, Nordic Storm (Denmark/Sweden), Paris Musketeers, Prague Lions (Czech Republic) and Raiders Tirol (Austria), along with proposed new teams in London and Milan (Italy). The ELF operated with 16 teams in 2025 and also lost at least 4 teams to the new American Football League Europe that is starting in 2026. Also, the ELF's Stuttgart Surge filed for bankruptcy and the Fehervar Enthroners (Hungary) moved to the Austrian Football League.
Canadian Football League: The CFL commissioner recently stated he would like to see the league add a tenth team by 2030. Halifax (Nova Scotia) and Quebec City have been mentioned as possible expansion candidates but financing and building a suitable stadium has been the main problem.
International Arena League: The proposed new IAL announced a new team called the Pennsylvania Benjamins (Reading) has been added for the league's inaugural season that will start in April 2026. The IAL now lists ten teams in five-team North America and European conferences. The North America Conference includes the Arizona Juggernauts (Tempe), Cincinnati Slingers, Las Vegas Rockers, Utah Great 8's (Salt Lake City) and Pennsylvania. The European Conference has the Dusseldorf Warriors (Germany), England Eruptors (Nottingham), Glasgow Tartans (Scotland), Stuttgart Stallions (Germany) and Zurich Ibexx (Switzerland). Two Canadian teams called the Halifax Highlanders (Nova Scotia) and Saskatoon Krushers (Saskatchewan) had been announced for the North America Conference but have since disappeared.
The Arena League: The 7-on-7 TAL announced its Memphis expansion team will be called the Memphis Hound Dogs when the team starts playing in the 2026 season. The Memphis Hound Dogs was the name of a proposed National Football League expansion team in the early 1990s but the city was not selected for expansion.
HOCKEY
ECHL: After holding a name-the-team contest, the ECHL's new Trenton (NJ) team, which will be a relocation of the league's current Utah Grizzlies (West Valley), will be called the Trenton Ironhawks when the team starts playing in the 2026-27 season. The Grizzlies have been part of the ECHL since the 2005-06 season. The ECHL's Jacksonville Ice Men played a game last weekend as the Jacksonville Cowabungas honoring the city's roots under its original name of Cowford and to the city's relaxed beach culture.
Professional Inline Hockey Association: The PIHA Pro Division is into the second half of its 2025-26 season that features 14 teams aligned in seven-team Pro East and Pro West divisions with each team playing a 20-game schedule through February 22, 2026. The PIHA also has a 26-team Semi-Pro Division with 6 regional divisions and a 43-team Minor Division with 8 regional divisions.
SOCCER
National Women's Soccer League: The Division-I professional NWSL announced its 2026 season schedule will feature 16 teams in a single-table format and each team playing 30 games from March 13 through September 11, 2026. The NWSL had 14 teams last season but added expansion teams called the Boston Legacy FC and the Denver Summit FC for 2026. The league will not play during most of the month of June for a mandatory break and due to several home stadiums being used for the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup.
National Futsal Premier League: The semi-pro NFPL started its 2025-26 season last month with four-team California, Midwest and Southwest divisions in the men's league and a four-team California-based Women's Division. The men's teams will play nine games and the women's teams will play six games through April 4, 2026.
USL Championship (United Soccer League): The USL and the city of Fresno have signed an agreement to work toward building a soccer stadium with at least a 5,000-seat capacity, securing an ownership group and bringing a professional soccer team back to the city. The Fresno FC Foxes played two seasons (2018-19) in the Division-II USL Championship but could not find a suitable home stadium after temporarily playing home games at the ballpark used by minor league baseball's Fresno Grizzlies. The franchise rights were later transferred to the league's Monterey Bay FC that started in 2022. The Fresno-based Central Valley Fuego played three seasons (2022-24) in the Division-III USL League One with home games played at Fresno State University before dropping from the league after the 2024 season. Oklahoma City has selected a construction company for the new stadium that will seat just over 10,000 for soccer and will become home to a USL Championship team that is expected to start in the 2028 season. The Oklahoma City Energy FC (OKC Energy) last played in the USL Championship's 2021 season.
OTHER
Athletes Unlimited Softball League: After completing its inaugural 2025 season with four teams called the Bandits, Blaze, Talons and Volts playing a tour-based schedule involving ten cities, the women's professional AUSL has assigned its four teams to individual home markets and added two expansion teams for 2026. The four returning teams are now the Chicago Bandits (Rosemont, IL), Carolina Blaze (Durham, NC), Utah Talons (Salt Lake City) and Texas Volts (Round Rock), while the new teams are the Portland Cascade (Hillsboro, OR) and the Oklahoma City Spark, a professional team that played an independent schedule in 2025. The AUSL announced its 2026 season will feature each team playing a 25-game schedule from June 9 through July 18, 2026. Another new women's league called the Professional Softball League recently announced it will start playing in 2026 with seven teams.
Premier Lacrosse League: The men's professional 10-on-10 outdoor (field lacrosse) PLL announced its 2026 regular-season schedule will feature 12 weekend events along with an All-Star weekend event from May 8 through August 16, 2026, followed by playoffs in 3 separate locations. All eight teams will return with the Boston Cannons, Maryland Whipsnakes (Baltimore), New York Atlas (Long Island) and Philadelphia Waterdogs in the Eastern Conference and the California Redwoods (San Diego), Carolina Chaos (Charlotte), Denver Outlaws and Utah Archers (Salt Lake City) in the Western Conference. The New York Atlas, which represents the state of New York, will call Long Island its home after playing home events in Albany the past two seasons. The 2026 schedule will have each team hosting one weekend event in its home market and include four neutral-site events in Chicago, Columbus (OH), Fairfield (CT) and Providence (RI). The PLL will again feature its off-season Championship Series over two weekends (February 27 through March 8) at The St. James (Springfield, VA) with the top four teams from last season competing in a round-robin tournament under the Olympic Sixes (six-player) version of lacrosse.
Women's Lacrosse League: The four-team professional 10-on-10 (field lacrosse) WLL, which is affiliated with the men's Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), announced its first full-season schedule will include eight weekend events from May 15 through August 9, 2026, with events coinciding with the dates of PLL events. The WLL teams include the Boston Guard, New York Charging (Long Island), Maryland Charm (Baltimore) and California Palms (San Diego). Each team will host one event in their home city and compete in four neutral-site events in the non-WLL markets of Providence, Charlotte, Chicago and Fairfield (CT). All four teams will compete in the off-season WLL Championship Series alongside the PLL teams over two weekends (February 27 through March 8) at The St. James (Springfield, VA). The series will be a round-robin tournament with teams playing the Olympic Sixes (six-player) version of lacrosse.
National Lacrosse League: The Oshawa (Ontario) FireWolves of the indoor (box lacrosse) NLL played a game last weekend as the Oshawa Green Gaels to celebrate the city's former men's junior-level box lacrosse team by that name. The former Oshawa Green Gaels won Canada's summertime Junior-A box lacrosse championship called the Minto Cup for seven consecutive seasons (1963-69) and folded in 1983. The Green Gaels became a Junior-B team in 1995 and currently operate as the Clarington Green Gaels in the Ontario Junior B Lacrosse League.
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.
Pioneer League Stories from January 19, 2026
- 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.
