Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on February 2, 2026 under The Arena League (TAL)
BASEBALL
American Association: As the 2025 season champions of the independent American Association, the Kane County (IL) Cougars will participate in the 2026 Baseball Champions League (BCL) tournament with the 2025 champions from five other international leagues. The BCL will be held in Mexico City next month (March 24-29) and will feature the host Diablos Rojos del Mexico from Mexico's top Liga Mexicana de Beisbol along with champions from leagues in Venezuela, Taiwan, Cuba and Nicaragua.
Atlantic League: The Lancaster (PA) Stormers of the independent Atlantic League will play one game as the Lancaster Red Roses and one game as the Lancaster Road Apples during the 2026 season. The city is known as the "Red Rose City" and had previous baseball teams called the Lancaster Red Roses. The "Road Apples" is a slang term for horse manure deposited on local roads from the Amish horse-drawn carriages.
Diamond Baseball League: The new summer-collegiate DBL is organizing for a start in 2026 and hopes to have six league-operated teams each playing 50 games from May 28 through August 1, 2026. So far, teams include the Grand Island (NE) Fightin' Cranes, Hastings (NE) Sodbusters from last season's Independence League Baseball, the Jefferson City (MO) Renegades, Sedalia (MO) Bombers and a yet-to-be named team in Salina (KS).
Eastern League: As part of an "Only in Akron" series that honors popular foods in the area, the Akron RubberDucks of the Double-A Eastern League will be renamed the Akron Chip Dippers for two games (June 19-20) in the 2026 season as a tribute to the popular Lawson's French Onion Chip Dip.
Major League Baseball: A Montreal entrepreneur has proposed a privately financed development that would include a baseball stadium for the return of an MLB team to the city, which lost the Montreal Expos to Washington (DC) after the 2004 season. Efforts have begun to obtain financing for the downtown development that will take four to six years to complete and will not require any public funding. The MLB is considering expansion by two teams, one in the East and one in the West, with market selection possible in 2028. Nashville, North Carolina (Raleigh or Charlotte) and Orlando are also vying for a potential eastern expansion team along with Montreal.
Mid-America League: The summer-collegiate MAL announced the Meridian (MS) Blues as the league's fifth new team for the 2026 season. The league had six teams last season but two Texas-based teams called the Abilene Flying Bison and the Sherman Shadowcats left for the Texas Collegiate Baseball League and the Fort Smith (AR) Marshals recently announced the team will sit out the 2026 season. The MAL currently lists eight teams that includes three returning teams along with the Meridian Blues and four other new teams called the Beaumont (TX) Oil Barons, Bryan (TX) Yard Dogs, Fort Scott (KS) Dragoons and the Nacogdoches (TX) Niners.
BASKETBALL
The Basketball League: The men's semi-pro TBL recently added teams called the Florida Flight (Orlando area), Nevada Silverbacks (Las Vegas) and Tri-Cities Sun Devils (Pasco/Kennewick/Richland, WA) to its list of 2026 teams, while the Las Vegas Fortune has been moved to the list of 2027 teams.
Project B League: Project B, the new 5-on-5 women's and men's international touring basketball league, announced that Tokyo will host one of the ten-day tour stops in 2027 (March 26-April 4) as part of the league's inaugural 2026-27 season that will run from November 2026 through April 2027. The Project B plans to have six men's teams and six women's teams playing side-by-side as part of seven ten-day tournaments in locations throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. Teams will not represent specific markets.
FOOTBALL
American Indoor Football: The AIF started its 2026 season this weekend and has four full-schedule teams and one travel-only team. The league's three teams from last season called the Cedar Rapids (IA) River Kings, Coralville (IA) Chaos and West Michigan Ironmen (Muskegon) have returned but Cedar Rapids was renamed the Cedar Rapids Titans and Coralville relocated to Traverse City (MI) as the Northern Michigan Muskies. The Wyoming Cavalry (Gillette) was added as the fourth full-schedule team while the Pennsylvania Union (Harrisburg) added as a travel-only team. The four full-schedule teams will play seven to eight games from January 30 through April 30, 2026, while Pennsylvania played its only scheduled road game this weekend. A proposed Southern Division of teams failed to develop for the 2026 season but future Southern Division teams called the Midland (TX) Frac-Attack and Odessa (TX) Drillers have joined the AIF but are playing independent schedules this season. A previously announced Southern Division team called the Tyler (TX) Crude has disappeared. A team called the Dickinson (ND) Dragons was announced as a 2027 AIF expansion team.
Liga de Futbol Americano: Mexico's top professional American-style outdoor football league known as the LFA recently held its 2026 season draft but it included only seven of the eight teams from last season. The league's Arcángeles de Puebla team is facing financial issues pertaining to last season and did not participate in the draft. The franchise is still considered active but its future remains uncertain for the 2026 season that starts in May.
The Arena League: The 7-on-7 TAL's new Monroe (LA) expansion team will be called the Monroe Greenheads when the team starts playing in the 2026 season. A greenhead is another name for a male mallard. Monroe was home to an indoor team called the Louisiana Bayou Beast that played only the 2001 season in the former National Indoor Football League.
HOCKEY
British Columbia Hockey League: With the major-junior Western Hockey League (WHL) delaying the addition of a proposed expansion team in Chilliwack (British Columbia) until the 2027-28 season, the Chilliwack Chiefs of the independent Junior-A BCHL announced the team will not have to move after this season and will play the 2026-27 season in Chilliwack. The BCHL lost the Penticton Vees after the 2024-25 season when the ownership moved the team up to the WHL as an expansion team for the 2025-26 season. The BCHL has yet to find a new home for the its former Penticton Vees franchise.
Federal Prospects Hockey League: Since the former home of the FPHL's Delaware Thunder in Harrington shut down and the team last played in the league's 2022-23 season, two attempts have been made to replace the arena. One group has been trying to build a new arena in Dover (DE), about 30 miles north of Harrington, but that has faced government and funding delays. Another group has been trying to raise funds for the Miracle Ice Arena about 25 miles south in Georgetown (DE).
Western Hockey League: The Victoria Royals (British Columbia) of the major-junior WHL played a game this weekend as the Victoria Salmon Kings to honor the name of the city's former ECHL team that played seven seasons (2004-11) in the league but folded when the WHL's Chilliwack Bruins relocated to become the Victoria Royals.
SOCCER
Canadian Premier League: The CPL, which is Canada's top men's professional soccer league, announced an alignment with the League1 Canada system of provincial pro-am leagues to create a new domestic soccer pathway. League1 Canada, which includes men's and women's teams competing in provincial leagues called League1 British Columbia, League1 Ontario, League1 Alberta, Ligue1 Quebec and the new League1 Prairies (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) starting in 2026, will now operate as the Premier Soccer Leagues Canada (PSLC) under the CPL. As part of this new branding, the affiliated PSLC leagues will now be called the British Columbia Premier League, Ontario Premier League, Alberta Premier League and the Prairies Premier League. The CPL announcement provided no name change for the Ligue1 Quebec that is expected to become the Quebec Premier League.
USL Premier (United Soccer League): The USL announced its new men's Division-I professional league will be called the USL Premier when it starts playing in 2028 with a long-term goal of 20 teams. The USL is currently reviewing applications from clubs interested in competing in USL Premier and will announce those members at a later date. The USL Premier will be at the top of the men's professional USL pyramid followed by the USL Championship as a Division-II league and the USL League One as a Division-III. The USL has future plans to implement a promotion and relegation system across these leagues.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two recently announced the addition of four teams called the Shark Coast FC (New Smyrna, FL), West Texas FC (Midland), Fort Worth Vaqueros FC and San Antonio FC 2, which is being started by the San Antonio FC of the USL Championship. The West Texas and Fort Worth clubs were part of the National Premier Soccer League last season. The USL League Two also announced its 2026 alignment will feature 158 teams in 20 divisions across 4 regional conferences. Teams will play 12 to 14 regular-season games within their division followed by playoffs.
OTHER
Ultimate Frisbee Association: The men's professional UFA announced a slight realignment for the upcoming 2026 season. Last season's 24 teams were aligned in 4 six-team divisions but the league lost the Detroit Mechanix from the Central Division and the Los Angeles Aviators from the South Division. For 2026, the Vegas Bighorns will move from the West Division to the South Division creating a 22-team alignment with six-team East and South divisions and five-team Central and West divisions.
Pro Padel League: The PPL announced its 2026 season schedule will again feature ten mixed-gender teams across the United States, Canada and Mexico and each playing in four regular-season events from July 9 through November 22, 2026, followed by the Cup Finals in Miami (December 3-6). Host locations will include New York (July 9-12), Los Angeles (August 13-16), Playa del Carmen, Mexico (September 24-27) and Guadalajara, Mexico (November 19-22). The sport of padel, also known as padel tennis, is a racket sport that is a mix of squash and tennis and usually played in doubles on an enclosed court surrounded by walls of glass and metallic mesh. All teams will compete at each event and earn points based on results of teams in both men's and women's divisions.
Pro Bowlers Association Elite League: The PBA will return for a second season of the PBA Elite League "Battle of the Brands" in 2026 with six teams each representing a major bowling ball manufacturer. The league had eight branded teams last season but Brunswick dropped the Ebonite and DV8 teams and will have only the Brunswick and Hammer teams. Storm Products will again have the Storm, Roto Grip and 900 Global teams and MOTIV will return with the MOTIV team. The PBA Elite League will consist of 14 regular-season PBA Tour single events. Brand managers will select five players from their ten-team rosters before each event and competition points earned by those five players count for the respective team's total. The first tour event is February 22, 2026.
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 February 2, 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.
