Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on March 2, 2026 under Premier Lacrosse League (PLL)

BASEBALL

Appalachian League: The city of Bristol (VA) has decided not to move forward on construction of a new stadium for the Bristol State Liners team in the summer-collegiate Appy League, which operates under the Major League Baseball and USA Baseball Prospect Development Pipeline. Original plans were to build the stadium across the state line in Bristol (TN) but that failed and Bristol (VA) stepped up in August 2025. While trying to build a stadium, the State Liners have not had their own home for the past two seasons. The team played home games at other Appy League stadiums in Greeneville (TN) in 2024 and Johnson City (TN) in 2025. The team announced in November it would sit out the 2026 season and return when the new stadium was completed in 2027 but now the team's future is uncertain.

Coastal Plain League: The summer-collegiate CPL's new Zebulon (NC) team will be called the Zebulon Devil Dogz when it starts playing in the 2026 season. 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. The team's name is a reference to Australia's scavenger called the Tasmanian Devil, as well as the Zebulon-based jeans manufacturer Devil-Dog Dungarees. Other Australian-themed nickname choices were the Bushrangers, Croc Hunters, Iron Horses and 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.

Midwest League: The Lake County Captains (Eastlake, OH) of the High-A Midwest League will celebrate the tradition of the Lenten Friday fish fry and play two games in 2026 as the Lake County Fish Fry's.

Pacific Coast League: The Triple-A PCL's Round Rock (TX) Express, whose name is tied to the railroad industry, will play select games in 2026 as the Round Rock Train Bandits to remember the state's train-robbing Sam Bass Gang from the 1870s. The team will play a game in 2026 (May 29) as the Round Rock Donuts to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the city's popular doughnut shop called Round Rock Donuts that was established in 1926. The PCL's Salt Lake Bees will play every Wednesday home game in 2026 as the Utah Dirty Sodas sponsored by Swig, a soda fountain chain that makes "dirty sodas" by mixing creams and syrups with traditional carbonated beverages.

South Atlantic League: The Rome (GA) Emperors of the High-A SAL will play as the Georgia Summer Legends from July 17 to August 6, 2026, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Atlanta hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics.

BASKETBALL

East Coast Basketball League: The semi-pro ECBL recently started its 2026 season with 17 teams aligned in a six-team Northern Conference, a five-team Central Conference and a six-team Southern Conference. Each team will play 14 games from February 9 through June 7, 2026. One other team, last season's Philly Raiders, is listed as a travel-only team scheduled to play four games in 2026. The ECBL finished the 2025 season with 16 teams in 4 divisions after losing the LetItFly Webdogs (Spartanburg, SC) during the season. For the 2026 season, the league lost the Rowan County (NC) Bulls, Hickory (NC) Hoyas and Garden City Magic (Augusta, GA); the Philly Raiders became a travel-only team; and the DC Heat (Alexandria, VA) moved to The Basketball League. The ECBL added new members called the Charlotte Blue Jackets and the Balling Brothers (Dillon, NC) along with the return of former ECBL teams called the Carolina Chosen Lions (Rocky Mount, NC), North Carolina Capitals (Raleigh), North Carolina Coyotes (Durham) and the SC Upstate Redhawks (Greenville/Spartanburg, SC). Last season's Fayetteville (NC) Panthers moved to Florence (SC) as the Carolina Panthers and the Winston-Salem Wolves became the Winston-Salem Wolfpack. A team called the Sparkle City Renegades (Spartanburg, SC) was announced for 2026 but was dropped for failing to meet certain league deadlines.

Women's American Basketball Association-West: The semi-pro WABA's new WABA-West announced its inaugural 2026 season will feature four teams called the Arizona Ice (Phoenix), Colorado Phoenix (Colorado Springs), Denver Dynasty and the New Mexico Lady Bullsnakes (Albuquerque). Arizona and Colorado will play four games and Denver and New Mexico will play six games from April 11 through June 28, 2026. A previously listed fifth team called the Rio Rancho (NM) Lady Roadrunners was not part of the announced schedule.

FOOTBALL

American Football League Europe: The new professional AFLE American-style football league announced its seventh team will be called the Firenze Red Lions and based in the city of Florence (Italy) when the team starts playing in the league's inaugural 2026 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, announced the Indianapolis Capitols (Caps) as the fourth team in the Northern Division along with the Cincinnati Dukes, Michigan Arrows (Detroit) and Ohio Ironmen (Wheeling, WV). A team called the Indianapolis Capitols played the final two seasons (1968 and 1969) in the 1960s version of the CoFL that operated from 1965 through 1969. The CoFL's Southern Division currently has three Texas-based teams called the Tall City Black Gold (Midland), San Antonio Toros and the Texas Syndicate (Austin).

National Football League: An NFL owners' meeting to be held at the end of this month could decide where the league's Jacksonville Jaguars will play their 2027 home games while the team's home at EverBank Stadium is closed for major renovations. Orlando's Camping World Stadium is the expected choice but the University of Florida's stadium in Gainesville is also under consideration. The renovations started in 2025 and the stadium will have limited capacity in 2026 when the team will play two of its eight home games in London. The team could play as many as three home games overseas during the 2027 season.

United States Arena League: The fall-season developmental USAL announced ten teams that are expected to be part of the league's 2026 season. The teams include the Indianapolis Enforcers, Ohio Boom (Lima), Michigan Island Boyz (Detroit), Goshen (IN) Guardians, Columbus (IN) Vipers, Midwestern Bulldogs (Fort Wayne), Westchester Apaches (Chicago), Mississippi Stallions (Tunica), Capital City Red Dogs (Lansing, MI) and the St. Paul (MN) Bears.

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: The AHL's Providence (RI) Bruins played a "Rebrand Night" game this weekend as the Providence Fightin' Parms in a tribute to Rhode Island's Italian population.

ECHL: The ECHL's Worcester (MA) Railers played two games this weekend as the Worcester Monkey Wrenches to honor the monkey wrench, which was invented in Worcester by the Coes Wrench Company in 1840.

National Hockey League: The NHL has two groups trying to build an arena in the northern suburbs of Atlanta for a future NHL expansion team. One proposed arena would be at The Gathering at South Forsyth near Cumming (GA) and the other would be about six miles south on the site of the North Point Mall in Alpharetta (GA). In addition to the costs of a new arena, each group would need to come up with the $2 billion expansion fee if selected by the NHL. There has been talk of reviving the Thrashers name for a new team but calling the team the Georgia Thrashers instead of the Atlanta Thrashers, which was the city's last NHL team that moved to Winnipeg in 2011.

SOCCER

National Women's Soccer League: The majority ownership of Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew wants to add an NWSL expansion team in Columbus (OH) with the team playing at the Crew's home stadium. Columbus is one of several prospective markets interested an NWSL expansion team that would become the league's 18th team. The 16-team NWSL previously awarded the 17th expansion team to Atlanta that will start in 2028, but the league does not have a current timeline for adding an 18th team. Columbus will be hosting the NWSL Challenge Cup game in June featuring the top two teams from the 2025 season. The Ohio cities of Cleveland and Cincinnati were finalists in the last round of NWSL expansion but lost out to Denver for the 16th team.

Ligue1 Quebec: The pro-am Ligue1 Quebec, which is part of the Premier Soccer Leagues Canada (formerly League1 Canada), recently announced the 2026 alignments for its men's and women's divisions. The top men's Ligue1 will grow from 10 to 12 teams in a single-table format with the promotion of the CS LaSalle and AS Gatineau from Ligue2, and each team will play 22 games. The men's Ligue2 will have 12 teams in six-team Groups A and B with each team playing 16 games. The men's Ligue3 will have 25 teams in two groups with each group split into two divisions and teams playing 16-18 games. The top women's Ligue1 will grow from 10 to 12 teams with the promotion of Lakeshore SC and CS St. Laurent from Ligue2. Teams are aligned in six-team groups and each team will play 16 games. The women's Ligue2 remains at ten teams in a single-table format with each team playing 18 games. The women's Ligue3 will have nine teams in a single-table format and each playing 16 games.

MLS NEXT Pro (Major League Soccer): Major League Soccer's Division-III reserve league called the MLS NEXT Pro started its 2026 season this week with 30 teams each playing 28 games through September 20, 2026. All 27 teams affiliated with MLS teams and the 2 independent teams from last season have returned and the league added a third independent team called the Connecticut United FC (Bridgeport). Three of the 30 MLS teams, the CF Montreal, D.C. United and San Diego FC, do not currently operate reserve teams in MLS NEXT Pro. After operating the past two seasons as The Town FC under an agreement with The Town Group, the San Jose Earthquakes is again operating their MLS NEXT Pro team that will revert back to its previous name as the Quakes II for the 2026 season. The Eastern Conference has eight-team Northeast and Southeast divisions with the Connecticut United FC added to the Northeast Division and the Chicago Fire II moving to the Southeast Division. The Western Conference again has seven-team Frontier and Western divisions.

USL League One (United Soccer League): The South Georgia Tormenta FC (Statesboro, GA) of the Division-III professional USL League One announced the team is withdrawing from the upcoming 2026 season that starts next week. The club stated it will continue to operate its youth and Academy programs. The Tormenta FC played three seasons (2016-18) in the pre-professional USL League Two before joining the inaugural season of the USL League One in 2019. The USL League Two team operated as the Tormenta FC 2 for the next four seasons (2019-22). With the loss of Tormenta FC, the USL League One is down to 17 teams for the 2026 season.

OTHER

Premier Lacrosse League: The men's professional field lacrosse PLL started its off-season PLL Championship Series this weekend in Springfield (VA) with the four top teams (New York Atlas, Denver Outlaws, California Redwoods and Carolina Chaos) from last season competing in a round-robin tournament and playing the Olympic Sixes (six-player) version of lacrosse instead of the PLL's normal 10-on-10 version. All four women's teams (Boston Guard, California Palms, Maryland Charm and New York Charging) from the affiliated Women's Lacrosse League will be playing a similar tournament format alongside the PLL as part of the WLL Championship Series.

American Post Collegiate League: The proposed new APCL is a new women's softball league that will start as a Kansas City-based league in 2026 and serve as the minor league system for the new Professional Softball League, which plans to start this summer with seven previously independent professional teams. The APCL will operate as a division of the American Collegiate League that operates several regional women's summer-collegiate softball leagues across the United States. APCL teams will play 25 games from June 13 to July 13, 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.

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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.