Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on March 9, 2026 under National Arena League (NAL)
BASEBALL
Pecos League: The Monterey (CA) Amberjacks of the independent Pecos League have not been able to work out a suitable ballpark lease agreement with the city and the team will not be part of the 2026 season. The league has restarted the Austin Weirdos team, which sat out the 2025 season due to a lack of a home ballpark, as a travel-only team that will be based in California and play a 54-game road schedule. The Austin Weirdos will replace Monterey in the six-team California-based Pacific Division for the 2026 season.
American Association: The Lake Country DockHounds (Oconomowoc, WI) of the independent American Association will play a three-game home series (July 7-9) during the 2026 season as the Wisconsin Dive Bars to honor the local drinking establishments known as "dive bars" that are part of Wisconsin's culture. The league's Fargo-Morehead RedHawks will play five home games during the 2026 season as the Fargo Woodchippers in a tribute to the 1996 "Fargo" movie that had an infamous "woodchipper" scene.
Southern League: As part of the "Knox Vegas Nights" promotion, the Knoxville (TN) Smokies of the Double-A Southern League will play select games during the 2026 season as the Knox Vegas, which is one of the city's nicknames and pays tribute to the high-energy atmosphere of game nights and the city's high-traffic Cumberland Avenue that is known as "The Strip."
BASKETBALL
94x50 League: The new 94x50 men's professional basketball league, which was recently named for the dimensions (94 feet by 50 feet) of a basketball court, started its inaugural 2026 season this week with eight teams aligned in a single-table format. The teams in the new league were originally supposed to be a seven-team Eastern Conference in the 2026 restart of the United States Basketball League (USBL) but they broke away to form the new 94x50 League. The 94x50 teams include the new Baltimore Rhythm and former 2025 TBL teams called the Capital Seahawks (Bowie, MD), Reading Rebels, Frederick (MD) Flying Cows, New York Phoenix (Schenectady), Jersey Shore Breaks, Virginia Valley Vipers and San Diego Sharks, who were originally listed as a USBL Western Conference team. San Diego is scheduled for 18 games and other teams will play 24 games through June 6, 2026.
United States Basketball League: The men's springtime professional USBL, which started in 1985 and has been dormant since completing its 2007 season, restarted this week with eight western teams aligned in a single-table format and each team playing 22 to 24 games through May 31, 2026. Teams include the Bakersfield Majestics, Los Angeles Blue Waves (renamed from the Long Beach Blue Waves), Salem (OR) Capitals and Seattle SuperHawks from the 2025 The Basketball League (TBL), along with new teams called the San Diego Surf, Yakima (WA) Heat, Spokane (WA) Lilac City Legends and the Vancouver (WA) Bears, who evolved from the 2025 TBL's Vancouver Volcanoes. The USBL's original plan was to have 14 teams in 7-team Eastern and Western conferences but the 7 Eastern Conference teams, 6 of which were from the 2025 TBL, broke away to form the recently named 94x50 League that is also starting this month.
The Basketball League: The men's minor professional TBL recently started its 2026 season with 38 teams that were part of the recent player draft and are listed on a schedule that runs through May 24, 2026, with most teams playing 16 to 24-plus games. The alignment from the 2026 schedule features a 7-team West Conference, an 8-team Midwest Conference, a 7-team Central Conference and a 16-team East Conference that is split into a 4-team Atlantic Canada, a 6-team Mid-Atlantic and a 6-team South Atlantic. The TBL finished the 2025 season with 33 teams, lost 19 teams and added 24 teams for 2026-schedule teams. Of the 19 non-returning teams, 12 left for the new United States Basketball League or the new 94x50 League. Other non-returning teams include the Logansport (IN) Iron Horses, Connecticut Crusaders (Bridgeport), Rochester (NY) Kingz, San Antonio Clutch, and Savannah Buccaneers, along with the Wenatchee (WA) Bighorns and Albany (NY) Patroons that are sitting out the 2026 season. Two of the 24 new teams are the Glass City Wranglers (Toledo) and Newfoundland Rogues (St. John's) that returned to the TBL after playing last season in the Basketball Super League. Five other new 2026 teams played as partial-schedule teams in 2025 and include the Tri-State Admirals (Elizabeth, NJ), CYM Leopards (Lewisville, TX), Port City Power (Saint John, New Brunswick), the New England Kraken (Boston), which changed from the Providence-based Rhode Island Kraken, and the Muskogee (OK) Skykings, which changed from the Western Oklahoma Skykings. The other 17 new teams are the Florida Flight (4 scheduled games), Mesquite (NV) Desert Dogs (was Nevada Silverbacks and only 11 scheduled games), D.C. Heat from the East Coast Basketball League, DMV Soldiers (Charles County, MD), First State Misfits (Dover, DE), Fayetteville (NC) Liberty, Kissimmee (FL) Lambs, Grove City (OH) Whitetails, Columbus (OH) Wizards, Hamilton County (IN) Huskers, ADS Sentinels (San Antonio), Dallas Stampede (originally announced as the Sherman Stampede), 4 Bears Roar (New Town, ND), Grant County (WA) Red Tails, Mesa (AZ) Monsoon, Tri-Cities (Pasco, WA) Sun Devils and the Lehigh Valley Flight (Allentown, PA) from the Maximum Basketball League. A team called the Memphis Lions is a TBL affiliated team and is scheduled for three games in the South Atlantic. Teams called the Crawfordsville (IN) Commanders, Highland Herd (Antigonish, Nova Scotia), Cowlitz County (WA) Sasquatch and Yakima (WA) Sun Kings were announced as new teams but did not make it to the 2026 season.
Women's National Basketball Association: The WNBA and the WNBA Players' Association have been unable to come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement and league officials stated a deal needs to be reached by March 10 or risk delaying the start of the 2026 season.
FOOTBALL
American Football League Europe: The new professional AFLE American-style football league added a yet-to-be-named team in London (England) as the eighth team for the league's inaugural 2026 season. The AFLE will be comprised of four teams from the 2025 European League of Football (ELF) and four new teams. A North/West Conference will feature the new London team, the new Alpine Rams (Biel/Bienne, Switzerland), the new Paris Lights and the Rhein Fire (Dusseldorf, Germany) from the ELF. The East/South Conference will include the new Firenze Red Lions (Florence, Italy) and three former ELF teams called the Berlin Thunder, Vienna Vikings (Austria) and Wroclaw Panthers (Poland). Each team will play 12 games from May 23 through August 23, 2026.
National Arena League: The NAL started its 2026 season this weekend with nine teams aligned in a single-table format and each team playing 10 league games and some non-league games through May 30, 2026. The league started last season with nine teams aligned in a five-team American Division and a four-team National Division but lost five teams and added five other teams for 2026. The Carolina Cobras (Greensboro, NC) dropped out midway through the 2025 season and did not return. The Idaho Horsemen (Nampa) will sit out the 2026 season as the team looks to relocate, possibly to Arizona. The Beaumont (TX) Renegades left to join the Arena Football One (AF1) while the Columbus (GA) Lions and Wheeling (WV) Miners left for a restart of the American Arena League. The NAL added new teams called the Pueblo (CO) Punishers, Dallas Bulls and Amarillo Warbirds (originally the West Texas Warbirds) along with the Salina (KS) Liberty and Southwest Kansas Storm (Dodge City) from the AF1.
HOCKEY
Greater Ontario Hockey League: Canada's 23-team Junior-B GOHL, which serves as the development league for the major-junior Ontario Hockey League, announced it will expand to 24 teams next season with the addition of the Woodstock Navy Vets team from the Junior-C Provincial Junior Hockey League. Woodstock will be added to the Western Conference where an existing team will be moved to the Eastern Conference for the 2026-27 season.
Kootenay International Junior Hockey League: The 21-team KIJHL, which is a Junior-A Tier-2 league under BC Hockey (British Columbia), has approved the addition of a team in Summerland (British Columbia) for the 2026-27 season. The league had previous teams called the Summerland Sting (2001-09) and the Summerland Steam (2011-24). The KIJHL is expected to split its teams into Junior-A Tier-1 and Junior-A Tier-2 for the 2026-27 season.
SPHL: The SPHL's Peoria Rivermen played a game this week as the Peoria Twisters to honor former National Hockey League enforcer Tony Twist, who played parts of three seasons in Peoria with the Peoria Rivermen of the former International Hockey League.
SOCCER
Major League Soccer: Major League Soccer announced the schedule for the in-season 2026 Leagues Cup that will feature 18 select MLS teams and all 18 teams from Mexico's Liga MX playing in a tournament from August 4 through September 6, 2026, after the FIFA World Cup. Teams will be aligned in Eastern and Western conferences with each conference having three regional divisions comprised of six teams, three from MLS and three from Liga MX. Each team will play three games within its division against the three non-league divisional teams as part of Phase One. The top four MLS teams and the top Liga MX teams will then be ranked after Phase One and compete in the Knockout Rounds that will include quarterfinals, semifinals and championship.
USL Championship (United Soccer League): Despite no agreement between the USL and the USL Players Association on a new bargaining agreement, the Division-II professional USL Championship started its 2026 season this weekend with 25 teams aligned in a 13-team Eastern Conference and a 12-team Western Conference. Each team will play a 30-game schedule through October 24, 2026. Last season's 12-team Eastern Conference lost the North Carolina FC (Cary), which plans to return in the future as part of the new Division-I professional USL Premier, but added expansion teams called the Brooklyn FC and the Sporting Jacksonville SC. There were no changes to the Western Conference for 2026. In addition, all 25 USL Championship teams and all 17 USL League One teams will be part of an in-season Prinx Tires USL Cup Tournament, known as the USL Jagermeister Cup the past two seasons. The 42 teams will be aligned in 7 groups and each team will play 4 games in group-play in April, May, June and July followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and a championship in August, September and October.
USL League One (United Soccer League): The Division-III professional USL League One started its 2026 season this weekend with 17 teams aligned in a single-table format and each team playing 30 games through October 26, 2026. The league had 14 teams last season but lost two teams and added five new teams. Last season's Texoma FC (Sherman, TX) moved down to the pre-professional USL League Two while the South Georgia Tormenta FC (Statesboro) unexpectedly dropped out last week. The league added the Fort Wayne FC and Sarasota Paradise that played in the 2025 USL League Two along with the Athletic Club Boise, Corpus Christi FC and New York Cosmos (Paterson, NJ). The league currently lists the Sporting Cascades FC (Eugene, OR), Fort Lauderdale United FC, Rodeo FC (Celina, TX) and Port St. Lucie SC (Florida) as future clubs.
OTHER
Ultimate Frisbee Association: The men's professional UFA recently announced its 2026 season schedule will feature 22 teams aligned in 4 divisions with each team playing 12 games from April 24 through July 19, 2026, followed by playoffs. The league had 24 teams in 4 divisions last season but it lost the Detroit Mechanix from the Central Division and the Los Angeles Aviators from the South Division. For 2026, the Vegas Bighorns were moved from the West Division to the South Division creating an alignment with six-team East and South divisions and five-team Central and West divisions. After the 2025 season, the UFA's Denver-based team known as the Colorado Summit allowed the new Denver-based National Women's Soccer League expansion team to use the Summit name so the UFA team changed to the Colorado Apex ahead of the 2026 season.
Premier Ultimate League: The women's professional PUL ultimate frisbee league recently announced its 2026 season schedule that will feature ten teams aligned in five-team North and South divisions with each team playing six games from April 3 through June 7, 2026. The PUL had 11 teams last season but the Los Angeles Astra left the league and the South Division to return to the Western Ultimate League for 2026 after only one season in the PUL.
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.
National Arena League Stories from March 9, 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.
