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 Indoor Football League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
October 21, 2013 - Indoor Football League (IFL)


BASEBALL

Pacific Coast League: The new El Paso Triple-A PCL team, which operated as the Tucson Padres for the past two seasons, will announce the team name next week. Choices in a name-the-team contest were Aardvarks, Buckaroos, Chihuahuas, Desert Gators and Sun Dogs.

Appalachian League: The Bristol (VA) White Sox of the advanced-rookie Appalachian League have changed their affiliation from the Chicago White Sox to the Pittsburgh Pirates, effective with the 2014 season. An official team name for the new Pittsburgh affiliate was not announced. The Bristol team had been an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox in the league since the 1995 season.

California League: Due to the recent failure to finance construction of a new ballpark for the Bakersfield Blaze of the high Class-A Cal League, the search has begun to find a new location for the team. The current Bakersfield ballpark is the oldest in the ten-team league and does not meet professional standards. These events could stir up a previous plan discussed over the past few years in which Bakersfield and one other Cal League team would be sold and switched to the high Class-A Carolina League.

New York-Penn League: West Virginia University broke ground on its new ballpark in Morgantown that is expected to ready for the 2015 baseball season. The ballpark is also expected to become home to a relocated team in the short-season Class-A NYPL.

New York Collegiate Baseball League: The summer-collegiate NYCBL announced it will grow to 13 teams in 2014 with the addition of teams called the Cortland Crush and Genesee Rapids (Houghton, NY).

BASKETBALL

Central Basketball League: The CBL has added four North Carolina-based teams to increase to nine teams for its 2014 season. The four new teams include the Raleigh Roughriders, Durham Dragonflies, Gastonia Golden Starz and Garner Grayhawks.

Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional: Mexico's top basketball league known as the LNBP started its 2013-14 schedule during the last week of September with 14 teams. Of the 16 teams from last season, the Barreteros de Zacatecas, Guerreros de Guerrero Cumple and Osos de Guadalajara did not return. A new Acapulco-based team called the Angeles de Guerrero was added, but the Angeles had to delay its start by a couple of weeks due to hurricane damage in Acapulco. The league's Halcones de la Universidad Veracruz-Xalapa just started play this week after the university decided to quit sponsoring the Halcones professional team. The state of Veracruz stepped in to operate the team now referred to as the Halcones de Xalapa.

Women's American Basketball Association: The WABA, which is affiliated with the men's American Basketball Association, has been trying to get off the ground over the past couple of years and plans to start play in 2014 with teams aligned in four geographic regions across the United States. The league currently has ten teams listed. The Boston-based New England Stormers team is now the New England Falcons. The women's team affiliated with the men's Jersey Express will be called the Jersey Expressions. A team called the Flint Monarchs was recently added to the Mid-West region.

Independent Basketball Association: The IBA has started its 2013-14 winter season with eight teams called the Battle Creek Flight, Kankakee County Soldiers, Kenosha Ballers, Lake County Stars, Lansing Capitals, Rockford Riverdawgs, St. Louis Trotters and the expansion Windy City Blazers (Aurora, IL).

Florida Basketball Association: The four-team FBA announced it will add a team based in Miami for its 2014 season.

FOOTBALL

X-League Indoor Football: The X-League announced two new teams called the Georgia Stealth (Gwinnett County/Atlanta) and the Pennsylvania Steam (Reading) will be part of the inaugural 2014 season. The X-League is expected to have at least six teams that will also include the St. Louis Attack, Georgia Rampage (Dalton), Florida Marine Raiders (Lakeland) and another expansion team based in Birmingham (AL). The ownership of the new Pennsylvania Steam also owns the league's St. Louis Attack, as well as the Reading-based Pennsylvania Roar and St. Louis Ambush teams in the Major Indoor Soccer League. Another Atlanta team called the Sharks was recently announced by American Indoor Football.

Continental Indoor Football League: The CIFL has re-released its 2014 season schedule with the recent addition of the Chicago Slaughter team from the Indoor Football League. Chicago has been added to the CIFL North division and the league increases from nine to ten teams.. The Chicago Slaughter previously played three seasons (2007-09) in the CIFL before moving to the IFL.

Indoor Football League: The IFL announced its 2014 season schedule and league alignment that will feature a four-team United Conference and a five-team Intense Conference. The new Bemidji (MN) Axemen team was added to the Intense Conference for 2014. The league announced the Chicago Slaughter, which has been part of the league since the 2010 season, is no longer a part of the league and was removed from the United Conference. The Chicago Slaughter returned to the Continental Indoor Football League where it previously played for three seasons (2007-09). With the announcement of a new X-League Indoor Football team in Reading (PA) for the 2014 season, the owners of the IFL's former Reading Express franchise, which last played in the 2011and 2012 seasons of the IFL, made an official announcement it has discontinued operations indefinitely. The Reading Express started play in the 2006 American Indoor Football League, which evolved into the American Indoor Football Association in 2007. The Express played four seasons (2007-10) in the AIFA before switching to the IFL in 2011.

Professional Indoor Football League: The Harrisburg (PA) Stampede, which joined the PIFL for the 2014 season from the 2013 American Indoor Football, announced the team will play its home games in Hershey (PA), about 15 miles outside of Harrisburg.

Lone Star Football League: The new Odessa-based team in the indoor LSFL will be called the West Texas Wildcatters when the team starts play in 2014. The LSFL had an Odessa-based team called the West Texas Roughnecks in its inaugural 2012 season, but the owner put the team up for sale after the season. The Roughnecks had been around since the 2004 season and played as the Odessa Roughnecks through the 2009 season.

Ultimate Indoor Football League: A new team called the Miami Inferno has been added to the UIFL. The league lost three of its 2013 teams to the new X-League Indoor Football. The UIFL currently has three teams-the Miami Inferno and the returning Corpus Christi Fury and Florida Tarpons (Fort Myers area). The UIFL had announced a new team called the Miami Sting prior to the 2013 season, but it was terminated by the league prior to the start of the season.

HOCKEY

ECHL: The 22-team ECHL, which is billed as the Premier "AA" Hockey League, has started its 2013-14 season. The league had 23 teams last season, but the Trenton Titans ceased operations after the 2012-13 season. Trenton was removed from the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division.

Central Hockey League: The ten-team CHL started its 2013-14 season this past week and again has all teams aligned into the Berry Conference. Of the ten teams from last season, the Fort Worth Brahmas and Bloomington Blaze did not return, but the league added two expansion teams called the Brampton (Ontario) Beast and the St. Charles (MO) Chill.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: The MLS denied reports the league was planning to switch to a European-style calendar as early as 2014. If adopted, the ten-month season would start in late July or early August and end in late May or early June with a six- to eight-week winter break. The 2013 MLS regular-season ran from early March through this week. The league president will visit Orlando next week where a vote by Orange County officials will be held on funding for a new downtown soccer stadium. If the vote passes, the owner of the city's Orlando City SC Lions team, a current member of the United Soccer Leagues PRO league, will enter into negotiations with the MLS for an expansion team.

National Premier Soccer League: The elite-level men's NPSL announced the addition an expansion team called the Nashville Atlas FC that will play in the Southeast Conference of the South Region in 2014. The NPSL has also made expansion into the Pacific Northwest a priority and recently held a meeting in Portland (OR) with prospective owners for a possible conference of four to six teams.

United Soccer Leagues - PRO: The previously announced new USL PRO team called the Sacramento Republic plans to start play in March 2014, but is still negotiating a lease for its home field.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the "The Leagueology Almanac 2012-13", which tracks the changes in league alignments, franchise movements and team nicknames in today's sports world. The publication is currently available at www.amazon.com.

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Indoor Football League Stories from October 21, 2013


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