Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
December 23, 2013 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)

BASEBALL

Southern League: The ten team owners from the Double-A Southern League have approved the relocation of the Huntsville Stars team to Biloxi (MS), where construction of a new stadium has been approved and it could be completed in time for the 2015 season. The league would still like to return a team to Huntsville in the future, but a new or renovated stadium would most likely be needed.

Florida State League: The Marion County (FL) commission delayed a vote on a sales tax increase being proposed to fund a new stadium in Ocala that could become home to the Tampa Yankees of the high Class-A FSL. The commission plans to study the stadium financing issue further and will discuss it next month.

American Association: The city of Joplin (MO) has decided to move forward on lease negotiations for its local stadium with the owners of the El Paso Diablos from the independent AA. The Diablos are sitting out the 2014 season in the AA due to the arrival of the El Paso Chihuahuas of the affiliated Triple-A Pacific Coast League. More negotiations will follow as a deal needs to be worked out on financing the major improvements needed for the stadium.

Pecos League: The independent Pecos League has officially announced two new Arizona-based baseball teams called the Bisbee Blue and Douglas Diablos will be part of a ten-team league for the 2014 season. Both teams will be added to the Southern Division.

West Coast League: The new Yakima (WA) team in the summer-collegiate WCL announced it will be called the Yakima Valley Pippins when it starts play in the 2014 season. The nickname is taken from a type of apple grown in the area. Yakima had been home to an affiliated team called the Yakima Bears in the short-season Class-A Northwest League, but that team moved to become the Hillsboro (OR) Hops for the 2013 season.

Michigan Summer Collegiate Baseball League: The new MSCBL plans to start play in 2014 with up to eight teams from Michigan with one of the teams being the Muskegon Clippers. The league will be affiliated with the summer-collegiate Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League and hopes to become a northern division of that league in 2015. The Great Lakes League is one of eight summer-collegiate leagues that are part of the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball (NACSB), which is certified by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and receives support from Major League Baseball.

BASKETBALL

Premier Basketball League: The PBL has finalized its expansion with the addition of the Fayetteville (NC) Shipmen team, which played the past four seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) as the Fayetteville Flight. The PBL also stated that a previously announced New York City team, which was based in New Rochelle and part of the ABA as the New York JAMM, will not be part of the 2014 PBL season. The league will have a total of 13 teams aligned in a seven-team East division and a six-team Midwest division.

Central Basketball League: The CBL has added a team called the Palm Beach Seagulls as its ninth Florida-based team in the Southeast Division.

Eastern Basketball Alliance: The EBA has added two new teams called the York (PA) Mighty Ants and Diamond City Playas (Wilkes-Barre, PA) to its Northern Division for the 2014 season, which will run from January through April.

FOOTBALL

American Indoor Football: The AIF announced its 2014 season schedule that will include seven teams. Of the five teams from last season, the Cape Fear Heroes (Fayetteville, NC), York (PA) Capitals and Washington Eagles return with the Eagles now operating as a travel-only team in 2014. The West Virginia Badgers did not return and the Harrisburg Stampede moved to the Professional Indoor Football League. The AIF added four new teams called the Atlanta Sharks, Baltimore Mariners, Cleveland Patriots and Rochester Raiders. Washington will play six road games, while the other six teams will each play four home games and three away games.

HOCKEY

Federal Hockey League: The FHL announced plans to play two games this season in neutral sites, as the league tests markets for expansion beyond its current four teams. The league's Watertown Privateers and Dayton Demonz will play a game in Winston-Salem (NC) on March 1, 2014. Another neutral-site game is being planned for Connellsville (PA), about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, between the Watertown Privateers and the Danville (IL) Dashers on March 22, 2014. Winston-Salem has had several previous minor hockey teams and most recently was home to the Twin City Cyclones for two seasons (2007-09) in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: Last season, four MLS teams had affiliations with four teams from the United Soccer Leagues PRO league instead of operating teams in the MLS Reserve League. These included the Sporting Kansas City/Orlando City Lions, Philadelphia Union/Harrisburg City Lions, New England Revolution/Rochester Rhinos and D.C. United/Richmond Kickers. These affiliations will continue in 2014, but the Sporting Kansas City will have an additional affiliation with the expansion Oklahoma Energy of the USL PRO because the Orlando City Lions will be moving up to the MLS for the 2015 season. Some other new MLS/USL PRO affiliations were announced for the 2014 season between the Houston Dynamos and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and the Columbus Crew and the Dayton Dutch Lions.

North American Soccer League: The men's Division II NASL announced the schedule for its 2014 spring season that will run from April 12 to June 8. The spring season will include ten teams with the return of all eight teams from the 2013 fall season, plus the addition of two new teams called the Ottawa (Ontario) Fury and the Indy Fuel (Indianapolis). Each team will play one game against the other nine teams in the league. Another proposed 2014 expansion team called the Virginia Cavalry (Ashburn) will not start play until the 2015 spring season.

United Soccer Leagues - PRO: The USL PRO league announced it will add a new team in Tulsa (OK) for the 2015 season. The league recently announced a new team in Colorado Springs would also join in 2015. New teams called the Oklahoma City Energy and Sacramento Republic FC are scheduled to join in 2014 and will replace the departing Antigua Barracuda FC and VSI Tampa Bay FC. The league also awarded the franchise rights to a new group in Phoenix, so the Phoenix FC Wolves will return in 2014.

United Soccer Leagues - W-League: The W-League announced the Pensacola-based Gulf Coast Texans team has been added for the 2014 season. The Gulf Coast Texans were part of the Women's Premier Soccer League for the past three seasons (2011-13). The Texans organization will also operate a women's team in the USL W-20 league and a men's team in the USL Super-20 league for elite players under 20.

United Soccer Leagues - Premier Development League: The PDL will add a Miami-area team called the Floridians FC for the 2014 season. The Floridians FC is a merger of the A.C. Miami and Schulz Academy clubs and it will be the only PDL team in southeast Florida for the 2014 season. The Fort Lauderdale-based Schulz Academy operated a PDL team for the past four seasons (2010-13).

National Premier Soccer League: The men's NPSL has added a team called the Del Ray City SC based in the Los Angeles area for the 2014 season. The team will be part of the West Region's Southwest Conference.

OTHER

Great Plains Rugby League: The Iowa City Crash, which was a proposed Midwest Conference team in the 2012 season of the American National Rugby League (AMNRL), is trying to form the regional Great Plains Rugby League (GPRL). The league hopes to develop an eight-team competition over the next two years with possible teams coming from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota and parts of Illinois.

Pacific Rugby Premiership: The proposed new PRP plans to have at least seven of the top Division-1 rugby clubs in the western United States competing in league-play from early February to mid-May 2014. The PRP announced five California-based clubs called the Belmont Shore Rugby Club (Long Beach), Olympic Club Blues (San Francisco), San Francisco Golden Gate RFC, Old Mission Beach AC (San Diego) and the Santa Monica Dolphins, along with two Colorado-based clubs called the Glendale Raptors and Denver Barbarians, for the first season. Except for Glendale, all of these teams at one time or another had been part of the nationwide Rugby Super League (RSL), which operated from 1997 through the 2012 season. Although the RSL did not play in 2013, USA Rugby sponsored a nine-team Elite Cup competition in 2013 that featured mostly former RSL teams. The Glendale Raptors, Denver Barbarians and San Francisco Golden Gate clubs were part of this Elite Cup competition in 2013.

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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