Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
August 4, 2014 - American Indoor Football (AIF)

BASEBALL

Arizona Fall League: The AzFL, which features top prospects from every team in Major League Baseball, announced the six teams and five different facilities that will participate in the league's 23rd season starting in October 2014. The East Division will feature the Mesa Solar Sox, Salt River Rafters and Scottsdale Scorpions, while the West Division will have the Glendale Desert Dogs, Peoria Javelinas and Surprise Saguaros. The Javelinas and Saguaros will share the Surprise Stadium. Five different MLB teams were assigned to each of the six AzFL teams to supply players for the 2014 season.

Pecos League: The Pecos League announced that the Douglas (AZ) Diablos and Raton (NM) Osos will not return for the 2015 season and the league is down to eight teams. Raton joined the league for the 2013 season, while Douglas was an expansion team for the 2014 season.

Coastal Plain League: With plans for a new ballpark and a new low Class-A South Atlantic League team moving to Columbia (SC), the Columbia Blowfish of the summer-collegiate Coastal Plain League plans to move to Lexington County (SC) where a new ballpark is expected to be ready for the 2015 season. The Blowfish had been using Capital City Stadium, which was home to the South Atlantic League's Capital City Bombers team prior to its move to Greenville (SC) for the 2005 season.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball League of Canada: The NBL-Canada voted to remove the ownership of the Ottawa SkyHawks due to the team's failure to meet certain league requirements. The league plans to drop the Ottawa team and operate with eight teams for the upcoming 2014-15 season. The SkyHawks joined the league as an expansion team for the 2013-14 season. Another potential owner appeared ready to help the SkyHawks, but the league wanted an additional fee to take over the Ottawa market.

National Basketball Association: In May 2014, the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats officially changed its name to the Charlotte Hornets. The NBA's original Charlotte Hornets franchise (1988-2002) moved to become the New Orleans Hornets for the 2002-03 season and Charlotte received another expansion franchise called the Charlotte Bobcats for the 2004-05 season. After the New Orleans Hornets changed its name to the Pelicans for the 2013-14 season, the Charlotte Bobcats lobbied to take back the Hornets team nickname.

Tobacco Road Basketball League: The TRBL officially announced teams called the Robeson County Showstoppers (Lumberton, NC), High Point (NC) Heat and Burlington (NC) Knights will be part of the 2014-15 season. The Heat was known as the Triad Heat and played a game in the 2014 TRBL season as one of the league's sanctioned opponents.

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): A resident of Asheville (NC) has started an effort to encourage the NBA's Charlotte Hornets to place an affiliated NBA D-League team in the city. A team called the Asheville Altitude played in the D-League's first four seasons (2001-05) before moving to Tulsa.

East Coast Basketball League: The proposed new spring-summer ECBL, which was created from teams that left the Tobacco Road Basketball League, is considering additional teams like the Fort Gordon Eagles (Augusta, GA) and Columbia (SC) Crusaders for membership. These two teams played exhibition games against two ECBL teams last weekend. A decision on new ECBL teams is expected to be announced after a league meeting is held on August 16, 2014. The league currently has five member teams.

FOOTBALL

X-League Indoor Football: The X-League announced the Cape Fear Heroes (Fayetteville, NC) will be part of the league's second season in 2015. The Heroes were part of American Indoor Football for the past three seasons (2012-14).

American Indoor Football: The AIF announced that a new ownership group has taken over the league's Cleveland territory and a new team called the Cleveland Saints will replace last season's Cleveland Patriots. Another team from last season called the Cape Fear Heroes (Fayetteville, NC) will not return to the AIF and has moved to the X-League Indoor Football. Five teams called the Atlanta Sharks, Baltimore Mariners, Rochester (NY) Raiders, York (PA) Capitals and Washington (DC) Eagles will return from last season. Currently, the AIF is at eight teams with the addition of other new teams called the Carolina Silverhawks (Winston-Salem, NC) a yet-to-be-named team in Buffalo (originally listed as the Gladiators).

Lone Star Football League: The indoor LSFL, which operated with four Texas-based teams and a New Mexico-based team during its third season in 2014, and the Midwest-based Champions Professional Indoor Football League are considering a merger for the 2015 season. The CPIFL had nine teams for its second season in 2014 with four teams in Kansas, two in Nebraska and one each in Illinois, Iowa and Oklahoma.

Fall Experimental Football League: The new Omaha-based team in the FXFL, a proposed fall outdoor league that hopes to start this October and become a developmental league for the National Football League, announced it will be called the Omaha Mammoths. The FXFL plans to have six teams with Omaha and Austin (TX) announced as the first two markets.

HOCKEY

Ligue Nord Americaine de Hockey (LNAH): The minor professional Quebec-based LNAH, or the North American Hockey League, has posted its 2014-15 season schedule that will again include eight teams. The league's Viking de Trois-Rivieres team has come under new ownership and was renamed the Cloutier Nord-Sud Trois-Rivieres. The Braves de Laval plans to change its name and is currently listed as the Predateurs Laval. The other six teams remain the same for the 2014-15 season.

SOCCER

Major Arena Soccer League: The new MASL, which was created through a merger of the Major Indoor Soccer League and the Professional Arena Soccer League after the 2013-14 season, announced a 23-team alignment for the 2014-15 season. The league listed 15 of the 20 teams from the 2013-14 PASL, 6 of the 7 teams from 2013-14 MISL and 2 new teams called the Brownsville Barracudas and Seattle Impact. The MASL listed a five-team Eastern Division and three six-team Central, Southern and Pacific divisions. The league was first announced in May 2014 with 24 teams, but since then former PASL teams called the Cincinnati Saints and Toros Mexico (Tijuana) have left and the Sacramento Surge of the 2013-14 PASL was added. The originally announced Tacoma Stars were renamed the Seattle Impact and the Beaumont-based Texas Strikers were purchased by the Oxford City Football Club and listed as the Oxford City FC of Texas. Shortly after the new MASL alignment was announced, the Rochester Lancers, one of the five teams to be part of the MASL Eastern Division, stated the team would not play in the 2014-15 MASL season due to a dispute with the league's scoring system.

Liga MX: Mexico's top soccer league known as Liga MX started its 2014-15 two-part (Apertura/Clausura) season a couple of weeks ago and again has 18 teams. The Leones Negros (Guadalajara) club was promoted to Liga MX from the Ascenso MX relegation league, while the Cancun-based Atlante club was relegated from the Liga MX to the Ascenso MX.

Premier Arena Soccer League: The Illinois Piasa team (Pontoon Beach), which played last season as part of the Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) and planned to move down a level to the PASL-Premier for 2014-15 with the creation of the new Major Arena Soccer League, has been renamed the FC Adenaline. The renamed club will partner with the St. Louis Ambush of the MASL and act as a feeder club to the Ambush. The Cincinnati Saints and the Cleveland Freeze, two teams from the 2013-14 season of the PASL, are expected to operate teams at the PASL-Premier level for the 2014-15 season.

OTHER

Continental Indoor Lacrosse League: The semi-pro CILL started its fourth season this weekend with nine teams. The seven teams called the Chicago Outlaws, Colorado Sabertooths, Columbus Brew, Detroit Coney Dogs, Grand Rapids Dragonfish, Milwaukee Marauders and Pittsburgh Octane all return from last season, plus the league has added the Cleveland Demons and Lansing Hot Rods. The Demons return after playing the 2012 season and sitting out last season. A team called the Lansing Lancers, which was not a full league member, played some games against CILL teams in 2013. The CILL operated as the Midwest Indoor Lacrosse Association for its first two seasons of 2011 and 2012. The CILL's seven-week season will run from August 2 to September 14, 2014.

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.

• Discuss this story on the American Indoor Football message board...

American Indoor Football Stories from August 4, 2014

• Larry Clark Named AIF Director of Operations - AIF
• 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.