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 Federal Prospects Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
September 15, 2014 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)


BASEBALL

Appalachian League: Shortly after the Pulaski (VA) Mariners of the rookie-level Appalachian League announced last week the team will not return in 2015, the New York Yankees announced plans to add a team called the Pulaski Yankees as a new affiliate and member of the Appalachian League. The Yankees last had a team called the Paintsville (KY) Yankees for four seasons (1979-82) in the league. The Yankees operated two pure rookie-level teams in the complex-based Gulf Coast League in 2014 and they could shut down one of those teams with the addition of the Pulaski team.

New York-Penn League: With the Jamestown (NY) Jammers of the short-season Class-A NYPL moving to Morgantown (WV) for the 2015 season, the team will undergo a name change and a name-the-team contest has been announced.

South Atlantic League: The city of Fayetteville (NC), which was home to previous teams in the low Class-A South Atlantic League, has entered into discussions with investors to consider developing a baseball stadium for a minor league team. The city had the Fayetteville Generals team that became the Cape Fear Crocs for the 1997 season, but it moved to become the league's current Lakewood BlueClaws for the 2001 season.

Mount Rainier Professional Baseball League: The new independent MRPBL plans to start play in 2015 with at least six teams based in the Pacific Northwest. As of now, the league lists five teams called the Centralia (WA) Minotaurs, Grays Harbor Gulls (Hoquiam, WA), Moses Lake (WA) Rattlesnakes, Oregon City (OR) Sasquatch and the Skagit Valley Steelheads (Mount Vernon, WA).

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association Development League (D-League): The NBA's D-League announced its 2014-15 schedule and alignment. The 18 teams will be aligned into an Eastern Conference with a five-team Atlantic Division and a four-team Central Division and a Western Conference with a five-team West Division and a four-team Southwest Division. In the off-season, the Springfield (MA) Armor relocated to become the Grand Rapids Drive and the Tulsa 66ers moved to Oklahoma City where the team is expected to be renamed, possibly the Oklahoma City Blue. The league also added a new team called the Westchester (NY) Knicks. Seventeen of the 18 D-League teams have single-affiliation relationships with NBA teams. Seven of those affiliated teams are owned and operated by the NBA team.

Independent Basketball Association: The IBA started its 2014-15 Winter Season this weekend with a division of six full-schedule teams and a division of seven partial-schedule teams, or "branding teams". This is the IBA's fourth Winter Season having started play in 2011-12. The league has also played three Spring Seasons in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

American Basketball Association: The Miami Midnites team, which recently completed its inaugural season as a member of the spring-summer Florida Basketball Association, will play year-round basketball and join the ABA for its 2014-15 fall-winter season while continuing to be part of the FBA. The ABA announced a team called the Delta Storm (Jonesboro, AR) will return to the league in January 2015. The Delta Storm played in the 2011-12 ABA season with the team based in Helena-West Helena (AR). It looks like the league's previously announced Providence (RI) Anchors expansion team is now called the Providence Sky Chiefs.

FOOTBALL

Indoor Football League: The IFL team list no longer includes the Allen-based Texas Revolution team, which is expected to be part of the new Champions Indoor Football for the 2015 season. Texas was replaced in the five-team United Conference by the new Iowa Barnstormers (Des Moines) team, whose ownership moved the team from the Arena Football League. The Intense Conference has grown to six teams with the addition of new teams called the Wichita Falls (TX) Nighthawks and Billings (MT) Wolves.

North American Football League: The new NAFL has announced it will start play in 2015 as a professional spring outdoor league with eight charter teams called the Birmingham (AL) Freedom, Columbus (OH) Flight, Hartford Merchantmen, Kentucky Thoroughbreds (Louisville), Memphis Kings, North Carolina Redwolves (Raleigh-Durham), Orlando Sentinels and Virginia Crusaders (Richmond). The league will own all teams for the first four years and plans to expand to 16 teams by 2019.

Independent Women's Football League: The IWFL announced a new Denver-based team called the Colorado Freeze will join for the league's 2015 season.

Women's Spring Football League: The owner of the women's Erie Illusion football team, which left the Independent Women's Football League at the beginning of the 2014 season, has purchased the WSFL. The Erie Illusion will be part of the reorganized WSFL for the 2015 season.

Central Canada Women's Football League: The new Ontario-based CCWFL was announced earlier this summer and the league plans to have four teams when its starts play in the spring of 2015. Exact locations have not been announced for teams called the Knights, Monarchs, Rays and Stingers.

HOCKEY

Federal Hockey League: The minor professional FHL has replaced the proposed Berlin (NH) RiverDrivers expansion team with a team called the Berkshire Battalion, based in North Adams (MA), for the upcoming 2014-15 season. Earlier this year, the proposed new North Atlantic Professional Hockey League was going to place a team called the Berkshire Black Bears in North Adams, but the league decided to postpone its inaugural season until the 2015-16 season. At that time, the FHL considered adding the Black Bears for its 2014-15 season, but had concerns about the financial stability of the ownership group. The FHL will operate the new Berkshire Battalion team and the league will have six teams this season.

Western States Hockey League: The Boulder (CO) Bison of the junior-level WSHL, which is a member of the Amateur Athletic Union and not affiliated with USA Hockey, has changed its name to the Colorado RoughRiders. The league lost the Dallas Ice Jets and Texas Brahmas teams from last season, but added six expansion teams to grow to 28 teams. Also, the New Mexico Renegades moved to become the Springfield (MO) Express.

North American Hockey League: The United States only Tier-II junior hockey league known as the NAHL started its 2014-15 season with 24 teams in 4 divisions. In the off-season, the Port Huron (MI) Fighting Falcons moved to Connellsville (PA) to become the Keystone Ice Miners.

SOCCER

Major Arena Soccer League: The Los Angeles-based Chivas USA club in the MLS could sit out the 2015 season as the league tries to find a new owner and a new stadium for the team. The league took over the Chivas USA team prior to the 2014 season and has been trying to find new ownership to keep the team in the Los Angeles market. The league wants to move the team out of its current home at the StubHub Center that is shared with the league's Los Angeles Galaxy. The league could have 20 teams next season without Chivas USA in the Western Conference. Kansas City and Houston would move to the Western Conference with expansion teams in New York City and Orlando joining the Eastern Conference to create two ten-team conferences.

United Soccer Leagues - PRO: The Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer wants to build a new 8,000-seat soccer stadium in Salt Lake City that would become home to its own USL PRO affiliate to be called the Real Monarchs. The USL PRO team would start play in 2015 at Real Salt Lake's stadium and move to the proposed new stadium in 2016. The Canadian Soccer Association announced it will limit the number of USL PRO teams in Canada and these teams must be affiliated with the three Canadian MLS teams in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Vancouver and Montreal are establishing their own USL PRO affiliates and Toronto has yet to make an announcement. Half of the players on these Canadian USL PRO teams must be Canadian and 6 of the 11 starting players must be Canadian.

Major Arena Soccer League: The new MASL, which was created by the merger of the Major Indoor Soccer League and Professional Arena Soccer League after the 2013-14 season, announced its inaugural 2014-15 season schedule that will feature 23 teams each playing a 20-game schedule from late October 2014 to early March 2015. The teams will be aligned into a five-team Eastern Division and three six-team Central, Southern and Pacific divisions. The Toros Mexico (Tijuana) team, which played as part of the PASL last season, was unable to find a suitable facility and will be part of the MASL's developmental Premier Arena Soccer League for 2014-15. The Toros will be the developmental team for the MASL's Ontario (CA) Fury.

OTHER

Women's Premier League Rugby: The WPL started its 2014 season this weekend with eight teams. The Red Conference includes the Atlanta Harlequins, D.C. Furies (Washington), New York RC and Twin Cities Amazons, while the Blue Conference features the Berkeley (CA) All-Blues, Glendale (CA) Raptors, Oregon Sports Union and San Diego Surfers.

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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