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United States Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
December 1, 2014 - United States Hockey League (USHL)


BASEBALL

Southern League: The Double-A Southern League's relocated Huntsville (AL) Stars will be called the Biloxi (MS) Shuckers when the team starts play in 2015. The nickname is in reference to the city's seafood industry. Other proposed names included the Beacon, Blackjacks, Mullets, Schooner and Shrimpers. The Shuckers' new stadium is under construction and the team might play some games in Huntsville for the early portion of the 2015 schedule.

Myrtle Beach Winter League: The new professional instructional MBWL plans to play its inaugural three-week season in January 2015. This is a pay-to-play league that allows players to showcase their abilities to scouts from various independent baseball leagues. The proposed new East Coast Baseball League will be one of the leagues represented at the MWBL. Currently, six proposed teams called the Force, Mission, Prime, Sand Gnats, Splash and Tango are listed.

California Winter League: As the CWL prepares for its sixth annual month-long season in 2015, it has signed a two-year agreement to become the official winter league of the independent Frontier League. Frontier League managers and coaches will participate as instructors and the CWL will reserve at least 31 spring training slots for Frontier League players. The CWL is an instructional showcase league that provides various independent leagues a means of evaluating and signing players for the upcoming summer season. The CWL had ten teams in 2014 playing a three-week schedule from late January to mid-February.

Great West League: The new summer-collegiate baseball league called the Great West League, which plans to start play in 2016 with teams based in California and Oregon, announced a team called the Chico (CA) Heat and a yet-to-be-named team in Lodi (CA) will be part of the inaugural season.

South Atlantic League (SALLY): The owner of the Hagerstown (MD) Suns in the low Class-A SALLY has apparently backed out of a deal with a developer to build a ballpark for the team to move to in Fredericksburg (VA) and the developer's option to purchase the Suns has ended. Neighboring Spotsylvania County (VA) might get involved to try to revive plans for a new ballpark in the area.

Pecos League: The operator of the independent Pecos League announced the Bisbee (AZ) Blue will not return for a second season in 2015, but the team will play as an amateur team in the summer-collegiate Kino League. A team called the Las Cruces (NM) Vaqueros, which played in the league's first two seasons (2011-12), will return and take Bisbee's place in the Southern Division. The league plans to operate with eight teams in 2015 with four-team Northern and Southern divisions. The league had ten teams last season, but previously announced that the Raton (NM) Osos would not return to the Northern Division and the Douglas (AZ) Diablos would not return to the Southern Division.

BASKETBALL

Women's United States Basketball Association: The WUSBA, which has been trying to get off the ground with a summer season since 2010, announced it will try again in June 2015 with 12 teams in cities throughout the central United States. Teams will include the Chicago Cagerz, Minneapolis Reign, New Orleans Pzazz, Dallas Dynasty, St. Louis Silver, Houston Galaxy, Indianapolis Royal, San Antonio Stingers, Birmingham Starz, Cincinnati Raging River, Kansas City Blaze and Memphis River Hawks. The league plans to eventually have six regional divisions spread across the United States and have international teams participate in the summer season that will run through August.

FOOTBALL

X-League Indoor Football: The X-League announced the schedule for its second season in 2015 and the league has grown from five to ten teams. Returning from last season are the Alabama Outlaws (Birmingham), Florida Marine Raiders (Lakeland), Georgia Rampage (Dalton) and St. Louis Attack. A fifth X-League team in 2014 called the Pennsylvania Steam (Reading) played one road game before coming under new ownership and planned to operate as the Savannah (GA) Steam in 2015. The Savannah Steam played some 2014 road games in the X-League, but is no longer listed as a 2015 team. Six indoor teams from other leagues joined the X-League for the 2015 season-the Bloomington (IL) Edge from the Champions Professional Indoor Football League, the Cape Fear Heroes (Fayetteville, NC) from American Indoor Football, the Corpus Christi Fury and Florida Tarpons (Estero) from the Ultimate Indoor Football League, the Marion (OH) Blue Racers from the Continental Indoor Football League, and the Rio Grande Valley Sol (Hidalgo, TX) from the Lone Star Football League.

HOCKEY

United States Hockey League: USA Hockey's National Team Development Program (NTDP) operates Team USA as one of the 17 teams in the junior-level USHL, which is USA Hockey's top junior league in the United States. The NTDP Team USA is currently based out of Ann Arbor (MI), but USA Hockey is considering the purchase of the Compuware Arena in Plymouth (MI), a Detroit suburb, and moving the team there. The Compuware Arena is currently home to the Plymouth Whalers of Canada's major-junior Ontario Hockey League. The Whalers are near the bottom in OHL attendance and there is speculation the OHL team could be sold and moved to an Ontario city, possibly Hamilton.

World United Hockey League: The new Ontario-based junior-level WUHL, which was created when several South Division teams of the Canadian International Hockey League left to form a new league, has started play with four teams. The WUHL includes three former CIHL teams called the Toronto Hockey Academy, Milton Battle Arts Cobras and Collingwood Ice, along with the new St. Charles North Stars team, which replaces the CIHL's St. Charles Spirit team that folded.

Canadian Women's Hockey League: The CWHL started its 2014-15 season last month with the same five teams as last season. Teams include the Boston Blades, Brampton Thunder, Calgary Inferno, Montreal Stars and Toronto Furies. During the off-season, the CWHL considered changing its name and growing to sixth teams by adding a second team in the United States, but neither happened. Bids from Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and New York City were said to have been under consideration. A new United States team from the Midwest would help the league's westernmost team in Calgary. The owners of the Minnesota Whitecaps from the defunct Western Women's Hockey League headed the Minnesota group. The league is still studying future expansion and a possible name change.

SOCCER

United Soccer Leagues - PRO: The USL PRO expansion team called the Austin Aztex has entered into an affiliation agreement with the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer for the 2015 season. The agreement allows the Crew to loan up to four players to the Aztex during the season. The Columbus Crew was affiliated with the USL PRO's Dayton Dutch Lions team in 2014, but that affiliation has ended. The MLS is requiring all teams to partner with a USL PRO team or form their own USL PRO team for 2015. The Austin Aztex played three seasons (2012-14) in the USL Premier Development League prior to its move up to the USL PRO. Another USL Austin Aztex team that was formed in 2009 was sold and relocated to become the Orlando City SC for the 2011 USL PRO season. Since the Orlando City SC Lions are moving up to the MLS for the 2015 season, Orlando's USL PRO rights were transferred to the new Louisville City FC, which will serve as Orlando's USL PRO affiliate in 2015. The USL PRO plans to grow from 14 to 24 teams for the 2015 season.

Premier Arena Soccer League: The PASL, which is the official development league to the Major Arena Soccer League, has announced some changes to its Rocky Mountain Division for the 2014-15 season. The division has been reduced from six to five teams. The FC Denver will sit out the season, while the Skyline Eagles (Grand Junction, CO) dropped from the league. A new team called the Real Colorado Edge will play at the indoor facility in Arvada replacing the Denver Dynamite team, which came under new ownership and moved to Castle Rock. The Oskar Blues FC (Longmont, CO) has a new sponsor and was renamed the Avery Brewing FC. The two remaining Rocky Mountain Division teams, the Colorado Blizzard and Rocky Mountain Bighorns share an indoor facility in Colorado Springs.

OTHER

American Ultimate Disc League: The pro-level AUDL plans to add new teams in Raleigh (NC) and Atlanta to its new South Division that will start play in 2015. The league previously announced two other South Division teams called the Jacksonville Cannons and Nashville NightWatch and plans to add one additional team to round out the division.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Leagues, Teams & Nicknames 2013-14: "The Leagueology Almanac" , 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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