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Ontario Hockey League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
December 8, 2014 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)


BASEBALL

Pacific Coast League: The Oklahoma City RedHawks of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League have been renamed the Oklahoma City Dodgers. After the 2014 season, the RedHawks were sold to an ownership group led by a minority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and part of the purchase agreement involved switching the team's affiliation from the Houston Astros to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The RedHawks were previously the Oklahoma City 89ers of the former Triple-A American Association. The 89ers changed its name to the RedHawks for the 1998 season when the American Association was dissolved and five of its teams were merged into an expanded PCL.

Florida State League: The Daytona Cubs of the high Class-A FSL signed a new affiliation agreement with the Cincinnati Reds after the 2014 season. Rather than use the Reds as its nickname, the team has taken an independent name and will be called the Daytona Tortugas, which is Spanish for turtles.

California League: With recent failures in getting new ballparks for the High Desert Mavericks and Bakersfield Blaze, the high Class-A California League might revisit plans to move the two teams to the high Class-A Carolina League, or possibly to the high Class-A Florida State League.

American Association: The Amarillo Sox of the independent American Association announced the team has been renamed the Amarillo ThunderHeads. Amarillo has been part of the league since the 2011 season. When the owner of the league's Pensacola Pelicans obtained an affiliated team in the Double-A Southern League, the Pelicans were sold and relocated to Amarillo for 2011. The team was originally named the Amarillo Gold Sox after the city's former Double-A Texas League team, but the team name was quickly shortened to the Amarillo Sox due to a trademark issue with a California-based baseball team using the Gold Sox name.

Pecos Spring League: The Pecos Spring League, which is operated by the independent Pecos League, will play its fourth season in March 2015 with four teams called the Coastal Kingfish, Galveston Sea Lions, Mesa Garden of Gears and Houston Apollos. All games are played at one location in the Houston area. Players pay for the opportunity to be evaluated by the Pecos League and other independent leagues that are looking to sign players for the upcoming summer season.

East Coast Baseball League: A potential owner of a baseball team in the proposed ECBL wants to place a team in Watertown (NY). The city had the Watertown Rams in 2014 as part of the Perfect Game Summer Collegiate League, but the city ended that relationship after only one season. The ECBL currently has three teams announced and is looking at additional markets in Canada, New York and Pennsylvania.

United League Baseball: The independent ULB, which operated with only four teams during the recently completed 2014 season, could be losing one of those teams-the San Angelo (TX) Colts-to Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Colts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2014 to reorganize and restructure certain debts, but the trustee in charge of the bankruptcy is trying to convert the case to Chapter 7 bankruptcy that would require the Colts to start liquidating assets to pay off creditors.

BASKETBALL

Central Basketball Development League: The CBDL states it has come to terms with new teams in the areas of Savannah, Baltimore, Virginia and Washington (DC) that plan to join for the 2015 season.

Central Basketball Association: The spring-season CBA has added three new teams called the Indianapolis Briks, Mississippi Eagles (Southhaven) and Springfield (IL) Sentinels, while last season's Peoria-based River City Panthers are now listed as the Peoria Panthers. Six of the seven teams from last season appear to be returning with the St. Louis Hawks no longer listed. The CBA started play in 2014 when several teams from the 2013 Central Basketball League left to form the new league.

FOOTBALL

Independent Women's Football League: Over the past few months, the outdoor full-tackle IWFL has announced several new teams for the upcoming 2015 springtime season. New teams include the Colorado Springs Voodoo, Rocky Mountain Thunder Katz (Colorado Springs), Colorado Freeze (Denver), Austin Yellow Jackets and New Orleans Krewe. Teams called Thee Toledo Reign, Nebraska Stampede (Omaha) and Nevada Storm (Sparks) are joining the IWFL for 2015 from the 2014 Women's Football Alliance.

Women's Football Alliance: The outdoor full-tackle WFA lists the Ventura (CA) Vengeance, South Texas Lady Crushers (Corpus Christi), Arlington (TX) Impact, Utah Falconz (Orem), Dallas Elite, Mile High Blaze and North Florida Foxes (Tallahassee) as new teams for 2015. The WFA had 42 teams across the United States last season.

HOCKEY

Maritime Hockey League: The Bridgewater Lumberjacks (Nova Scotia) team in Canada's junior-A level MHL, which is one of ten junior-A leagues in the organization called the Canadian Junior Hockey League, has come under new ownership and was renamed the South Shore Lumberjacks. The league was forced to take control of the team two weeks ago due to financial problems and was able to find new local ownership.

Ontario Hockey League: A judge has halted a forced sale of the major-junior OHL's Erie (PA) Otters. The sale was being sought to satisfy more than $4 million in loans made to the owner in advance of a proposed sale to a subsidiary of the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers tried to buy the Erie Otters in 2011with plans to move the team to Hamilton (Ontario). The judge's order keeps the Otters in Erie for now, but the team is still reported to be up for sale and its future in Erie is uncertain.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer: The MLS commissioner gave his "state of the league" report last week and stated New York City FC and Orlando City FC will start play in 2015 to give the league 20 teams and the league will be at 24 teams be the end of the decade. The league plans to add teams in Los Angeles and Atlanta in 2017 and is considering other expansion applications from Minneapolis, Sacramento and Las Vegas. Miami was granted a provisional expansion franchise, but only if it can build a soccer-specific stadium. Due to weather issues, the MLS will not be switching to a European-style schedule (August-through-May).

United Soccer Leagues - Premier Development League: The PDL will add a team in Alberta (Canada) called the Calgary Foothills FC for the 2015 season.

National Premier Soccer League: The men's elite amateur-level NPSL announced a team called FC Indiana (Lafayette) has joined the league for the 2015 season.

United Soccer Leagues - W-League: The Ottawa Fury FC organization, which operates the men's Ottawa Fury FC in the North American Soccer League and the women's Ottawa Fury FC in the USL W-League, announced it is shutting down the women's W-League team. The Ottawa Fury had been part of the W-League since the 2000 season. Two weeks ago, the owner of the league's LA Blues FC decided to shut down the team and concentrate solely on operating the men's Orange County Blues (Irvine) team that plays in the USL Premier Development League. The Blues joined the W-League as the Pali Blues SC (Pacific Palisades) for the 2008 season. The club merged with the LA Strikers FC to become the LA Blues FC prior to the 2014 season. The LA Blues FC won the W-League championship this past season.

North American Soccer League: The Division-II NASL announced the league will own and operate the Atlanta Silverbacks team for the 2015 season as it seeks new local ownership. In late October 2014, the Silverbacks' ownership announced it was putting the team up for sale and relocation to another market. The ownership planned to start a developmental Silverbacks team in another league. A new Division-I Atlanta-based Major League Soccer franchise is expected to start play in 2017, but the NASL believes the Silverbacks can succeed in the market along with the MLS team. The Silverbacks will be the only league-owned team next season.

Women's Premier Soccer League: The elite amateur-level WPSL announced a new team called the Fresno Freeze will be part of the league for the 2015 season. The league's AC Seattle team will move to Tacoma and be renamed FC Tacoma 253, which will also operate a new men's team by that name in the National Premier Soccer League. FC Tacoma 253 hopes to move the women's team to the United Soccer Leagues W-League for the 2016 season.

OTHER

World TeamTennis: As the WTT celebrates its 40th season in 2015, two similar new international team tennis leagues called the Champions Tennis League and the International Premier Tennis League started play this fall. The CTL recently completed its 10-day 13-match season in November with six co-ed teams based in India. The IPTL has four co-ed teams in the Philippines (Manila), Singapore, India (New Delhi) and United Arab Emirates (Dubai) with each location hosting a three-day series of matches over a four-week season running from November 28 to December 13, 2014.

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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