Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
May 16, 2022 - American Association (AA)
BASEBALL
American Association: The independent American Association, which is a Major League Baseball Partner League, started its 2022 season this week with 12 teams aligned in six-team East and West divisions. The league remains at 12 teams this season with the elimination of the 2021 Houston Apollos travel-only team and the addition of the new Lake Country DockHounds team, based in the Milwaukee suburb of Oconomowoc (WI). Teams were realigned from the North and South divisions in 2021 to the renamed East and West divisions. Each team will play a 100-game schedule through September 5, 2022.
Frontier League: The independent Frontier League, which is a Major League Baseball Partner League, started its 2022 season this week with 16 teams aligned in eight-team East and West divisions. The league operated with 14 teams in four regional divisions last season with the two Quebec-based teams (Trois Rivieres Aigles and Quebec Les Capitales) merging as the Equipe Quebec travel-only team. Each of those teams have returned to their respective homes in 2022 and the previously announced new Ottawa Titans expansion team starts play in 2022 after sitting out last season. The league's Southern Illinois Miners (Marion) left the league in the off-season, so a travel-only team called the Frontier Greys was to be added for the 2022 season to keep the league at an even 16 teams. In February, the Frontier Greys team was replaced by the Empire State Greys travel-only team, which will be operated by the independent developmental Empire State League and based in Tupper Lake (NY). The Frontier League season will run through September 5, 2022.
Mavericks Independent Baseball League: The independent Oregon-based Mavericks League started its 2022 season this weekend with the same four teams (Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Campesinos de Salem-Keizer, Salem Senators and Portland Mavericks) from its inaugural 2021 season. Each team will play a 48-game schedule with all games again being played at Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer (OR). The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, which lost its short-season Class-A Northwest League affiliation in the 2020 restructuring of Minor League Baseball, formed the Mavericks League for the 2021 season.
South Atlantic League: The Asheville (NC) Tourists of the high Class-A SAL played its once-a-season game as the Asheville Hippies this week in tribute to the city's designation as the ¬ÅMost Hippie Town ¬Â in North Carolina. The league's Bowling Green (KY) Hot Rods played as the Bowling Green Bootleggers for a game this week as a tribute to the hot rod and its involvement in the bootlegging industry. The team started this promotion in 2016 and it will play as the Bootleggers for all Thursday home games in 2022.
BASKETBALL
Professional Basketball Association: The semi-pro PBA started its men's 2022 Spring-Summer season earlier this month and lists 35 teams aligned in a 20-team Eastern Conference and a 15-team Western Conference. The Spring-Summer season runs through August and a 2022-23 Fall-Winter season will run from November to February. The league also plans to start a Ladies PBA (LPBA) this year.
Global Women's Basketball Association: The GWBA has posted a revised 2022 season schedule that will have its four teams each playing eight to ten games from June 4 to July 30. Teams include the Detroit Queens, Flint Monarchs, St. Louis Surge and Wisconsin Glo (Oshkosh).
National Basketball League - United States: The semi-pro NBL-US announced teams called the Alabama 59ers and Tuscaloosa (AL) Wave will be part of the 2022-23 season starting in December 2022.
Women's Basketball Development Association: The semi-pro WBDA recently announced several new teams for its 2022 season that will start later this month. Some of these teams were announced for the 2020 season, which was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), and chose not to play in a shortened 2021 season. New teams include the Decatur Dynasty, Honolulu Reign, Houston Sparks, Indiana Blaze (Gary), Dallas Lady Instinct, Virginia Lady Patriots (Stephen City), Memphis Halo, Triad Reign (Greensboro, NC) and the Maryland Jewels (Clinton), which had been part of the Women's American Basketball Association. The Oakland Rise will return in 2022 after having last played in the 2019 WBDA.
FOOTBALL
A7 Football League: The men's semi-pro A7FL, which is a 7-on-7 full-contact football league in which players do not wear hard pads or helmets, is nearing the end of its 2022 regular season that started in late March and features 20 teams. The teams are aligned in a Red Conference with a five-team North (New Jersey teams) and a five-team South (Baltimore/D.C. teams), and a Blue Conference with a five-team East (Florida teams) and a five-team West (Las Vegas and Los Angeles teams).
XFL: As the XFL looks to stock teams for its restart in the spring of 2023, the league announced it will hold player showcase events in six different locations during June and July of this year. Showcase locations include Jackson (MI), Washington (DC), Bradenton (FL), Honolulu, Tempe and Arlington (TX).
HOCKEY
3ICE League: The new six-team tour-based 3ICE independent three-on-three professional ice hockey league, which will start an eight-city tour next month, has signed some former National Hockey League players who will play in the league. The league also announced each team will be named after a former NHL player who will be the head coach: Team Carbonneau, Team Fuhr, Team LeClair, Team Mullen, Team Murphy and Team Trottier.
Can-Am Junior Hockey League: The independent junior-level CAJHL, which started play in January 2022 when six teams left the junior-level Western States Hockey League to form the CAJHL, recently announced its first 2022-23 expansion team will be the AMP Warriors operated by the Calgary-based AMP Hockey Academy. The CAJHL recently lost one of its six teams when its only non-Canadian team called the Vernal (UT) Oilers moved to the Tier-III United States Premier Hockey League for the 2022-23 season.
ECHL: The ECHL has signed an agreement with an ownership group that plans to bring an ECHL team to the new Classic Center Arena, which is under construction in Athens (GA) and will seat 5,500 fans for hockey games. The arena is expected to be completed in the fall of 2023 and an ECHL team would most likely start play in the 2023-24 season. The new Athens team does not yet have a name.
Eastern Hockey League: The Philadelphia Hockey Club (Sewell, NJ), which recently left the Tier-III junior-level United States Premier Hockey League after four seasons (2018-2022), has joined the Tier-III junior-level EHL for its 2022-23 season.
United States Premier Hockey League: The Tier-III junior-level USPHL announced the new Minnesota Squatch (Elk River) team will be added to the USPHL Premier's Midwest West Division for the 2022-23 season.
SOCCER
National Women's Soccer League: The new commissioner of the top women's professional NWSL confirmed there will be no expansion in 2023, but most likely in 2024. The number of new teams and locations have yet to be determined. The NWSL added San Diego and Los Angeles teams this season.
National Independent Soccer Association: The men's NISA announced its 2022 Independent Cup tournament will be held in June and July with 36 teams across 9 regions. Each region will include a team from the NISA's ten-team Division-III professional league. Other teams will come from the amateur-level NISA Nation League, other NISA affiliated amateur leagues and some guest amateur teams. The NISA also announced an affiliation with Mexico's independent professional Liga Profesional de Futbol Mexicano (LPF MX). This is expected to lead to NISA and LPF MX teams playing international games.
United Women's Soccer: The UWS pro-am league started its 2022 season this week with 49 teams aligned in 6 regional conferences: a 7-team Central, 16-team East, 10-team Midwest, 4-team Southeast, 6-team Southwest and a 6-team West. The season runs through mid-July.
Women's Premier Soccer League: The elite-amateur WPSL started its 2022 season this weekend and lists 135 teams across 4 regions: a 40-team Central, 29-team East, 33-team South and a 33-team West. Each region includes four regional conferences, some of which are further aligned into regional divisions. The WPSL season runs through July 10, 2022.
OTHER
Athletes Unlimited - Lacrosse League: The Athletes Unlimited four-team professional women's field lacrosse league will return for its second season in July 2022. All games will be played at the USA Lacrosse Headquarters in Sparks Glencoe (MD) from July 21 to August 14, 2022. Similar to the Athletes Unlimited women's softball, basketball and volleyball leagues, players earn individual points during games and the top four players will serve as captains and draft the four teams for the next week.
Dan Krieger is the creator of the Weekly Sports League & Franchise Report, which has been tracking changes in the sports world's leagues, teams and nicknames since April 2007.
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