Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
April 3, 2023 - BIG3 (BIG3)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: The Charleston (WV) Dirty Birds of the independent Atlantic League announced the team will play a game in July of the 2023 season as the Pepperoni Rolls, to honor a local favorite food that was reported to be conceived as a coal miner's lunch.
Eastern League: The Erie (PA) SeaWolves of the Double-A Eastern League announced the team will play two games in August of the 2023 season as the Pepperoni Balls as a tribute to one of western Pennsylvania's favorite regional foods.
International League: The Triple-A International League started its 2023 season this week with the same 20 teams and Major League Baseball affiliations as last season. The league is again aligned in ten-team East and West divisions.
Pacific Coast League: The Triple-A PCL started its 2023 season this week with the same ten teams and Major League Baseball affiliations as last season. The league is again aligned in five-team East and West divisions.
BASKETBALL
American Basketball Association: The semi-pro ABA announced teams called the Lone Star Crusaders (Round Hill, TX) and Berkshire Mountaineers (Pittsfield, MA) have been added for the 2023-24 season.
BIG3 League: The 12-team tour-based BIG3 league, which plays a 3-on-3 style of basketball called Fireball3, has posted its 2023 schedule that will feature an eight-week regular season from June 25 through August 13, 2023 with one-day events in Chicago, Dallas, New York, Memphis, Miami, Boston, Charlotte and Detroit. Two other events are scheduled in August to include playoffs and an All-Star game.
Florida Basketball Association: The semi-pro FBA started its 2023 season this week with six Florida-based teams. The FBA had seven teams last season, but the Central Florida Blazers (Orlando), Palm Beach Titans, The Pride (Osceola County) and Brevard Bobcats did not return. New teams called the Kissimmee Lambs, Clermont Crocs and Volusia Serpents joined the FBA for the 2023 season.
Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional: Mexico's top men's professional basketball league known as the LNBP recently announced its 2023 regular season will run from August 18 through November 11, 2023 with 13 teams each playing a 24-game schedule. All ten teams will return from last season and the league added a new team called the Freseros de Irapuato, along with the Halcones de Rojos de Veracruz that last played in the LNBP in 2016 and the Panteras de Aquascaliente that last played in the LNBP in 2021.
FOOTBALL
United Football League: The proposed eight-man outdoor UFL, which was supposed to start its inaugural 2023 season on April 1 and then on April 22, has posted a new schedule with the 2023 season now starting on May 13, 2023. Several teams have reported the schedule change is due to a consolidation from 14 to 12 teams. Training camps will now begin on April 26. The UFL was started in 2021 and evolved from the failed National Gridiron League, which attempted to start in three different seasons (2019-21) but never played a game. The UFL was also supposed to start play last season, but that season was cancelled.
American West Football Conference: The lower-level minor indoor football league known as the AWFC started its 2023 season this week with only three teams. The league finished the 2022 season with four full-schedule teams called the Idaho Horsemen (Nampa), Oregon High Desert Storm (Redmond), Wenatchee Valley (WA) Skyhawks and the Tri-City Rush (Pasco/Richland/Kennewick, WA), along with a league-operated travel-only team called the Northwest Elite, which had been created when the AWFC lost teams called the Yakima (WA) Canines and SoCal Redtails just prior to the 2022 season. The Tri-City Rush shut down operations in November 2022 and the Northwest Elite travel-only team did not return. The AWFC's 2023 schedule lists only 16 games. This includes only 6 league games and 10 non-league games, which will be played against 3 American Indoor Football Alliance teams and 2 other non-league teams.
Elite Indoor Football: The semi-pro EIF started its 2023 season this week with seven teams playing through June 2023. Of the five teams from last season, the Atlanta Furious, Peach State Cats and Southern Steam have returned. The league added teams called the Kentuckiana Kurse (Louisville), South Florida Raptors (Broward County), Knoxville Knightmare and Space Coast Tarheels (Titusville, FL) for 2023.
Extreme Football League (X League): The women's 7-on-7 indoor X League, which played its inaugural season in the summer of 2022 with eight teams, is apparently sitting out the 2023 season and will announce its 2024 season schedule in October. The X League evolved from the former Legends Football League, which had started as the Lingerie Football League..
HOCKEY
Federal Prospects Hockey League: The operators of the Delaware State Fair Centre Ice Arena, which is home to the FPHL's Delaware Thunder (Harrington), recently announced it would not renew the team's lease for next season. The team's fanbase has started a petition to try to get the arena lease renewed.
Can-Am Junior Hockey League: The independent CAJHL, which just completed its 2022-23 season with five teams based in the province of Alberta, announced it will be expanding for the 2023-24 season with the addition of a British Columbia division. The CAJHL is vetting applications for these new teams.
Provincial Female Junior Hockey League: Hockey Saskatchewan announced the new women's under-22 PFJHL will have five teams in the Saskatchewan markets of Kindersley, Lumsden, Outlook, Regina, and Swift Current/Gull Lake when it starts play for the 2023-24 season. The new league was first announced in December 2022.
SOCCER
National Independent Soccer Association: The men's Division-III professional NISA started its 2023 season this week with nine teams aligned in a single-table format. Of the eight teams that completed the 2022 season, the Cal United Strikers FC did not return, while the Flower City Union (Rochester, NY) and the Syracuse Pulse merged to form the City Union club, which will play 2023 home and away games as both the Rochester-based Flower City Union and the Syracuse-based Salt City Union. Five other 2022 teams have returned and the league added three expansion teams called the Club de Lyon (Orlando), Gold Star FC Detroit and Savannah (GA) Clovers FC. The NISA season runs through mid-October 2023.
United Women's Soccer: The UWS announced the Michigan-based Livonia City FC and Michigan Stars FC (Detroit) will be moving up from the lower-level UWS League Two to the first division UWS pro-am league starting with the 2023 season. The Flower City Union (Rochester, NY), which operates a men's team in the Division-III professional National Independent Soccer Association, recently took over the first division UWS membership of the Rochester Lady Lancers and announced the first division UWS team has been renamed the Flower City 1892 ahead of the 2023 season. Also, the Williamsport (PA) City Lions team has joined the UWS League Two, while the Connecticut Rush (North Branford) of the first division UWS will be adding a UWS League Two team for 2023.
OTHER
Western Ultimate League: The WUL women's professional ultimate frisbee league recently started its 2023 season with eight teams aligned in four-team Northwest and Southwest conferences. All seven teams have returned from last season and the league added the new Colorado Alpenglow (Denver) for 2023. Each team will play an eight-game schedule through May 14, 2023 followed by playoffs.
Athletes Unlimited - Volleyball League: The Athletes Unlimited announced the third season of its four-team women's professional indoor volleyball league will move to the Bell Bank Park (Mesa, AZ) in the Phoenix area where the five-week season will be played in October and November 2023. The league is switching to a fall season after playing a February-March season in 2021 and a March-April season in 2022, with both of those seasons played at the Fair Park Coliseum in Dallas. The Athletes Unlimited volleyball teams change players each week with the top four athletes from each week serving as captains and drafting their teams for the next week. After the five-week season, the player with the most points is crowned as individual champion. Along with the switch of the regular season to the fall, an Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Exhibition Tour started last weekend with 14 top professional players visiting nine top college programs through April 21, and playing exhibition matches on their campuses.
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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BIG3 Stories from April 3, 2023
- 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.
