Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

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Major League Soccer

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
July 29, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)


BASEBALL

Carolina League: The Low-A Carolina League and the High-A South Atlantic League (SAL) are swapping teams affiliated with Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers. With the move next season of the Carolina League's Down East Wood Ducks (Kinston, NC) to Spartanburg (SC) where the team will become the Hub City Spartanburgers, the Spartanburg team will be switched from the Low-A to the High-A classification in the 2025 SAL. The SAL's Hickory (NC) Crawdads will be switched from the High-A to the Low-A classification as part of the 2025 Carolina League.

Frontier League: The independent Frontier League's Joliet (IL) Slammers played a game this week as the Joliet Slimers for a Ghostbusters Night tribute to the iconic Ghostbusters movies.

American Association: The independent American Association is considering future expansion and the league commissioner recently stated the league hopes to double in size from 12 to 24 teams by 2028-29. The league is in serious discussions with four markets where mixed-use developments could feature new ballparks. These include Blaine (MN), Clarksville (TN), Waco (TX) and the Houston suburb of Jersey Village (TX). The owner of the league's Chicago Dogs team is reported to be interested in purchasing a second team in the league and building a ballpark for the team as part of a new development in the market. A proposed ballpark in Murfreesboro (TN), just outside of Nashville, for an American Association team is not expected to move forward as city officials determined construction costs were economically unfeasible.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association: With the NBA finalizing its media rights contracts through the 2035-36 season, the NBA commissioner stated the league will consider an expansion process this fall to decide whether to expand and by how many teams. The NBA last expanded to 30 teams when Charlotte was added for the 2004-05 season. Seattle and Las Vegas are considered frontrunners for expansion teams.

Southeastern Exposure Basketball League: The Georgia-based semi-pro SEBL Summer League recently started its 2024 Metro Conference season with 12 teams aligned in six-team North and South divisions.

FOOTBALL

American Indoor Football: The Amarillo Venom, which played the 2024 season as part of the AIF, announced the team has been renamed the Amarillo Dusters. The Amarillo Venom started out as the Amarillo Dusters in 2004 as part of the Intense Football League and played the next five seasons (2005-09) in the arenafootball2 before changing to the Amarillo Venom for the 2010 season. Amarillo will also join a new league for 2025. The three other remaining AIF teams have already joined the National Arena League.

International Football Alliance: The proposed new 11-man outdoor minor professional IFA, which plans to start play in the spring of 2025 with eight teams based in Mexico and the United States, announced voting will take place this month to select a name for its San Antonio team. Nicknames up for voting include the Cannons, Stampede, Naguals, Caballeros and Chupacabras. The other IFA teams based in the United States include the Las Vegas Kings, Dallas Pioneros, Tampa Bay Tornadoes and Alabama Beavers (Huntsville). The IFA's Mexican teams include the Chihuahua Rebelión, Cancun Sharks and Tequileros de Jalisco (Guadalajara).

The Arena League: The four-team six-on-six TAL's 2025 expansion team to be based in Hot Springs (AR) announced the team will be called the Hot Springs Wiseguys when starts in the 2025 season. The TAL will also add the recently named Eau Claire (WI) Jammers and grow to six teams for the 2025 season.

United States Premier Women's Football League: The semi-pro USPWFL recently completed its inaugural 2024 season with teams called the Cincinnati Sizzle, Houston Doom, Detroit Black Ice and Tennessee Enforcers (Nashville). Although the league started with only four teams, it currently lists eight additional teams that hope to start play next season.

Winter Indoor Football: The new WIF eight-man indoor professional developmental league is organizing for a 2024 season that will run from October 26 through December 14, 2024. Currently, the WIF lists logos for seven teams called the Indy Hittaz, Mid-Michigan Grizzlies (Jackson), Eastern Illinois Riot (Rantoul), Ohio Blitz (Dayton area), Ohio Shamrocks (Lima), Pittsburgh Outlaws and the Midwest Valley Warriors travel-only team.

HOCKEY

American Premier Hockey League: Two teams from the Senior-A semi-pro APHL have entered into 2024-25 affiliation agreements to provide players to two teams in the lower-level minor professional Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL). The APHL's new Summit City Distillers (Fort Wayne) have signed a partnership agreement with the FPHL's new Monroe (LA) Moccasins team, while the APHL's Hudson Valley Vipers (Poughkeepsie, NY) will be affiliated with the FPHL's new Hudson Valley Venom (Newburgh, NY) team, which is under the same ownership as the Hudson Valley Vipers.

Canadian-American Junior Hockey League: The independent CAJHL, which operated with five teams based in the province of Alberta for the 2023-24 season, has decided to go dormant for the upcoming 2024-25 season. The league had only four teams committed to return and it was unable to establish proposed expansion teams in time for the 2024-25 season. The CAJHL hopes to return next season.

National Junior Hockey League: The independent NJHL, which operated with six teams based in the province of Alberta for the 2023-24 season, has added three new Alberta-based teams for the 2024-25 season. The new teams are the Lac La Biche Lakers, Crowsnest Crush (Crowsnest Pass) and a yet-to-be-named team in Claresholm.

SOCCER

Liga de Expansión MX: Mexico's second division Liga Expansión MX started the opening phase (Apertura) of the two-part 2024-25 Apertura/Clausura season this week. The league had 15 teams last season but the Cimarrones de Sinaloa dropped out. A team called the Jaguares de Chiapas attempted to purchase the Cimarrones de Sinaloa and take its spot but the league did not approve the sale. The league remained at 15 teams with the promotion of the Tampico-Madero Jaiba Brava club from last season's lower-level Liga Premier Serie A. The 2024 Apertura runs through November 3, 2024, with each team playing 14 games.

Major League Soccer: Although the city of Indianapolis is moving forward with the process to build an MLS-style soccer stadium, the MLS commissioner stated that once San Diego is added as the 30th team next season the league will take a pause on further expansion for now. If Indianapolis succeeds in plans for a new stadium, the market would be considered when the league does decide to expand in the future.

USL W-League (United Soccer League): The 2025 Pittsburgh-based expansion team in the women's pre-professional USL W-League recently announced the final four team names (Confluence, Renegades, Riveters or Strikers) that are up for fan voting. The new Pittsburgh W-League team is operated by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds team in the men's Division-II professional USL Championship.

OTHER

League One Volleyball: The new women's professional indoor volleyball league known as LOVB, which developed out of the organization's network of various amateur volleyball clubs across the United States, announced its inaugural 13-week season schedule will run from January 8 through April 5, 2025, and feature six teams in Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison (WI), Omaha and Salt Lake City. For one of the weeks, all teams will participate in an in-season LOVB Classic tournament in Kansas City (MO). For each of the other 12 weeks, two teams will play a head-to-head match in a LOVB market while the other four teams participate in a three-match weekend event in one of the LOVB markets. Each team will play two head-to-head matches and each team will host two weekend events during the season.

Northwoods League Softball: The new women's NSL summer-collegiate softball league, which is operated by the men's summer-collegiate baseball league called the Northwoods League, is moving closer to the end of its first season with four teams playing in ballparks used by teams in the 26-team Northwoods League. The NSL commissioner recently stated the league is finalizing potential expansion markets for next season and any expansion would be within those Northwoods League markets.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Weekly Sports League & Franchise Report, which has been tracking the changes in the sports world's leagues, teams, and nicknames since April 2007.

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