Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
April 28, 2025 - Atlantic League (AtL)
BASEBALL
Atlantic League: The independent Atlantic League started its 2025 season this week and it again features ten teams aligned in five-team North and South divisions. After playing as the Gastonia (NC) Baseball Club last season while testing fan reactions to several potential nicknames, the team selected the Gastonia Ghost Peppers as its permanent name starting with the 2025 season. Each team will play 126 games in a two-part season through August 12, 2025. After sitting out the 2024 season, the league's Spire City Ghost Hounds (Frederick, MD) announced in October the team will sit out the 2025 season to keep an even number of teams. The Ghost Hounds plan to return in 2026 when the league hopes to expand to 12 teams.
American Association: The Kane County Cougars, the 2024 champion of the independent American Association, participated in the Baseball Champions League (BCL)-Americas tournament in Mexico City earlier this month with other league champions from Cuba, Curaçao, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. The Cougars won the group-play round but lost their semi-final game. The host Diablos Rojos de Mexico of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol (Mexico Baseball League) won the BCL tournament.
Pecos League: The independent Pecos League reported it is finalizing plans to establish a second Bakersfield (CA) team for the 2025 season. This team would be affiliated with a team in Mexico's top professional baseball league called the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol (LMB) and play at the city's Sam Lynn Ballpark when the league's Bakersfield Train Robbers team is on the road. The Pecos League has two current teams with LMB affiliations: the new Kansas City (MO) Hormigas with the LMB's Bravos de Leon and the Roswell (NM) Invaders with the LMB's Pericos de Puebla. This new LMB-affiliated Bakersfield team would play a full 2025 schedule and become the seventh team in the Pacific Division. The LMB's Charros de Jalisco played two spring training games at Sam Lynn Ballpark earlier this month.
Minor League Baseball: Similar to last season's promotion with Oatly, which produces oat milk and is based in Malmö (Sweden), each of the 120 teams of Minor League Baseball (MiLB) will wear Oatly-themed uniforms for one home game during the 2025 season and teams will be rebranded as the Malmö Oat Milkers for these games.
BASKETBALL
American Basketball Association: The semi-pro ABA recently announced the addition of several new teams for the 2025-26 season. The Idaho Outlaws (Boise) and Reno Rogues will be part of an At-Large Division that will include teams from the Pacific Northwest. New teams called the North Florida Raiders and the Dunamis Saints (Queens, NY) have also been added along with the East Bay Kings (Oakland) that are returning after a two-year hiatus.
Women's National Basketball Association: The WNBA's new Portland (OR) expansion team that will start playing in the 2026 season does not yet have a name. Ownership is waiting for final league approval on its name and an announcement is expected in two or three months. Originally, the WNBA was ready to grant the Portland expansion team to a different owner who wanted to call the team the Rose City Royalty but the league had issues with that name. This owner pulled out of the running for the Portland team in October 2023 and the following year the WNBA granted the team to the current ownership. The WNBA had a previous team called the Portland Fire that lasted only three seasons (2000-02) before folding. The new Portland WNBA team broke ground this week on a new training facility to be shared with the Portland Thorns of the National Women's Soccer League.
FOOTBALL
Arena Football One: The Stockton (CA) Crusaders team, which was originally announced as a 2025 AF1 expansion team before deciding to wait a season to start, reported the team is preparing for the 2026 season. At the same time Stockton pulled out of the 2025 season, the AF1 announced another proposed 2025 AF1 expansion team called the Monterrey Kings (Nuevo Leon, Mexico) would also wait until 2026 to start. The league's Corpus Christi Tritons team appears to be having some financial issues resulting in players not being paid so replacement players were used for the team's lopsided loss this weekend.
National Arena League: The NAL's Carolina Cobras (Greensboro, NC) announced the cancellation of the remainder of its 2025 season schedule and the team will go dormant. The Cobras had a 2-4 record and four games remaining on the 2025 schedule. The Carolina Cobras joined the NAL as an expansion team for the 2018 season.
Women's Football Alliance: The women's full-tackle WFA started its 2025 season this weekend and features a total of 54 teams at three levels (Pro, Division 2 and Division 3) playing six to eight games through June 14, 2025. The 12-team WFA Pro is aligned in a 4-team Pro National division and an 8-team Pro American division. The 18-team WFA D2 has a 13-team National and 5-team American division. The 24-team WFA D3 has 12-team National and American divisions.
HOCKEY
Manitoba Junior Hockey League: The Winnipeg Freeze of the MHL, which is one of nine Junior-A leagues that are part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League, announced the team will be renamed the Winnipeg Monarchs starting with the 2025-26 season. The MHL's other Winnipeg-based team called the Winnipeg Blues began as the Winnipeg Monarchs in 1930 before changing its name in 1978. The Winnipeg Freeze was an MHL expansion team for the 2020-21 season.
Professional Women's Hockey League: The six-team PWHL announced the addition of an expansion team in Vancouver (British Columbia) for the 2025-26 season. As part of the "PWHL Takeover Tour" that consisted of nine neutral-site games during the 2024-25 season, the Vancouver game had the highest attendance. A team called the Vancouver Griffins was part of the former National Women's Hockey League for three seasons (2000-03). Seattle is expected to be the next expansion city as the PWHL's online store briefly posted links to both the "Vancouver PWHL" and "Seattle PWHL" before being removed.
SOCCER
National Women's Soccer League: The Division-I professional NWSL has applied to the United States Soccer Federation with plans to start a new Division-II women's professional soccer league that would start playing in 2026 as a development pipeline for the NWSL. If approved, 8 of the NWSL's current 14 teams are reported to be committed to the new league and include the Bay FC, Kansas City Current, North Carolina Courage, Gotham FC, Orlando Pride, Racing Louisville, Seattle Reign and Washington Spirit. The NWSL plans to grow to 16 teams in 2026 and each NWSL team will be required to have a Division-II team within the first 4 years. Last week, another new women's professional soccer league called the WPSL Pro, which will be operated by the amateur-level Women's Premier Soccer League and initially was to be a Division-III professional league, announced its intention to start its first full season in 2027 as a Division-II professional league and currently lists 15 teams.
USL Super League (United Soccer League): As the Division-I women's professional USL Super League nears the end of its inaugural 2024-25 season, the USL signed a multi-year agreement with the Gainbridge financial services firm to rename the league the Gainbridge Super League starting with the 2025-26 season.
League1 Ontario: Canada's Division-3 pro-am League1 Ontario soccer league, which operates men's and women's division at three different levels (Premier, Championship and League2), recently started its 2025 season that runs through August. The Men's Premier features 11 teams in a single-table format; the Men's Championship has 12 teams in a single-table format; and the 25-team Men's League2 is aligned Central (8 teams), Southwest (8 teams) and Northeast (9 teams) divisions. The Women's Premier has ten teams in a single-table format; the Women's Championship has nine teams in a single-table format; and the 22-team Women's League2 includes a 10-team Southwest Division and a 12-team Northeast Division.
League1 British Columbia: Canada's Division-3 pro-am League1 BC soccer league started its 2025 season earlier this month with men's and women's divisions that will each feature nine teams aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play 16 games through July 26, 2025, with back-to-back women's and men's games on each game day. The Vancouver Rise FC of the new women's professional Northern Super League is operating the Vancouver Rise FC Academy team in the 2025 League1 BC women's division.
Major Arena Soccer League 2: After sitting out the 2024-25 season in the MASL2, the Cedar Rapids-based Iowa Raptors FC announced the team will return to the league for the 2025-26 season. The team also plans to host a women's exhibition game during the season to gauge interest in a women's indoor team.
OTHER
United Frisbee Association: The men's professional UFA started its 2025 season this week and again has 24 teams with each team playing 12 games through July 20, 2025. The league had 24 teams last season but the South Division's Dallas Legion suspended operations after the 2024 season and the new Vegas Bighorns (Las Vegas) were added for 2025. The divisional alignment underwent some changes with each of the four divisions (East, South, Central and West) now having six teams. The Los Angeles Aviators and San Diego Growlers moved from the West, which had seven teams last season, to the South, which had five teams before losing Dallas. The new Vegas Bighorns were added as a sixth team to the West. One other change was the rebranding of the Portland (OR) Nitro to the Oregon Steel as part of a change in ownership.
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.
• Discuss this story on the Atlantic League message board...
Atlantic League Stories from April 28, 2025
- Boxcars Steal a Win on Opening Weekend - Hagerstown Flying Boxcars
- High Point Rockers Sweep Gastonia, 3-0, 7-4 - High Point Rockers
- Rockers' Matt Solter 1-Hits Gastonia - High Point Rockers
- 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.
