Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report (original) (raw)

Northern Super League

BASEBALL

Atlantic League: The independent Atlantic League announced its 2025 season schedule will feature the same ten teams aligned in five-team North and South divisions. Teams will play 126 games in a two-part season from April 25 through August 12, 2025. Next week, the league's Gastonia Baseball Club will announce the team's permanent name that will be used starting with the 2025 season.

Arizona Fall League: Major League Baseball's AzFL started its 2024 season this week with the same six teams as last season and each playing a 30-game schedule through November 14 at MLB spring training facilities around the Phoenix area. Each AzFL team consists of prospects from five different MLB teams: the Glendale Desert Dogs (Cardinals, Dodgers, Phillies, Reds, White Sox), Mesa Solar Sox (Angels, Athletics, Cubs, Rays, Red Sox), Peoria Javelinas (Braves, Brewers, Mariners, Marlins, Padres), Salt River Rafters (Diamondbacks, Nationals, Rockies, Twins, Yankees), Scottsdale Scorpions (Blue Jays, Giants, Mets, Pirates, Tigers), and Surprise Saguaros (Astros, Guardians, Orioles, Rangers, Royals).

California League: Minor League Baseball (MiLB) announced the San Jose Churros, the alternate name of the Low-A California League's San Jose Giants, as the 2024 winner of the season-long Copa de la Diversión, or Fun Cup. This season's Copa de la Diversión saw 98 of the 120 affiliated MiLB teams assume alternate identities that engaged with and celebrated their region's Hispanic fan base.

Frontier League: The independent Frontier League's expansion team based in Pearl (MS) announced it will be called the Mississippi Mud Monsters when it starts play in the 2025 season. The Mud Monsters name was chosen over the Mississippi Grits and Mississippi Soul Shakers by fan voting. The Frontier League team replaces the affiliated Double-A Southern League's Mississippi Braves team that relocated to Columbus (GA) after the 2024 season.

BASKETBALL

Global Women's Basketball Association: The semi-pro GWBA, which started playing a short summertime season in 2016, usually with only four to six teams, did not return for a 2024 season this past summer. Teams called the Flint (MI) Monarchs, Wisconsin Glo (Oshkosh), St. Louis Surge and the KCrossover (Independence, MO) participated in the last GWBA season in 2023.

SlamBall: After returning last summer with eight teams playing all games at a venue in Las Vegas, the made-for-TV hybrid of basketball known as SlamBall did not return for the 2024 season. SlamBall featured a four-player type of basketball using a series of trampolines positioned in the normal shooting area of the baskets allowing players to spring toward the basket to score.

FOOTBALL

Midwest Arena Football League: The proposed new 8-on-8 developmental MAFL, also known as Arena Football 3 (AF3), has revised its inaugural 2024 season schedule to include only five teams with the recent folding of the Goshen (IN) Guardians team. The 2024 teams called the Detroit Bandits, Indianapolis Enforcers (Noblesville, IN), Mid-Michigan Grizzlies (Wixom), Midwestern Bulldogs (Fort Wayne, IN) and the Tri-State Bucks (Toledo, OH) will each play five to six games from October 19 through November 30, 2024, followed by playoffs.

X-League: The women's 7-on-7 indoor X-League, which evolved from the Lingerie Football League and the Legends Football League and has not played since the 2022 season, announced a new team called the Dallas Sound will be added to the Western Conference when the league restarts play in May 2025. A team called the Austin Sound played in the 2022 X-League. A team called the Dallas Desire played two seasons (2009-11) in the Lingerie Football League and one season (2016) in the Legends Football League.

The Arena League: The six-player indoor TAL announced its second season in 2025 will feature six teams each playing eight games from May 30 through July 26, 2025. The four teams called the Duluth (MN) Harbor Monsters, Kansas City (MO) Goats, Ozarks Lunkers (Springfield, MO) and Iowa Woo (Waterloo) from the inaugural 2024 season will return and the league has added two expansion teams called the Eau Claire (WI) Jammers and Hot Springs (AR) Wiseguys.

HOCKEY

American Hockey League: The top minor professional AHL started its 2024-25 season this week with the same 32 teams as last season with each team playing a 72-game schedule through April 20, 2025. The 32 teams will again be aligned in a 15-team Eastern Conference with an 8-team Atlantic Division and a 7-team North Division, and a 17-team Western Conference with a 7-team Central Division and a 10-team Pacific Division. After playing the 2023-24 season as an independent unaffiliated team, the AHL's Chicago Wolves are again affiliated with the National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes so each AHL team again serves as the top minor league affiliate for one of the 32 NHL teams. The Tucson Roadrunners, the affiliate of the NHL's former Arizona Coyotes, are now the affiliate of the new Utah Hockey Club.

Federal Prospects Hockey League: The lower minor professional FPHL started its 2024-25 season this week with 14 teams aligned in seven-team Empire and Continental divisions with each team playing 56 games through April 12, 2025. The league has grown from 11 to 14 teams with the addition of three expansion teams called the Danville (IL) Dashers, Monroe (LA) Moccasins and Athens (GA) Rock Monsters. Last season's Elmira (NY) River Sharks were sold and relocated to become the Hudson Valley Venom (Newburgh, NY). The Port Huron Prowlers were moved from the six-team Continental Division to the Empire Division and Monroe and Athens were added to the Empire. The five-team Empire Division added Port Huron and the new Danville team while Hudson Valley replaced Elmira in the division.

National Hockey League: The top professional NHL started its 2024-25 season last week and again has 32 teams each playing an 82-game schedule through April 17, 2025. The league is again aligned in an Eastern Conference with eight-team Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions and a Western Conference with eight-team Central and Pacific divisions. The only change from last season was the deactivation of the Arizona Coyotes franchise with the assets transferred to the owner of the new Utah Hockey Club, which has taken Arizona's place in the Central Division.

SPHL: The Peoria Rivermen of the minor professional SPHL will hold a third annual Rivermen Rebrand Night in February 2025 and play as the Peoria Spirits in honor of the city's history in the distilling industry.

SOCCER

USL League One (United Soccer League): The Division-III professional USL League One has granted an expansion franchise to a group in Corpus Christi (TX) where a new 5,000-seat soccer stadium is under construction for the team. The stadium should be completed in 2025.

Major Arena Soccer League: The men's professional MASL announced its 2024-25 season schedule will feature 12 teams each playing a 24-game schedule from November 29, 2024, through March 30, 2025. The MASL had 13 teams last season but the Monterrey Flash (Nuevo Leon, Mexico) will be sitting out this season and expected to return for the 2025-26 season. The MASL had a two-division alignment last season but currently lists the 12 teams in a single-table format.

Northern Super League: The Montreal team in Canada's new six-team women's professional NSL announced it will be called the Les Roses de Montreal FC (in French), Montreal Roses (in English) or the Roses FC when the league starts play in April 2025. The five previously named NSL teams include the AFC Toronto, Calgary Wild FC, Halifax Tides FC, Ottawa Rapid FC and Vancouver Rise FC.

OTHER

Major League Pickleball: The professional MLP started a new 2024 schedule of events for amateur pickleball players under the new Minor League Pickleball (MiLP) branding. This will bring the co-ed team format to amateur players who will be able to play alongside professionals at certain MLP events and at specific MiLP events across the country. Amateur players will compete to qualify for the 2024 MiLP National Championship.

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.

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.