Minor league
Encyclopedia
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
with regard to several organizations competing in various sports. They generally have lesser fan bases and smaller budgets.
The minor league concept is a manifestation of the franchise system used in North American sports, whereby the group of major league teams in each sport is fixed for long periods between expansions or other adjustments, which only take place with the consent of the major league owners. In England (and many other countries), the football leagues have many divisions below the top-flight as part of the football pyramid. In other parts of the world there is usually either a system of annual promotion and relegation
Promotion and relegation
In many sports leagues around the world, promotion and relegation is a process that takes place at the end of each season. Through it, teams are transferred between divisions based on their performance that season...
, meaning that clubs have no fixed status in the hierarchy, or there is only one professional league per country in each sport, rendering the major/minor distinction irrelevant.
American football
While there are various semi-professional footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
leagues, none have any affiliation with the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
. The NFL and its teams have had working relationships with several independent leagues in the past, including the Association of Professional Football Leagues
Association of Professional Football Leagues
The Association of Professional Football Leagues was a compact formed in 1946 among the National Football League and three minor leagues of professional American football: the American Association , the Dixie League, and the Pacific Coast Professional Football League...
, the Atlantic Coast Football League
Atlantic Coast Football League
The Atlantic Coast Football League was a minor football league that operated from 1962 to 1973. Until 1969, many of its franchises had working agreements with NFL and AFL teams to serve as farm clubs. The league paid a base salary of $100 per game and had 36 players on each active roster.For the...
, and most recently, the league owned-and-operated NFL Europe League
NFL Europe
NFL Europe was an American football league which operated in Europe from 1991 until 2007. Backed by the National Football League , the largest professional American football league in the United States, it was founded as the World League of American Football to serve as a type of spring league...
. Many consider the Arena Football League
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League is the highest level of professional indoor American football in the United States. It is currently the second longest running professional football league in the United States, after the National Football League. It was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster...
to have been a de facto minor league, since several NFL owners had teams in it in the mid-2000s, prior to its bankruptcy and restructuring. Arena football
Arena football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League . It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game....
is played under very different conditions, and the AFL had its own minor league, af2
Af2
AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...
, until 2009. Several other independent indoor football leagues that play a similar game exist. Similarly, the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
, though it has developed ties with the NFL in recent years and has moved away from competing with the NFL for talent, plays a visibly different game than the American game, and the two sports favor different types of skills. Several minor and developmental leagues independent of the NFL have come and gone; two such leagues currently exists, the United Football League, which began play in 2009 as a complementary top-level development league, and the Stars Football League
Stars Football League
The Stars Football League is a semi-pro American football league operating primarily in the Southern United States. The league is headquartered in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Its inaugural season began June 30, 2011 with two teams; the league phased two more teams into the schedule over the course of...
, which began play with a soft launch in 2011.
Baseball
Minor league baseballMinor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
is almost as old as the professional game itself, and at first consisted of attempts to play baseball in smaller cities and towns independent of the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
, the first true major baseball league. Soon, scouts
Scout (sport)
In professional sports, scouts are trained talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scout's organization...
for the National League were travelling to watch minor league teams play and attempting to sign the more talented ones away. Some sports historians cite the connection between the other major league, the American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
and its minor league forebear, the Western Association. Soon Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
began formal developmental agreements with some minor league teams, while others remained independent.
Ice hockey
The sport with the next most extensive system of minor league teams other than baseball is ice hockeyIce hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
. In North America, between 1988 and 2005, 233 minor professional ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
teams played in a total of 160 cities in 13 minor professional leagues. The vast majority of these teams played in the United States, with only 21 of these teams based in Canadian cities. 123 of these minor professional teams played in the southern United States. One reason given for the large number of American based teams is that minor league franchises will frequently move from city to city, and even between leagues.
The American Hockey League
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
is the most prominent of the minor hockey leagues in North America. Other minor leagues include:
- Atlantic Coast Hockey LeagueAtlantic Coast Hockey LeagueThe Atlantic Coast Hockey League was a minor league hockey organization that operated between 1981 and 1987. The league was founded by Bill Coffey....
(ACHL) - Central Hockey LeagueCentral Hockey LeagueThe Central Hockey League is a mid-level professional hockey league, owned by Global Entertainment Corporation. Its current champions are the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, which defeated the Colorado Eagles four games to three in the 2011 playoffs....
(CHL) - ECHLECHLThe ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...
(formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League) - International Hockey League (IHL)
- Ligue Nord-Américaine de HockeyLigue Nord-Américaine de HockeyThe Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey was founded in 2004 and is a low-level professional league based in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was called the Quebec Semi-Pro Hockey League from 1996 until it turned pro in 2004...
(LNAH) - South East Hockey LeagueSouth East Hockey LeagueThe South East Hockey League was a minor ice hockey league formed in August 2003. It succeeded the short-lived Atlantic Coast Hockey League and had 4 teams for its first and only season. Jim Riggs was the commissioner....
(SEHL) - Southern Professional Hockey LeagueSouthern Professional Hockey LeagueThe Southern Professional Hockey League is a low-level professional ice hockey league based in Charlotte, North Carolina, with teams located in the southeastern United States.- History :...
(SPHL) - United Hockey LeagueUnited Hockey LeagueThe United Hockey League was a low-level professional ice hockey league , with teams in the United States...
(UHL), formerly the Colonial Hockey League - World Hockey Association 2World Hockey Association 2The World Hockey Association 2 was a minor professional ice hockey league created at the instigation of the organizers of the proposed recreated World Hockey Association to serve as its development league. The WHA2 teams — some of which had played the 2002–03 season in the Atlantic Coast...
(WHA2) - West Coast Hockey LeagueWest Coast Hockey LeagueThe West Coast Hockey League was a professional minor ice hockey league active in the western United States from 1995 to 2003. The number of teams ranged from six to nine. The teams were located in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Washington...
(WCHL) - Western Professional Hockey LeagueWestern Professional Hockey LeagueThe Western Professional Hockey League is a defunct minor professional ice hockey league.It operated in the United States from 1996 to 2001, with teams in the southern United States, mainly Texas. The league started with six teams in the 1996-1997 season and grew to 18 teams in 1999-2000...
(WPHL)
Most National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
teams have a farm team
Farm team
In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team or nursery club, is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher level at a given point...
in the American Hockey League
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
and often share a team in the ECHL
ECHL
The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...
. On "the farm" the NHL team will develop young players and, occasionally, rehabilitate older players who are injured or whose quality of play has slumped. These teams, in turn, have lower-level minor leagues to draw players from and pass players down to. Minor ice hockey leagues should not be confused with Junior
Junior ice hockey
Junior hockey is a catch-all term used to describe various levels of ice hockey competition for players generally between 16 and 20 years of age...
or Senior
Senior ice hockey
Senior hockey refers to amateur or semi-professional ice hockey competition for players too old to play junior ice hockey. The top senior amateur teams in Canadian leagues compete annually for the Allan Cup....
ice hockey leagues. They are different in that minor professional hockey leagues do not have restrictions on the age or experience levels of their players, but Junior and Senior leagues do.
Basketball
The National Basketball AssociationNational Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
has an affiliated minor league, the NBA Development League
NBA Development League
The NBA Development League, or NBA D-League, is the National Basketball Association's official minor league basketball organization. Known until summer 2005 as the National Basketball Development League , the NBA D-League started with eight teams in the fall of 2001...
(also called the "D-League"). The now-defunct Continental Basketball Association
Continental Basketball Association
The Continental Basketball Association was a professional men's basketball league in the United States, which has been on hiatus since the 2009 season.- History :...
(CBA) served some of the purposes of a minor league for the NBA for many years. However, there were no direct developmental agreements between CBA and NBA teams the way that there are between Major League Baseball and National Hockey League teams and their minor league affiliates.
Association football
While Major League SoccerMajor League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
does not have any affiliated minor leagues, the United Soccer Leagues
United Soccer Leagues
The United Soccer Leagues is the organizer of several soccer leagues with teams in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. It includes men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Leagues currently organized are the USL Pro, the USL Premier Development League, the W-League, and...
contains two separate divisions of professional teams, USL-1 and USL-2 (which also do not have a promotion and relegation system). These two divisions serve as the second and third levels of the American soccer pyramid
American Soccer Pyramid
The United States soccer pyramid is a term used in soccer to describe the structure of the league system in the United States. The country's governing body for the sport, the United States Soccer Federation , oversees the system but does not operate any of its component leagues—with one temporary...
. The USL also contains the Premier Development League, a semi-professional league that has some age restrictions.
Other sports
Other sports organizations considered to be minor leagues are the golf Nationwide TourNationwide Tour
The Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level...
, affiliated with the PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
, NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
's Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series and Whelen All-American Series
Whelen All-American Series
The Whelen All-American Series is a points championship for NASCAR sanctioned local racetracks around the United States and Canada....
, and various other affiliated satellite tours of other individual sports, including the Challengers Tour of Professional Tennis.
See also
- Association of Professional Football LeaguesAssociation of Professional Football LeaguesThe Association of Professional Football Leagues was a compact formed in 1946 among the National Football League and three minor leagues of professional American football: the American Association , the Dixie League, and the Pacific Coast Professional Football League...
- Minor ice hockey
- Minor league baseballMinor league baseballMinor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
- Minor League Football Association
- Minor League Golf TourMinor League Golf TourThe Fuzion Minor League Golf Tour is a developmental professional golf tour headquartered in Jupiter, Florida that runs tournaments year-round in south Florida....
- NBA Development LeagueNBA Development LeagueThe NBA Development League, or NBA D-League, is the National Basketball Association's official minor league basketball organization. Known until summer 2005 as the National Basketball Development League , the NBA D-League started with eight teams in the fall of 2001...