While the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB dominate professional sports coverage in the U.S., less popular leagues provide athletes with more opportunities and fans with alternatives to the drama surrounding the top leagues. Here is a sampling of such leagues.
World Team Tennis: Co-founded by tennis legend Billie Jean King, the World Team Tennis Pro League features a team-format. The league consists of 10 teams that compete in July. “Each team is comprised of two men, two women and a coach. Team matches consist of five sets, with one set each of men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles,” says WTT’s Web site. A fan-friendly approach to tennis creates a football game atmosphere, playing music during changeovers and encouraging fans to be loud and cheer. Many current and retired stars, including Andre Agassi and the Williams sisters, compete in the league.
European Basketball: As we’ve seen in the last two summer Olympics, the popularity and quality of basketball in Europe has grown. Most countries have a men’s top professional league, such as the British Basketball League or France’s Ligue Nationale de Basket. While each individual league has its own season, these leagues make up the Union of European Basketball Leagues, which coordinates competitions between the champions of each country’s league. During the WNBA offseason, many WNBA players, including Diana Taurasi and Becky Hammon, play in the continent’s top women’s league, EuroLeague Women, which includes 21 teams from several nations.
Independent Baseball: There are seven independent baseball leagues across the United States. Most leagues have 8-10 teams concentrated in one region, such as the Golden Baseball League in the west and the Atlantic League in the east. Teams compete in the spring and summer, playing in stadiums with capacities of fewer than 10,000. Although independent leagues are not affiliated with the MLB, they tend to encourage players to use the leagues as a step to the MLB.
United Football League
Looking for a forgotten niche of avid football fans, the UFL begins its first season in October 2009. The league only has four teams who, strangely, represent seven different cities. The clubs hail from Las Vegas/Los Angeles, New York/Hartford, Orlando and San Francisco/Sacramento. The concept of dual locations is definitely unorthodox, but unlike the failed XFL or the current Arena football league, the UFL has not changed any rules from the familiar set used in the NFL. Instead, the league’s purpose, as stated in their mission statement, is “to fulfill the unmet needs of football fans in major markets currently underserved by professional football.” While San Francisco and New York already have teams, the league has already accomplished this goal, tapping into large markets in L.A. and Orlando.
Twin Galaxies: The Official Electronic Scoreboard
Brought to the public’s attention in the critically acclaimed movie “The King of Kong” (2007), Twin Galaxies serves as the governing body for all claims to classic video game records. While not a real sports league, the Twin Galaxies Web site offers legitimization to any avid video game player as the world’s best. Without it, there would be no objective way to measure players against one another.
“Twin Galaxies preserves the history of gaming in a historical database, which documents the historical milestones of the electronic gaming hobby as it evolves into a professional sport,” the administrators explain on the organization’s Web site.
For those familiar with “The King of Kong,” Steve Wiebe from the movie will make another world record attempt on national cable after Billy Mitchell broke his record. Wiebe will make his attempt on June 2, 2009 and it will air on the G4 network.
Post-Collegiate Lacrosse Leagues
The Men’s and Women’s Division Post-Collegiate Clubs Council govern over several lacrosse leagues for adults. The Men’s council has 13 leagues under its jurisdiction, including the Pacific Northwest Lacrosse Association, which has teams in Eugene, Portland and Seattle among others. The women’s league, on the other hand, hosts a national tournament: the oldest of its kind in the nation: during Memorial Day weekend every year. The event is open to whichever clubs want to join.
