It's our year-end Holiday Roundtable Spectacular - featuring a look back at the year's newest additions to "what used-to-be" in professional sports (RIP MLB's "Oakland" Athletics & the NHL's Arizona Coyotes), and a predictive glimpse into what might be in store for 2025 - with two of our favorite fellow defunct sports enthusiasts: Steve Holroyd (Crossecheck, Philly Classics & Episodes 92, 109, 149, 188 & 248); and Paul Reeths (OurSportsCentral.com, StatsCrew.com & Episode 46).
Buckle up for our yearly mélange of amusement and bemusement at the fringes of the pro sports establishment, as we simultaneously marvel at and lament some of the most curious events of the past year, debate who and what might be next to stumble into oblivion, and conjecture about future scenarios for the next generation of defunct and otherwise forgotten pro sports teams and leagues - including:
Spring football's unified UFL
Arena Football League 2.0 RIP (and Arena Football One 2025)
MLB's now-Sacramento-and-someday-Las Vegas (maybe) Athletics
The NHL's Utah Hockey Club (fka Arizona [née Phoenix] Coyotes, via the WHA's original Winnipeg Jets)
Major League Cricket
Baseball's genre-bending Savannah Bananas - and its soon-to-launch Banana Ball Championship League
Indoor soccer's new Baller League
Premier League Lacrosse's pivot to city teams and a new women's division
The new League One Volleyball (LOVB) takes on the 2nd-year Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF)
NWSL soccer
PWHL hockey
PLUS: Can Diamond Baseball Holdings (41 MiLB teams and counting!) be stopped?
AND: Will Michael Jordan, et al. break up the NASCAR stock car monopoly?
