The 18 teams in the Frontier League will be divided into four divisions starting next season and the Capitales will have the Trois-Rivières Aigles, the Ottawa Titans, the New England Knockouts and the Tri-City ValleyCats as their main rivals. .
This is the main element of novelty that emerged from the league meetings, which took place until Wednesday noon in Charleston, South Carolina.
For the moment, we do not yet know whether the section in which the Capitals will play will be called the Can-Am division or the North division.
The other division in the Eastern Conference will bring together four teams, namely the New York Boulders, the New Jersey Jackals, the Sussex Miners and one of the two expansion teams joining the circuit, the Bird Dawgs of down East (Kingston, North Carolina).
New series format
Who says new division format also says new series format.
The champions of the four divisions will be qualified, as will the two “best runners-up” from each association, i.e. the two teams with the best records after the champions, regardless of division.
There will therefore be eight teams in the playoffs.
In the West, as announced by the Frontier League in September, a new team was also born, the Mud Monsters from Pearl, Mississippi.
Present among the governors of the 18 teams, the co-owner and president of the Capitales, Michel Laplante, welcomes the changes made.
“It really bodes well,” he says. Especially since each of the markets is healthier than ever. “I’m not saying everyone is riding high, but it’s good to see that no one is on life support, even though the New England team has had a tough year,” he said. he added, specifying that the other 15 teams had recorded increases in attendance.
The calendar at the start of the week
The Capitals will know more about their schedule at the start of the week. – DIDIER DEBUSSCHERE/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
The governors studied the possibility of an expanded schedule to 102 games, but ultimately opted for the status quo at 96 games. The final version of the calendar will be revealed early next week.
What we already know is that the Capitals will play 12 games against each of the four rivals in their division. They will also see each of the other four teams in the East 9 times. The schedule will be completed by 12 matches against teams from the West.
Further expansion to come
Furthermore, Laplante believes that the league will expand its frameworks to 20, even 24 teams sooner rather than later.
“It will be enormous the amount of teams released by major league baseball in the coming years because they no longer want as many affiliated teams. We won’t need to run because we’re talking about orphan markets and we’re the league that covers the most territory. What we must develop in the coming months is a horizon plan,” he explained.
Otherwise, there will be no change to the statuses of players relating to their experience and teams will be able to bet on 25 players during the first two weeks of the calendar.
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