List of defunct professional sports leagues
These are notable sports leagues which are no longer operating.
Australia
Australian football
- Tasmanian Football League (TFL 1879–2000)
Baseball
Rugby League
- Super League
- merged with the Australian Rugby League in 1998 to form the National Rugby League
- City Cup
Rugby Union
Soccer
Canada
Auto Racing
- Canadian Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (CASCAR 1981–2006; replaced by the series now known as the NASCAR Pinty's Series)
Baseball
- Canadian Baseball League (CBL 2003)
- Provincial League (1935–1955)
Basketball
- National Basketball League (NBL 1993-94)
Ice hockey
- Coloured Hockey League (1895–1925)
- Federal Amateur Hockey League (1903–09) (professional in 1908–09)
- Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (1906–09) (professional in 1908–09)
- Manitoba Professional Hockey League (MPHL 1907–09)
- National Hockey Association (NHA 1909–17)
- Canadian Hockey Association (CHA 1909–10)
- Interprovincial Professional Hockey League (IPHL 1910–11)
- Maritime Professional Hockey League (MaPHL 1911–14)
- Eastern Professional Hockey League (EPHL 1914–15)
- Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA 1911–24)
- Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL 1921–26)
- International Hockey League (IHL 1945–2001)
- World Hockey Association (WHA 1972–79)
- Roller Hockey International (RHI 1993–97, 1999)
Soccer
- Canadian Soccer League (CSL 1987-92)
- Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL 1922-97)
New Zealand
Rugby union
- National Provincial Championship (NPC, 1976–2005; professional from 1996)
- Replaced by Air New Zealand Cup, later ITM Cup and now Mitre 10 Cup, and Heartland Championship in 2006. Although the NPC as a single entity is defunct, its basic structure was largely revived in 2011 with the split of the then-ITM Cup into two divisions. The main difference between the current format and that of the NPC era is that no promotion from the Heartland Championship to the Mitre 10 Cup is currently possible. The NPC featured promotion and/or relegation (or at least the possibility thereof) at all three levels.
Russia
Ice hockey
- Russian Super League (1996–2008)
- Replaced by the Kontinental Hockey League in 2008. The KHL also launched with teams from Belarus, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. It has since added teams in China, Croatia, the Czech Republic (team folded), Finland, Slovakia (two different teams, with one still operating), and Ukraine (team folded).
South Africa
Rugby union
- Vodacom Cup (1998–2015)
- Second tier of domestic professional rugby, behind the Currie Cup, although the competition occasionally included teams from Argentina and Namibia as well. Scrapped after the 2015 season in favor of an expanded Currie Cup.
United Kingdom
American Football
- British American Football League (BAFL) (1986)
- Capital League (1987)
Basketball
- National Basketball League (1974–2003)
Association Football
- Football Alliance (1889–1892)
- Athenian League (1912–1984)
- Chiltonian League (1984–2000)
- Surrey Senior League (1922–2003)
United States
Pro Baseball
- National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (1871–75)
- American Association (1882–1891)
- Union Association (1884)
- Negro leagues
- League of Colored Baseball Clubs (1887), minor league
- Negro National League (I) (1920–1931)
- Eastern Colored League (1923–1928)
- American Negro League (1929)
- East-West League (1932)
- Negro Southern League (1932), minor league 1920–1931 and 1933–1940s
- Negro National League (II) (1933–1948)
- Negro American League (1937–1950), minor league 1951–1960
- West Coast Negro Baseball League (1946), minor league
- Players' League (1890)
- Atlantic League (1896–1900)
- Union Professional League (1908)
- Federal League (1914–1915)
- American Association (20th century) minor league (1902–1962 and 1969–1997)
- All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943–1954)[1]
- Blue Ridge League (1915–1918, 1919–1930, 1946–1950)
- Continental League (1960, never played)
- Senior Professional Baseball Association (1989–1990)
- Great Central League (1994)
- Western Baseball League (1995–2002)
- Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball (2005–2013)
Pro Basketball
Men:
- AABA-All-American Basketball Alliance (1977–78)
- AAPBL-All-American Professional Basketball League (2005)
- ABA-American Basketball Association (1967–1976)
- ABL I-American Basketball League I (1925–1955)
- ABL II-American Basketball League II (1961–1963)
- GBA-Global Basketball Association (1991–92, league folded midway through 1992-93 season)
- IBA-International Basketball Association (1995–2001)
- IBL-International Basketball League (1999–2001)
- NBL-National Basketball League (1937–1949)
- NPBL-National Professional Basketball League (1950–1951)
- NRL-National Rookie League (2000–2002)
- PBLA-Professional Basketball League of America (1947–1948)
- WBA-Western Basketball Association (1978–79)
- WBL-World Basketball League (1988–1992)
- CBA-Continental Basketball Association (1946–2009)
Women:
- WBL-Women's Pro Basketball League (1978–81)
- ABL-American Basketball League III (1996–1998)
- WABA-Women's American Basketball Association (1993–1995) (2002)
Amateur Basketball
- Amateur Athletic Association Basketball (AAU 1897–1982)
Pro Football
- AAFC – All-America Football Conference (1946–1949)
- AFL – American Football League (1926)
- AFL – American Football League (1936–1937)
- AFL – American Football League (1940–1941)
- AFL – American Football League (1960–1969, now the American Football Conference of the major league NFL)
- AFL – Arena Football League (1987–2008)
- The AFL returned in 2010, but is a separate legal entity from the original AFL. The current league purchased the assets of the original AFL in a bankruptcy auction, enabling it to brand itself as the first league's successor.
- af2 (2000–2009), the Arena Football League's official minor league
- Many of the teams in the revived AFL are former af2 teams. In fact, the original lineup of Arena Football 1, the league that morphed into the revived AFL, included more af2 teams than former AFL teams.
- CFL – Continental Football League (1965–1969)
- FXFL – Fall Experimental Football League (2014–2015)
- IFL – Indoor Football League (1999–2000)
- IPFL – Indoor Professional Football League (1999–2001)
- PIFL – Professional Indoor Football League (1998)
- PSFL – Professional Spring Football League (1991 – Training Camp)
- UFL – United Football League (2009–2012)
- USFL – United States Football League (1983–1985)
- WFL – World Football League (1974–1975)
- XFL (2001)
Note: Bolded leagues were competitors of major league NFL.
Pro Hockey
- World Hockey Association (WHA 1972–1979)
- Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA 1911–1924)
- International Hockey League (IHL 1945–2001)
- Roller Hockey International (RHI 1993–1997, 1999)
- Global Hockey League (Did not play, 1990)
Pro Soccer (Association Football)
- A-League (1995–2004; succeeded by USL First Division)
- American Football Association (1896–1907)
- American Professional Soccer League (1990–1994; operated as A-League in 1995–1996)
- American Soccer League (1921–1933, 1933–1983, 1988–1989)
- Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL 1993-97)
- Major Soccer League aka Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992)
- Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL 2001–2008)
- North American Soccer League (NASL 1968–1984)
- United Soccer League (1984–85)
- USL First Division (formally 2005–2010, last competitive season was 2009; folded into USL Pro for 2011, USL Pro renamed United Soccer League in 2015)
- USL Second Division (1990–2010; folded into USL Pro)
- USSF Division 2 Professional League (2010 only; compromise between the feuding USL and new NASL)
- Women's Professional Soccer (WPS, 2009–2011; effectively revived in 2013 as the National Women's Soccer League)
- Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA, 2001–2003; effective predecessor to WPS)
- World Indoor Soccer League (WISL 1998–2001)
- Xtreme Soccer League (XSL 2008-09)
Pro Lacrosse
Other
- BeNe League (joint Belgian–Dutch women's football league, 2012–2015)
- International Volleyball Association (IVA 1974)
- Japan Soccer League (JSL 1965–1992)
- Championship Gaming Series (CGS 2007-08)
- National Bowling League (NBL 1961-62)
- Major League Volleyball (1987–89)
- World League of American Football/NFL Europe (1991–2007)
- Pro Cricket (2004)
- Professional Slow Pitch Softball Leagues (1977–82)
- World Team Tennis (WTT 1974-78)
- Women's American football leagues since 2004
- Women's Western Volleyball League (WWVL 1993-94)
References
External links
- North American Pro Sports Teams- Lists every imaginable league that has operated in Canada and / or the United States. Grouped by city.