CanAm League looking to expand
The Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball (CanAm League for short) is looking for ways to expand its territory. Currently, the league is fielding six teams.
Executive Director Kevin Winn is looking for ways to grow the CanAm League. This should be done by raising the league’s salary cap and to expand the rosters from 22 players to 23. The increased roster size will offer clubs more opportunities for developing players and to be cognizant of player injuries. The salary cap for a rostered player in the league is about $2–3,000 every month. Some players even make $4,000 per month.
This should open doors for investors and new ownership groups in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic markets. Currently, the league contains six teams: New Jersey Jackals, Sussex County Miners (one-time champion), Rockland Boulders (1-time champion), Ottawa Champions (one-time champion), Quebec Capitales (seven-time champion) and Trois-Rivieres Aigles (one-time champion).
The CanAm League was founded in 2005 as a reorganization of its predecessor the Northeast League. Trough the years, teams came and went but the two constant factors in the league are the New Jersey Jackals and the Québec Capitales.
According to Winn, the Can-Am League is stronger than ever. “With a steadily growing reputation for attracting talent and exciting brand of baseball in our markets, now is the time to implement expansion plans to grow our North American footprint,” Winn said in a press release announcing the moves. “As we set our sights on growing, we feel it’s only fitting to expand our rosters and raise the salary cap. We are in ongoing talks in several promising markets in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.”
The last few seasons, the CanAm League teams have played a series of games vs the Cuban national team and an All-Star team of the Shikoku Island League, an independent league in Japan. Series against these two teams will be scheduled again this season.
As the league got into some trouble as it did not have enough teams, its clubs played 18 to 20 games per season against opponents from the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball from 2012. The CanAm League and the American Association share a commissioner. After the 2015 season, the interleague schedule ended as the CanAm League had enough teams again to have a schedule of its own.