The American Association released their 2016 schedule on Thursday and there’ll be one less team competing next season. The league announced the Grand Prairie AirHogs and Amarillo Thunderheads are merging and will operate as one team in 2016. The yet to be named team will play 25 home games in Grand Prairie and another 25 in Amarillo.
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“With 13 clubs and no interleague play, a schedule with an odd number of teams became unbalanced and difficult,” Commissioner Miles Wolff said through a media release. “We appreciate that Southern Independent Baseball, owner of the Amarillo and Grand Prairie clubs, agreed to the league’s request to operate its two teams as one in 2016. We fully expect that both teams will return in 2017 as individual entities with a full schedule in their respective markets.”
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The Winnipeg Goldeyes are in the North Division and it remains unchanged. The Fish will open their 100 game schedule on May 19 in Joplin. It’s the start of a season opening 10 game road trip that also includes games against the defending champion Laredo Lemurs and the Lincoln Saltdogs.
Winnipeg will play their home opener on May 30 against the Sioux Falls Canaries. In all nine different teams will appear at Shaw Park in 2016. All of the Goldeyes Sunday home games have been moved up to 1:00 pm.
The league also announced the return of the All-Star Game after a one-year hiatus. Next years mid-season classic will be played on August 2 in St. Paul.
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