List of defunct professional sports leagues explained
These are notable sports leagues which are no longer operating.
Australia
Australian football
Baseball
Rugby league
Rugby union
Soccer
Canada
Auto racing
Baseball
Basketball
Ice hockey
Soccer
New Zealand
Basketball
Rugby union
- National Provincial Championship (NPC, 1976–2005; professional from 1996)
- Replaced by the current Bunnings National Provincial Championship (previously Air New Zealand Cup, ITM Cup and 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 NPC and its original version is that no promotion from the Heartland Championship to the Bunnings NPC is currently possible. The original NPC featured promotion and/or relegation (or at least the possibility thereof) at all three levels.
Russia
Ice hockey
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; a one-off expanded Currie Cup was held in 2016 before a successor second-level competition, the Rugby Challenge, was launched in 2017.
United Kingdom
American football
Basketball
Association football
United States
Professional athletics
Professional baseball
Professional basketball
Men:
Women:
Amateur basketball
Professional football
Competitors to NFL
Other leagues
Professional hockey
Professional rugby union
Professional soccer (association football)
Professional Softball
Professional lacrosse
Other
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Baseball Historian – Part of the Sports Historian Network.
