Draft:2024 Northwoods League Baseball Season

The 2024 Northwoods League Baseball Season is the 31st season of the league, which is a Collegiate Summer Wooden-Bat Baseball League. The league hosts 25 teams. 25 are in the US (One of them being a traveling team based out of Savage, MN named the Minnesota Mud Puppies, which pays homage to the Dubuque Mud Puppies, one of the founding members of the league), and one of the teams, the Thunder Bay Border Cats, are located in Canada. The league has planned the arrival of the St. Croix River Hounds since 2017, but as of June 2024, they are still yet to play a single game and have been removed from the list of teams on the league's website. They are only found on the location map, listed as an expansion team.

Teams
The league ended last season with 24 teams. However, on October 10, 2023, the league welcomed in the Badlands Big Sticks, who were a member of the Expedition League and the Independence League. Their owner is David Ouellette, and the manager would be announced as Jordan Price. Then, just 9 days later, on October 19, 2023, the league announced a team all the way across the league from Badlands, a team who was not new to the baseball rodeo, the Royal Oak Leprechauns. Royal Oak was previously a member of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League before moving to the Northwoods League in 2023. They are owned by Mark Sackett(who is also the GM), and managed by Jonathan Vance. Badlands will play in the Great Plains (West Division), and Royal Oak will play in the Great Lakes (East Division).

The teams in this league are right here.

Schedule
The Northwoods League Schedule was released to the public on December 18, 2023. The 2024 schedule introduced Interleague play between the Great Plains and the Great Lakes. For example, the Madison Mallards will play a team such as the Eau Claire Express, or the La Crosse Loggers will play a team such as Green Bay. Every team plays around 68-70 games this season(it's never a concrete number, but around this range of games). The season started on May 27, 2024, and will end on August 10, 2024. Then, the playoffs will begin the following day, and will end on August 16, 2024.

TV Providers
The Northwoods League has two main TV providers.

Northwoods League+
The Northwoods League, previous to this season, used Northwoods League TV to broadcast most of their games. However, the League decided to stop using NWL TV, and created Northwoods League Plus. The streaming service is definitely an upgrade over NWL TV, as it was designed to be. For one, you can watch 4 games at once in Multi-view. Also, one or two games a day will be on the Northwoods League Network(FAST Channel). It will be broadcast on Northwoods League+, as it comes with the streaming service but it will not include any ads in between the innings. Instead, according to the Northwoods League; "This dedicated, seasonal channel will feature a mix of live games, studio content, highlights and player interviews, and more, ensuring that fans can immerse themselves in the world of Northwoods League baseball and softball around the clock." Northwoods League+ is free (it does include in-app purchases).

ESPN+
In 2022, the Northwoods League struck a deal with ESPN, which had the Northwoods League broadcast 2 games a day, the All-Star game, and the playoffs on ESPN+. The deal was only a year, but in May 2023, the league renewed their deal, which lasts until the end of the 2024 season. You cannot view the games without an ESPN+ subscription, which costs $10.99 a month or $109.99 a year.