Why MLB investing in a new women's softball league is smart business
The explosion of popularity in U.S. women's sports has led Major League Baseball to an obvious conclusion: It's time to invest in softball so that it can eventually reap the financial rewards.
Unlike soccer, basketball and hockey however, baseball lacks a significant pipeline of amateur female talent in the United States. From an early age, girls are pushed out of baseball and into softball. Over the last few years, MLB has invested in softball development at the amateur level, but has not been involved in professional initiatives.
MLB's reason for investing its time and money into youth baseball and softball has always been about building its future bottom line. When they get kids to have an emotional connection to what they call 'diamond sports,' they hope that many of them turn out to be future season ticket holders.
Baseball's popularity in America has become increasingly regionalized and the league has, in recent years, turned an intense focus toward finding new fans and finding new sources of revenue. So, when a longtime baseball executive took over a new professional softball league in April, it only took a few weeks for MLB to claim a significant piece of the action.
MLB has invested a roughly 20% stake in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), per two sources. The monetary amount is not public, but those sources indicated it is around eight figures. This isn't a tepid, philanthropic donation to an up-and-coming professional league: It's MLB watching the skyrocketing revenues in other women's professional leagues and taking its best opportunity to get its cut.
MLB's investment in the AUSL isn't just because it's the most established professional softball league in the United States right now. It's because the AUSL is now run by Kim Ng, a longtime MLB executive and the league's commissioner. It is Ng's job to use the investment from MLB and increased fan interest in women's sports to grow the league even further.
The AUSL operates four teams, which will travel around the country in 2025 before settling in home cities in 2026. Players are paid $45,000 to $75,000 for their 24-game seasons, and ESPN will carry 33 AUSL games this season.
'We had alignment with Athletes Unlimited in our conversations for more than a year,' Noah Garden, MLB's deputy commissioner of business and media said in a statement to MSNBC. 'After the dialogue began, Athletes Unlimited brought Kim on board, which just made the fit even better. We are putting meaningful resources behind this endeavor because a rising tide lifts all boats.'
The tide is indeed rising in women's sports.
In 2024, the WNBA announced that it had set a record in league viewership, attendance and merchandise sales. The year-over-year increases reported by the WNBA — helped by the arrival of Caitlin Clark — are mind-boggling.
The United States Women's Soccer Team continued to be more compelling than their male equivalent, winning an Olympic gold medal for the United States after the men's team bombed out in the quarterfinals.
Then, in 2024, ESPN reported its most-watched regular-season season of college softball since 2015. The Women's College World Series Finals attracted 2 million viewers, up 24 percent from 2023.
This year's Women's College World Series (WCWS) Finals begin on Wednesday, with a three-game championship series that will be broadcast on ESPN.
Investing in the AUSL is easier than MLB creating its own softball league, as the NBA did with the WNBA back in 1996. MLB's confidence in this specific league comes from its deep relationship with its new commissioner.
Ng, 56, played softball while attending the University of Chicago. She weighed her career options after graduating, but saw few opportunities for herself in professional sports.
'I was really intrigued by getting into sports,' Ng said in an interview with MSNBC. 'There weren't too many models that were successful for women's sports at the time. I didn't think that I could be in men's sports.'
To her surprise, Ng soon found herself climbing the ranks in various positions within MLB.
An early opportunity with the Chicago White Sox got her in the door. She then had a 30-year journey as a team executive (including for the New York Yankees). At times, she served as a high-ranking executive in MLB's central office. Eventually, in 2020, she was hired by the Miami Marlins as their general manager — becoming the first woman in baseball's 150-year-old history to hold that title.
Three years later, the Marlins intended to hire an executive above Ng, and she left the organization. She'd spent her entire career quietly working toward having a chance to run an MLB team. Almost as soon as she had finally arrived in that role, she was told she would be demoted to second-in-command.
Ng drifted away from baseball, and Athletes Unlimited saw its chance. She had held nearly every job imaginable in baseball front offices by that point in her career, and her reputation and experience would help get the AUSL off the ground.
Many of the most powerful people in MLB have been strong advocates for Ng throughout her career. Some are behind-the-scenes executives, but no one has been a bigger champion for Ng than Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre, who since hanging up his uniform after the 2010 season has worked in various capacities in MLB leadership. It would be difficult to find any executive whom MLB would trust more to lead a growing softball league.
Hiring Ng in April was a pivotal moment for the AUSL. Athletes Unlimited, which also operates a volleyball and basketball league, was formed in 2019. MLB had watched the league operate independently for over five years by the time it made its investment. During those five years, viewership and revenue in women's sports has exploded.
By all metrics, women's sports are on the rise. MLB watched the rocket launch in other sports, but has now chosen Ng and the AUSL to dig into the coffers of an untapped market. Baseball is taking a big bet on its women's equivalent, trusting its own former executive to help it cash in.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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