Changing The Game: Kim Ng Leading Athlete Unlimited's Expansion In Pro Softball

Forbes

23-04-2025

Athletes Unlimited (AU) named Kim Ng their first commissioner of Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) last week tapping into Ng's vast experience as a general manager and trail blazer in the MLB. Athletes Unlimited, a company providing women's professional sports in an untraditional gamified scoring format as well as their weekly leaderboard, has added a traditional softball league format (AUSL) to their roster of offerings that will launch June 7.
Ng's leadership at the helm of the league is accompanied by advisors, general managers and head coaches that have had a wide reach and influence in the game of softball and for Team USA including: Jenny Finch, Jessica Mendoza, and Natasha Watley as senior advisors to the league; Lisa Fernandez, Cat Osterman, Dana Sorenson and Jenny Dalton-Hill to serve as GMs; and Howard Dobson, Stacey Nuveman-Deniz, Kelly Kretschman, and Alisa Goler named as head coaches. As well as the league will feature AU fan favorite players: Maya Brady and Meghan Faraimo (UCLA), Lexi Kilfoyl (OSU), Montana Fouts (Alabama), and Odicci Alexander (JMU).
Ng is no stranger to leading large sport organizations into new territories. Ng worked in the MLB League Office as the Senior VP of Baseball Operations as well as served as an assistant general manager for both the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. Ng was appointed the first woman and Asian American general manager in MLB history when she joined the Miami Marlins in 2020, leading the team to its first playoff berth in 2023 in 20 years.
This vast experience was what made Athletes Unlimited Co-Founder Jon Patricof target Ng to join and led their new league. He said, 'I think Kim is a world class sports executive. She brings so much experience, both at the league level and at the team level, and she's someone who can move effortlessly between boardrooms and the locker rooms. Bringing that together is it's hard to find, and she's really a very unique individual who meets those requirements. I always hoped she would be willing to sign on as commissioner. She was top of the list from the beginning, and we're really ecstatic that she has decided now to sign on and that we could get her.'
For Patricof, Ng was an intentional and calculated hire as he met her in 2019 and begin talking about collaborating with Athletes Unlimited during its infancy while Ng was still with the MLB. When needing to hire a commissioner for his new league, Patricof went after Ng but she turned down the offer the first time due to timing. However, Patricof, described the story stating. 'I let a couple weeks go by, and then I called her back and I said, 'Listen, I can't take no for an answer. We need you. You have got to get involved here. And took my call and was willing to talk. And we spoke a few more times and I was able to convince her to come on board at that time as a senior advisor.' That senior advisor role soon morphed into taking charge of the direction, growth, and operation of the league as the commissioner, officially named into the position on April 16.
Patricof has already seen the payoff in having Ng as a senior advisor and now commissioner for AUSL, he stated, 'I think the Kim has figured out a way to really bring in more traditional roles but infuse the kind of innovative spirit of AU behind them. I think that's been a huge piece for us. She's worked so incredibly well with the players. I think that she has a very keen sense of what's driving them, what's motivating them, and how to best meet them where they are. She is also working with me incredibly closely across all the commercial aspects of the league. Kim is somebody, again, who can go very high level and strategic, but also really likes to roll her sleeves up and get into the get into the details and into the weeds. And so that's what's needed if you're at a startup, right? And given where we are with AU, with this new venture, she's proven that she's willing and very capable of doing the hard work. She's also an incredible intellect. There are not many people you meet, who you know are as smart or sharp as Kim. And again, it's incredibly valuable, because so much of what we're doing is blazing new paths and in that you need someone who has that vision and is comfortability with uncertainty, and Kim has proven that she is really good in those situations.'
Ng coming on was a combination of seeing Patricof and fellow Co-Founder Jonathan Soros vision in the establishment and investment into AU, the timing and momentum of women's sports as a whole, and the excitement to fight for a new group of women athletes, 'For someone like me, who fought for women my entire career for all of us to have a seat at the table and to be included when we should be, to see all of this now crescendo to a point for these women athletes, I think, is just remarkable for me, and I wanted to be a part of it. And I think to be able to influence the narrative, and to be able to be able to influence the platform, and the opportunity for these athletes is just really exciting.'
For founders Patricof and Soros, Athletes Unlimited (AU), and particularly softball, has led to a new opportunity to take a league on the road to different cities throughout the country. Over the past four years, AU has offered softball in its tournament style competition, in quick season formats, in a single location in Rosemont, Illinois, right outside of Chicago. This format has paid off for the company, but as Patricof explained there was prospect to expand, 'We've watched the opportunity in women's pro softball grow and the demand, and we really want to now reach out beyond to new markets, expand the number of games and really fill what we see as a huge void in the landscape for pro women softball.'
AUSL will also have a broadcasting partnership with ESPN that will air 33 games on their platform including 30 on linear TV, this is a staple for AU and its leagues. The league will travel intentionally around the country playing series in Rosemont, Illinois, Wichita, Kansas, Sulphur, Louisiana, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Norman, Oklahoma, Omaha, Nebraska, Seattle, Washington, Salt Lake City, Utah, Round Rock, Texas, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
AUSL will focus on providing depth in storytelling revolving around the athletes; this will be front and center as it has been in their other leagues and formats. However, both Patricof and Ng know for this league to succeed they must tap into the popularity and growth of women's collegiate softball and bring those fans to AUSL.
One of those strategies that has gone viral as of late was a marketing strategy invented by Cheri Kempf, vice president of AU, called the golden ticket. Ng and other front office staff have been traveling across the US as of late to Division I softball programs awarding collegiate softball players a golden ticket invitation to play as draftees in AUSL this summer. Ng feels this is an incredibly intentional strategy to capture collegiate fans and bring them to AUSL this summer, she recalls an experience awarding the second golden ticket at Duke University to Ana Gold, 'I presented the second ticket at Duke, and we were hidden in this little tunnel near the field. I took like, five steps out just to see what was going on in the game and someone from the stands above said, 'oh, we got a golden ticket. We got a golden ticket.' And so, the idea that this was just the second time we were doing it, and a fan knew what that was, I thought that spoke volumes about the reach that the golden ticket had already had.'
So far the league has given golden tickets out to Virginia Tech's Emma Lempley, Gold, Texas A&M's Emily Kennedy, Arizona Wildcat Devyn Netz, Akansas's Bri Ellis, and Florida Gator Korbe Otis.
Additionally, Ng believes with the growth in viewership related to the Women's College World Series last year that saw an increase of 24%, as well as the overall growth of women's sports coupled with the US hosting the Olympics in 2028 seeing softball's return to the games, 'AU is definitely filling that gap' and has a chance to 'gather momentum for AUSL to be catapulted.'
Growth and success for AUSL in their first season will be highly measured by the fans response to the product, their continued television relationship with ESPN that is looking for consistent numbers across the season, as well as tapping into established larger softball markets around the country to drive awareness and popularity for the new league as it looks to establish home cities and teams after year one. Patricof explained, 'I think that first and most important indication, especially with this expansion on a national basis, is to see great fan response around the country. We want people coming to games in person. That in person attendance helps drive a great product on television. We're going to some substantially larger venues, and so we want to see great crowds.'
Patricof expanded explaining that the league has already started to exceed expectations as they were only planning to visit eight markets this summer and have expanded to 12, 'Our original plan was to go to eight markets this summer. We're going to be in 12. So that, in large part, was due to the response, like overwhelming responses from cities around the country.' The sites were specifically chosen due to their strong softball fandom but also the ability to be good partners to the league from a marketing and operational standpoint.
For Ng, as she prepares for the season to begin in June, it is about leaving 'no stone unturned' which includes meticulously analyzing marketing, ticket sales, fan experience, and athlete experience within the new league. AUSL presents a new and different challenge compared to years in the MLB for Ng, she said, 'When I was in baseball I think a lot of those things were just turnkey, because it was a very established, mature system. We all had our roles. We knew what those were. There really weren't a whole lot of surprises, in the bigger context, whereas, with more of a startup situation, I think you have to have more foresight, and you have to think worst case scenario all the time and then be prepared to deal with those scenarios. It is very different from what I'm used to, but also really exciting, because I think the upside is just so enormous.'
The first game of AUSL will take place in Rosemont, Illinois, the site where AU and AUX softball has been played the last four years, on June 7 between the Talons and Bandits.
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