MLB Announces Partnership With New Professional Softball League
The popularity of women's sports continues to rise. And it goes beyond basketball and the WNBA.
Major League Baseball announced on Thursday that it has entered a strategic partnership with the newly formed Athletes United Softball League.
The entities will work together to help raise the visibility of the AUSL across MLB's marketing, events, distribution, editorial, digital and social platforms, content and more, including select AUSL games airing on MLB Network and MLB.TV.
MLB will also help the AUSL with operational costs and growth initiatives. The four-team league opens play Saturday with games in Rosemont, Ill., and Wichita, Kans.
'Athletes Unlimited is a great organization with great leadership that was attractive to us,' MLB chief baseball development officer Tony Reagins said. 'These conversations have been in the making for a year and a half. Obviously, it took some time to get to this point, but over the last couple of years, we've be watching the organization, watching how it went about their business, the creativity of the league, the way it was going to utilize its players, the creativity and innovation. It was something that was a little bit different.
'There have been professional (softball) leagues in and out of the space for a number of years. We felt really good about this opportunity, and mostly due to the leadership, the thinking that that the organization had, an opportunity for women that we have been working on for the last 10 years through some of our grassroots and development initiatives. Now, there is a pathway, if you will, to turn these initiatives into something bigger and better.'
The AUSL's four teams – the Bandits, Blaze, Talons and Volts – will play a 24-game schedule from June 7-July 23. The top two teams will play in a best-of-three championship series from July 26-28 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Following that series, 60 players will compete for an individual championship in the AUSL All-Star Cup, a 24-game competition in August featuring a scoring system invented by Athletes Unlimited. The AUSL will become a city-based league beginning in 2026, while it will be a touring property this summer featuring games in 12 different cities.
Athletes Unlimited was co-founded in 2020 by Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros. In addition to the AUSL, AU owns and operates a portfolio of professional women's sports leagues, including basketball and volleyball properties.
Patrifcof, who serves as CEO of Athletes Unlimited, is excited about the collaboration with MLB.
'It's incredibly important that we have them on board, obviously as an investor and a partner, but also a strategic partner who's going to bring their tremendous resources, including televising our games on MLB Network, which will be great for exposure,' Patricof said. 'I think of those resources as, honestly, a lot of things that money can't buy, and that's It's just huge now for us to align all the stakeholders in the sport.'
Naming Kim Ng as commissioner gives the AUSL further credibility heading into its inaugural season. Ng was a long-time executive in MLB and has the distinction of being the game's only female general manager, a role she served in with the Miami Marlins from 2021-23.
Said Ng: 'This is a watershed moment for women's sports and especially for softball. MLB's investment will supercharge our efforts to build the sustainable professional league this sport has long deserved and sends a powerful message about the value of female athletes and the importance of creating professional opportunities for them. Together, we're going to reach new fans and inspire the next generation of softball players.'
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