UAE's first baseball league announces schedule for opening season
Baseball United, the first professional baseball league focused on the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent, announced the official dates and schedule for its debut season. The league's first season will run from November 14 to December 14, with all games played at Baseball United Ballpark in Dubai.
After making history with three signature baseball events over the last three years, Baseball United will now commence the first professional baseball season in the history of the region.
The season will feature the league's founding four franchises, the Mumbai Cobras, Karachi Monarchs, Arabia Wolves, and Mid East Falcons. The teams will each play nine regular season games — facing each other three times each — followed by a best of three United Series beginning December 12 to determine the league champion.
Overall, 21 games will be played over 30 days at Baseball United's new ballpark in Dubai.
'Our team has worked so hard, for so long, to make this news official,' said Kash Shaikh, Baseball United Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder.
'We are so grateful for the support of our Dubai and UAE partners, our investors, and all the fans around the world who've helped make BU the most well-known internationally-based professional baseball league in the world. We've received all that support through several special events and big milestones since our launch in November of 2022. And now, we get to reward our fans with a full season. Everything starts small, but we believe this will be the beginning of a new chapter in baseball history.'
The season will begin with the Subcontinent Series, November 14 to 16, between the Mumbai Cobras and Karachi Monarchs. This historic series will mark the first time Indian and Pakistani franchises have ever faced each other in baseball.
The two large countries - with 1.8 billion people between them - enjoy one of the most passionate rivalries in all of sport. The highly anticipated India vs Pakistan cricket match in the ICC Champions Trophy event last month garnered a record 600 million viewers - that is 5 times more viewers than the Super Bowl.
The league will announce its official broadcaster partners this summer, including television and digital streaming reaching all 193 countries.
Baseball United's recent UAE Series event between the Arabia Wolves and Mid East Falcons was watched by 12 million unique viewers, including 3.3M unique viewers per game in Pakistan A Sports. The viewership numbers are more than any MLB regular season game played in the United States last year. With two billion people in the Middle East and South Asia - one billion of which are cricket fans - Baseball United has a massive market to introduce America's Pastime.
Baseball United has also garnered strong viewership in baseball hotbeds globally, including the United States, Japan, and Latin America.
Full rosters for the season will be announced later this spring. To date, 65% of Baseball United's players were originally drafted by Major League Baseball teams, including MLB All-Star, Robinson Cano, MLB Gold Glover, Andrelton Simmons, and MLB World Series Champion, Pablo Sandova l.
Baseball United built its new ballpark at The Sevens sports and entertainment complex in Dubai in just 38 days last fall, and since then has hosted the largest international amateur baseball tournament in the history of the region, the Arab Classic, along with last month's UAE Series. The ballpark is the first professional baseball field in the history of the region.
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