Cool.
Major League Baseball is purchasing an equity stake in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, partnering with the fledgling league that is preparing for its first four-team season and plans to expand in future years.
With women’s sports revenues now in excess of $1 billion per year, the imprimatur of MLB helps establish the AUSL as a viable long-term entity in a sport that has seen multiple professional leagues fold. MLB’s stake in the AUSL is more than 20%, a source told ESPN, and the league will assist the AUSL in marketing and content distribution in addition to the financial component.
“It’s a watershed moment for pro women’s softball, pro women’s sports,” Athletes Unlimited CEO and co-founder Jon Patricof told ESPN. “This is a financial investment but also about a number of things that money can’t buy.”
While the NBA launched the WNBA in 1996 and owns around 60% of the league, no major men’s North American professional sports league had made a significant post-creation investment in its women’s counterpart. The AUSL is owned by Athletes Unlimited, which also runs women’s basketball and volleyball leagues and has hosted softball events for the past five years in suburban Chicago. The AUSL will feature four teams and play in 12 locations this summer, and in 2026, it plans to establish teams based in cities.
“We think the time is right to get into the space with a credible partner,” said Tony Reagins, MLB’s chief baseball development officer. “We want this to be not good but great. We want to create more opportunities for young women. Now they have something to strive for that’s going to be around.”
The AUSL has a deal with ESPN to broadcast 33 games this summer, and the partnership with MLB will air games on MLB Network — including one on June 7, the league’s opening day — and MLB.tv. All 72 AUSL games, Patricof said, will be on linear TV. Additionally, AUSL players will attend MLB’s All-Star Game and postseason to help grow awareness about women’s professional softball.
In 2002, MLB partnered with National Pro Fastpitch — a league that existed for 18 years with limited media distribution — but did not make a significant investment as it has with the AUSL.
“Obviously they believe in the opportunity that exists in the business of women’s sports,” Patricof said. “But also obviously see how important it is to support the sport at all levels. Hopefully, at some point, the AUSL can benefit MLB, but in the short term, it’s very much about how MLB can benefit pro women’s softball.”
See here and here for the background. I hope the AUSL players do more than show up and get shown off during All Star week, I hope they arrange to play a league game, or at least a serious exhibition game. Why not take advantage of that opportunity? Be that as it may, MLB’s involvement is a good sign for the league’s future. It hopefully means better things than what National Pro Fastpitch (which by the way had a Houston-ish team at one point) got; I think one can safely argue that National Pro Fastpitch was ahead of its time. Anyway, this is exciting and I’ll try to catch the opening day game on the MLB network. MLB’s press release is here, while Hannah Keyser discusses the softball versus baseball question – there’s a Women’s Professional Baseball League set to debut next year, too – and reminds us that the Women’s College World Series is going on now. USA Today has more.