Get your pro softball on this summer.
After barnstorming its way into softball fans’ hearts in its inaugural season, the Athletes Unlimited Softball League has selected the six cities that will serve as the lasting homes of its newly expanded field of teams.
Say hello to the Carolina Blaze, Chicago Bandits, Oklahoma City Spark, Portland Cascade, Texas Volts and Utah Talons — the six softball squads that will suit up for the AUSL’s second season in a 2026 summer slate officially announced Tuesday.
Backed by a strategic investment from Major League Baseball, the AUSL had an exciting debut in 2025, with the Blaze, Bandits, Volts and champion Talons touring the country for the regular-season schedule and drawing strong attendance and viewership numbers along the way.
Now, with those four teams assigned permanent homes and the Spark and Cascade joining the AUSL, the league will shift to a more traditional, city-based model in its continuing bid to help shape the future of professional women’s sports.
Opening Day for the AUSL’s 2026 season is slated for June 9.
“The athletes are excited about getting into home markets and having hometown crowds,” AUSL Commissioner Kim Ng said. “That’s where you can draw the strongest connections, when you have a consistent presence and fans can get to know who those players are.”
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Each of the six teams will play a 25-game schedule, made up of series of two or three games.
The regular season will run from June 9-July 20, and the playoff format has been expanded to include a play-in game between the league’s second- and third-ranked teams, with the No. 1 seed earning a bye into the best-of-three AUSL Championship. Each of those playoff games will be played at a neutral site to be announced at a later date.
The AUSL recently announced a multiyear media rights extension with ESPN, which will carry 47 regular-season games, as well as the AUSL Championship (with Game 1 on ABC).
See here, here, and here for some background, and here for the league’s schedule. There’s also the Women’s Pro Baseball League, which launches this summer with four teams but will begin with games all played in a single neutral location, to be named. As I’ve said before, I’m a fan of the Women’s College World Series, whose games have tremendous energy. I’m rooting for the AUSL to capture as much of that as they can. I’ll need to see about planning a trip to Round Rock to catch a game or two. KXAN has more about the Volts.