MLB Purchases Equity Stake In Athletes Unlimited Women’s Softball League

Major League Baseball announced a partnership with the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, purchasing an equity stake in the new league.

The AUSL will begin its first-ever season on June 7, with four teams and plans to expand the league in future years.

“Major League Baseball’s investment in the AUSL,” Rob Manfred, MLB Commissioner, said in a statement, “represents an opportunity to support softball’s long-term growth and expand our engagement with these outstanding athletes and their fans.”

The AUSL has partnerships with both ESPN and MLB Network. ESPN will air 33 games this Summer. All 72 games will be on linear television.

Kim Ng will be the commissioner of the AUSL. Ng was previously the general manager for the Miami Marlins and worked under Manfred for over a decade.

“I think this is an incredible step for both sports,” Ng said in an interview on CBS. “To have Major League Baseball support women’s pro softball and that landscape is so meaningful to me and many other young women.”

MLB has a longstanding relationship with USA softball, but has never invested in a professional softball league.

The investment from the MLB will support the AUSL with operational costs, business operations and other areas of collaborative sales and marketing.

The four teams competing in the inaugural season are the Bandits, Blaze, Talons and Volts. The four teams will travel on a circuit consisting of ten different cities. The championship will be from July 26-28 in a best-of-three series.