Major League Baseball is investing in unlimited athletes to support its softball league that goes make the start next monthIts first complete partnership with a professional women’s sports circuit.
The MLB said on Thursday that it made a strategic investment in the Softball League for Unlimited athletes of an undisclosed amount for operational costs and a commitment to help it gain visibility. MLB will help content, marketing and sales, events, distribution, editorial and digital and social platforms.
The support will include the marketing of the AUSL and its athletes during the MLB All-Star game and throughout the playoffs with emissions on the MLB network and flows on MLB.TV.
“This is something that really fascinates us,” said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, to the Associated Press. “We have studied hard space. We think it is a real opportunity and we are delighted to get involved.”
Athletes Unlimited has been presenting softball since 2020, when it has unveiled a unique format that has crowned an individual champion. The company will launch A four team league From June 7 with the bandits and greenhouses that opened with a series of three games in Rosemont, Illinois and The Blaze and Volts a set of three games in Wichita, Kansas. The four teams will play 24 games each, on tour in 12 cities, and the two best teams will participate in the AUSL championship for the best of three from July 26 to 28 in Tuscaloosa, in Alabama. An ausl ausl cup of 21 games will follow in August.
A traditional league based on the city begins in 2026, when the AUSL plans to extend to six teams, according to the co-founder of the AU, Jon Patricof.
“It’s really something that will be durable and people can be professional softball players and that’s all they do,” said Sis Bates, an American national field player. “It can be your full -time career, which is incredible.”
Manfred said MLB had planned to launch his own softball league.
“We thought rather than starting with ourselves and competing, that finding a place where we could invest and develop a business was a better opportunity,” said Manfred.
The former managing director of Miami Marlins and the main vice-president of the MLB, Kim NG, joined Ausl as an advisor and was Promoted Commissioner in April.
MLB’s involvement could lead to softball towards advanced analyzes in the same way as in baseball.
“Trackman is in some of the stadiums in which we are going to be,” she said, referring to the radar system behind MLB Statcast. “We have signed with a number of different analysis groups.”
The MLB was encouraged by the growth of WNBA, the National League for Women’s Football and Women’s Basketball of the NCAA. The MLB has not excluded subsequent involvement in women’s baseball.
“What is really exciting about this is that we are committing not only a financial investment, but also resources and our time and the kind of power that is MLB,” said MLB marketing director Uzma Rawn Dowler.
Patricof said that MLB’s help to stimulate the visibility of the AUSL is as important as financial investment.
“They are determined to really raise the ausl,” he said. “This is probably one of the most difficult things to do for any sports league, which is to obtain visibility and unravel new audiences, and I think MLB is already doing it for the AUSL, and there will be much more to come.”
The pro softball leagues and the independent teams have come and have disappeared over the years. The Ausl hopes to stability and has great softball Cat Osterman, Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza and Natasha Watley as advisers.
MLB already supports several female softball and baseball initiatives, including a partnership with USA Softball and the exploitation of the MLB is developing a female baseball pipeline. He is not involved with the Professional Women’s Baseball Leaguewhich plans to launch in 2026 as the first professional baseball league for women since the renown of professional baseball All -American Girls – of the renowned “A League of Their” – folded in 1954.
“I think it’s more in the long term,” said MLB development director Tony Refins, about women’s baseball. “The talent pool, the infrastructure, the organizations on the softball side were ahead of the baseball side.”
Manfred sees a brilliant future for Ausl.
“We hope that we will end up with a league that is sustainable in itself, a good investment for us and a partner in the growth of international diamonds,” he said.
Patricof said that the partnership with MLB and the already existing relationship between and USA Softball will combine to help give the stability of the AUSL.
“While we are announcing MLB entering the fold officially in what we do with the Ausl, you really see a complete alignment of this sport behind this league, and that I think it is exciting for everyone,” said Patriof. “People who sat down or who may have watched Pro Softball at a little distance – everyone has now jumped, and I think it’s an exciting moment for people around this sport.”
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Baseball AP writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
