Athletes Unlimited announces new pro softball league

The GIST: Good news, softball fans — there’s a new pro league rounding the bases. Athletes Unlimited’s (AU) pro softball arm will now include Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), a traditional-style softball season set to launch in 2025 that represents a major development for a game that has spent decades building to a sustainable pro league. Batter up.

The context: Four years ago, AU Pro Softball launched with a five-week, tournament-style season in Rosemont, Illinois that switches up player rosters weekly and crowns one of the 60 individual players as champion. The league just extended its stadium lease to keep the tourney in Chicagoland for the next five years.

• In 2022, the league added AUX Softball, an even more condensed pro softball competition featuring 42 athletes playing 18 games over a two-week span. The sites for AUX have changed each year, with its third iteration teeing off next week in Wichita, Kansas.

The new model: Pivoting from its previous innovative formats, AUSL will feature four permanent rosters playing a 30-game season. These teams will play games in around eight cities during its inaugural season, but by 2026, the AUSL will become a city-based league with locations TBD.

• This adapts key learnings from city-specific leagues like the WNBA, NWSL, and PWHL, which are all planning franchise expansions. Fan loyalty developed in local markets may be the best way to cash in — Las Vegas, for example, added four pro sports teams in the past decade and its sporting events made $1.85B from out-of-town visitors in 2022. Going all in.

The growth: Despite a rich history, U.S. softball has suffered from woefully inept pro offerings, cutting short a strong college pipeline. College softball has skyrocketed in popularity, especially once ESPN — AUSL’s new founding broadcast partner — began investing heavily in the sport.

• The exposure has spurred spiking viewership: the 2023 Women’s College World Series drew higher peak and average viewership than its baseball counterpart.

Lingering questions: AU has proven there’s interest in all of the women’s sports categories it caters to, yet its move to a city-centered format could indicate a desire to upend its business model to welcome a more traditional (and lucrative) sports league. Or, could this be a case of “more is more” as AU adds its third softball offering? Boom goes the dynamite.