Major League Baseball is investing in unlimited athletes to support the soft football league that will appear for the first time next month, and it is the first comprehensive partnership with a sports circle for women.
MLB said on Thursday that he is investing a strategic investment in the soft, unknown football association with an unknown amount of operational costs and committing to helping him to obtain vision. MLB will help content, marketing, sales, events, distribution, editing and digital and social platforms.
Support will include the marketing of AUSL and athletes during the MLB All-Star game, the post-season period with broadcast on MLB network and flows on MLB.TV.
“This is really excited,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told Associated Press. “We have studied the space hard. We believe it is a real opportunity and we are excited to participate.”
Athletes Unlimited has been distinguished by the soft ball since 2020, when a unique coordination was unveiled. The company will periodically launch four teams starting from June 7 with the opening of Bandits and Talons with a series of three games in Rosemont, Illinois, and Blaze and Volts three games in Witchita, Kansas. The four teams will play 24 games each, as you take 12 cities, and the first two teams will compete in the best three AUSS championships from 26 to 28 July in Tuscuna, Alabama. The AUSL All-Star, which consists of 21 games, will follow in August.
The traditional league in the city will start in 2026, when AUSL plans to expand to six teams, according to the co -founder of Au Jon Patricof.
“This is really something that will be sustainable and people can be professional players for the soft ball, and this is all they do,” said US national football player Cis Bings. “This can be your career full time, which is incredible.”
Athlemited Unlimited Softball Legue team players from Talons and Sis Bates of the Bots at the headquarters of the Biblical League in New York, May 29, 2025.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Manfred said that MLB looked at the launch of its soft football league.
“We thought instead of starting alone and competing,” said Manfred.
The former general manager of Miami Marles and the first vice president of MLB Kim Ng joined AUSL as a consultant and was promoted to the Commissioner in April.
The MLB sharing can push the soft ball towards advanced analyzes in the same way as it is in the baseball game.
“Trackman is located in some of the stadiums that we will be,” she said, referring to the radar system behind the MLB Statcast. “We have signed a number of different analyzes groups.”
MLB was encouraged by the growth of WNBA, the National Football Association of Women and the NCAA basketball. MLB did not rule out later on the women’s baseball game.
“What is really exciting in this matter is to make a financial investment, but the resources, our time, and a kind of strength that is MLB,” said Marketing head of MLB Uzma Rawn Download.
Patricov said that MLB assistance to enhance AUSL vision is less important than financial investment.
“They are really committed to lifting the AUSL,” he said. “It may be about one of the most difficult things to do in any sports league, which is to be vision and acknowledgment to new fans, and I think MLB is doing this already for AUSL, and there will be a lot in the future.”
The soft football championships came to professionals and independent teams and went over the years. AUSL hope for stability and has the soft balls of Cat Osterman, Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza and Natasha Watley as consultants.
MLB has already supports many soft balls and ladies initiatives, including partnership with USA SoftBall and MLB operation to develop a baseball pipeline. He does not participate in the Ladies Biblical League, which is planning to launch in 2026 as the first league for the professional women of women since the professional baseball association of American girls – from the fame of “A League” in 1954.
“I think it’s a long -term thing,” said Tony Region, the chief development official at MLB. “Talents, infrastructure, and organizations on the side of the soft ball were advanced on the basement side.”
Manfred sees a bright future in the future for AUSL.
“We hope that we will end up with a sustainable league on its own, a good investment for us, and a partner in the increasing diamond sports at the international level,” he said.
Patricov said the partnership with MLB and the already existing relationship between the African Union and the United States of America will be gathered to help give AUSL stability.
“While we announce that MLB officially enters the barn in what we do with AUSL, you see a complete alignment of this sport behind this league, and I think it’s exciting for everyone,” Patricov said. “People who sat on the margin or may have seen the soft ball of professionals a few distance – everyone has jumped now, and I think this is an exciting moment for the people who were around this sport.”
Biblical writer Ronald Bloom contributed to this report.
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