Softball-MLB diving into women’s professional sport with softball investment

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By Amy Tennery

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Major League Baseball is making a big bet on the business of women’s sport, announcing on Thursday its first significant financial investment in a women’s professional softball league.

The Athletes Unlimited Softball League launches on June 7 in a first-of-its-kind, wide-ranging partnership with minority investor MLB, the standard-bearer of “America’s pastime” for well over a century.

“There’s a tremendous amount of momentum in women’s sports in general, and softball specifically, and we figured that our partnership with AUSL can create the next great women’s sport league,” MLB Deputy Commissioner Noah Garden told Reuters.

“It’s a massive opportunity for growth in the sport and there’s no better time than the present.”

The announcement comes as softball returns to the Olympic spotlight at the LA28 Games and amid surging popularity for women’s sport in North America, where basketball’s WNBA and soccer’s NWSL have seen a steady rise in viewers and attendance.

Both parties declined to disclose the cash value of the partnership but MLB’s influence is expected to give a critical boost to AUSL in its first year.

Select games will air on MLB Network and streaming service MLB.TV, giving a platform to the softball league straight away, while AUSL athletes will be featured at MLB events including the popular annual All-Star Game.

“Obviously, financial investments are very important. But there are certain things that money can’t buy,” Athletes Unlimited CEO and co-founder Jon Patricof told Reuters.

“Being able to secure the support, the expertise of MLB is exactly what we would have wanted and hoped for.”

MLB has long supported women’s softball, from youth level to the national team, but finds itself in a league of its own with Athletes Unlimited, a women’s multi-sport organization that launched in 2020 with a focus on promoting female athletes.

The AUSL has assembled a formidable group, with the Miami Marlins’ trailblazing former General Manager Kim Ng named commissioner for the league, where four teams will play a 24-game season touring 12 cities.

Thirteen of the 15 players on the U.S. national team roster are represented in the AUSL, which counts gold medalists Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza, Cat Osterman and Natasha Watley as advisors.

“I would have never told you this in a million years that this would be a possibility but that’s the coolest part of it,” infielder Sis Bates told reporters at a New York media event on Thursday.

“Little Sis would have died to watch professional softball on TV and dreamed to do that. What an incredible opportunity we have to be those people for little girls to look at.”

‘EXCITING TIME’

The announcement comes as more investors rush to get in on women’s sport, with the WNBA’s New York Liberty selling a stake at a record $450 million valuation earlier this month.

The National Football League has thrown its resources into flag football ahead of the sport’s inclusion in the Los Angeles Games, with an eye toward getting the next generation of girls hooked on a game once seen as the sole domain of men.

Ng told reporters that there can be a natural crossover between fans of the two similar sports.

“It is very personal for me. I played softball growing up, I played in college,” said Ng, who was the first woman general manager in MLB.

“For me, a lot of my career has been about helping women and paving the path for women, trying to mentor women when I could, so I think this falls right in line.”

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ken Ferris and Christian Radnedge)