Athletes Unlimited ( AU), a women’s sports network, is launching a new softball league.
Starting in 2025, the Athletes Unlimited Softball League ( AUSL ) may create a four- group, 8- to 10- year period in a traditional style. This will enhance the more unconventional type of the current AU Pro Softball Championship Season.
The AUSL’s annual period in 2025 will be a travelling league, with activities in 6- to- 8 diverse cities. In 2026, the AUSL will change to a city-based category.
Softball is one of four activities in AU’s performer- led teams, which run for 5- to- 6 months. AUSL’s use of a conventional category structure opens up new opportunities for both athletes and AU, especially as the activity prepares to compete in the 2028 Olympics and generates more interest from fans.

” AUSL is little needed in our sport, as the standard model is common amongst fans”, said Cat Osterman, the two- time Olympic medalist, four- time All- British and six- time expert All- Star in a statement. ” But furthermore gives players the chance to develop and advance within a regular season’s environment.”
With the addition of ball traditions Jessica Mendoza and Natasha Watley, Osterman will serve as the league’s assistant as the annual hero of the AU Pro Softball Championship.
The new team’s 60- game time may be broadcast on ESPN, carrying at least 18 games entirely on its linear platforms, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. More broadcast partners will be made eventually. In 2023, AU events experienced significant increases in popularity across ESPN channels, including a 38 % increase year over year for the AU’s Pro Softball Championship on ESPNU.
” When we started with Athletes Unlimited in 2020, we identified ball as the biggest option, the biggest unfulfilled have”, said Jon Patricof, AU’s inc- founder and CEO, in a telephone call. ” And in softball, we think there is a major gap between the demand from fans, broadcasters, advertisers and professional opportunities”.
AU’s Pro- Softball, the network’s first sport, launched in 2020 with a five- week season. Two years later, AU added a two-and-a-half-week season called AU Pro Softball AUX.
Basketball was the only sport in the AU to have an established league in the United States prior to the creation of an AU league, out of all the others. AU launched Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball, the]then ] only professional women’s indoor volleyball league in the U. S., in 2021. The popularity of the AU volleyball league and the sport’s growing popularity resulted in the development of a new full-length professional volleyball league called Pro Volleyball Federation ( PVF ). Launched in January with seven teams, PVF completed its inaugural season in May, attracting nearly 400, 000 fans and 3.9 million YouTube views. Seven of the top ten PVF athletes have previously competed in AU.
For lacrosse, AU remains the only professional league for women in the U. S.
The new AU softball league is likely to take place between May and July. Locations, competitors, and schedule information will be revealed at a later time.