The AUSL had followers, manufacturers, and media chasing its rise ball throughout its debut yr, and companions from Main League Baseball to Sephora joined the rising refrain from the softball league’s dugouts.
First, let’s go to the stat sheets: On the finish of Athletes Limitless’s inaugural AUSL softball season, which took the league’s 4 groups by way of 12 cities in roughly two months, the brand new league posted 20 sellout crowds and greater than $1 million in merchandise gross sales. With assist from Main League Baseball’s digital infrastructure, AUSL drew 5.3 million pageviews on its official web site, 237 million social media impressions, and 450,000 new followers.
All through its season on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU—and instantly following ESPN’s most-watched Girls’s School World Sequence ever—its video games averaged slightly below 150,000 viewers, placing it inside vary of the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League in 2024 (175,000) and the Unmatched 3-on-3 basketball league on TNT Sports activities (186,000). Hidden in that quantity, nonetheless, is the 88% progress from Athletes Limitless softball broadcasts only a yr earlier, earlier than the AUSL’s formation.
“All of these indicators actually validate for us that right here’s a powerful enterprise case for this league,” mentioned Allie Kleva, AUSL’s chief progress officer. “It has been a very long time coming and a dream for a lot of former gamers and oldsters of gamers to see it come to life, so by the numbers, we’ve seen that, but additionally the power and actual emotional fairness is in every of these markets at each sport has been extremely encouraging.”
Led by commissioner Kim Ng—who beforehand served as normal supervisor of the Miami Marlins and MLB’s svp of baseball operations—the AUSL discovered new manufacturers prepared to faucet into its rising workforce of followers and viewers. Earlier than the season, the AUSL teamed with youth-focused media model Insurgent Women to supply content material for youthful followers. It additionally teamed up with iHeart Media to launch the Dropping Diamonds softball podcast with Golden Glove-winning former professional softball participant A.J. Andrews.
Earlier this summer time, Magnificence by Creativeness (BBI) model Goody introduced a partnership with the AUSL to advertise its Goody Sport merchandise and function a Braid Bar for followers at sport venues. In July, Sephora was introduced because the unique magnificence associate of the AUSL, the presenting sponsor of its championship collection, and supplier of its fan magnificence activations and participant media day glam stations.
Because the AUSL makes a cease on the Little League Softball World Sequence and strikes into its All-Star Cup format for August—utilizing Athletes Limitless’s outdated softball metrics that put all 60 gamers on a leaderboard, award them factors primarily based on efficiency, and swap groups intermittently—the league and its companions not solely mirror on this season’s successes, however take into account what new fan help and model companions imply for the AUSL’s growth to 6 groups and choice of cities as their everlasting houses in 2026.
“The relationships that Athletes Limitless has constructed with the athletes over the course of the final 5 years is what has empowered us to see this success with the AUSL,” mentioned Vanessa Taveras, chief partnerships officer at Athletes Limitless. “We’ve been constructing that credibility and people relationships over time and ask these athletes to take a danger with us, and it’s the identical with the companions: We’re including new companions, however pointing to the Nikes and Gatorades of the world which have been with us because the starting.”
An entire new ballgame
There was a major workforce of gamers behind the AUSL’s success in 2025. Commissioner Ng had the continued counsel of the league’s Participant Government Committee, who positioned accountability for a lot of league selections within the arms of stars, together with Aubrey Leach, Megan Faraimo, Sierra Romero, Morgan Zerkle, and Sharlize Palacios.
This yr, that they had assist from a gaggle of advisors that included ESPN announcer, Olympic gold medalist, and former New York Mets govt Jessica Mendoza; Olympic gold medalist and former AU pitcher Cat Osterman; Olympic gold medalist and nationwide champion Natasha Watley; and Olympic gold medalist and nationwide champion Jennie Finch—whose title gave AU’s softball stadium in Rosemont its house tackle on Jennie Finch Approach.
However each Kleva and Taveras famous that the partnership with Main League Baseball gave the AUSL advantages effectively past MLB’s greater than $10 million funding. Visibility on MLB digital and social platforms, sport broadcasts on MLB Community and MLB.television, advertising and marketing help, entry to MLB’s electronic mail database, editorial protection on MLB.com, and a presence at MLB’s All-Star occasions have all helped drive each visibility and engagement.
“We’ve solely actually simply scratched the floor with our partnership with MLB for this yr,” Kleva mentioned. “We’re all very excited to make use of the subsequent yr to essentially be considerate about find out how to strategically have interaction, to drive consciousness of each of our properties, and do it in a manner that enhances each other and will get worth for the gamers.”
A kind of potential mutual advantages is model partnerships. Taveras famous that MLB and AUSL already share sure model companions, together with Gatorade and Nike, however she mentioned that the expansion of each baseball and softball’s youth and leisure participation—in addition to their professional leagues—creates alternatives for manufacturers seeking to construct fan bases throughout diamond sports activities.
Whereas the relationships between the leagues helped convey gear maker Franklin Sports activities to AUSL after a greater than 40-year run with MLB, Taveras mentioned it additionally helped with sponsors, together with Goody and Sephora, which appear much less endemic to the game at a cursory look.
“It’s unquestionable that the stamp of approval and legitimacy that MLB lent with its announcement helped us provoke these conversations,” Taveras mentioned.
Everybody can play
However as soon as manufacturers resembling Goody and Sephora had been in, entrepreneurs had a greater take a look at precisely which manufacturers might be thought of endemic to skilled sports activities.
When Goody launched its Goody Sport merchandise inside the final yr, the AUSL noticed an opportunity to hit its two most important partnership objectives: Higher experiences for each athletes and followers. Athletes who had been already faces for the game’s hair-braiding tradition received to check and use merchandise whereas followers lined up at Goody’s Braid Bar activations for samples and braids of their very own.
“If you recognize something about softball and softball tradition in a real and trustworthy manner, hair braiding is endemic to the expertise,” Taveras mentioned. “The identical manner that these girls placed on cleats and sliding pants and jerseys to take the sector, they care for their hair, so bubble braids, french braids, and inventive expression by way of ribbons and people kinds of issues are a part of softball tradition from the grassroots stage to the professionals.”
Sephora, in the meantime, has spent the higher a part of the yr establishing its place in girls’s sports activities by way of sponsorships with 3-on-3 basketball league Unmatched and the WNBA’s newly launched Golden State Valkyries. By glam stations, media days, and tunnel walks, it has proven how its model is a portion of many athletes’ gameday routine, embracing the “sport face” factor of preparation.
Whereas cosmetics aren’t a type of private expression for each softball athlete, AUSL has made its outside sport and common solar publicity each a proving floor for Sephora’s merchandise and a testing floor for gamers who wish to be extra conversant in the model.
“We’ve received athletes who take the sector in a full face of make-up, some who use make-up as a approach to specific themselves, and others who’re extra frightened about skincare or ensuring that they’ve the precise solar safety,” Taveras mentioned, noting one instance of how Sephora was available for current media days serving to athletes prepare. “It’s been enjoyable to listen to anecdotal commentary about how they every got here into these photograph rooms and video rooms bouncing as a result of they felt assured and exquisite and particular and cared for.”
AUSL
