Athletes Unlimited - Softball

[SubGod22]

I think we had previous AUX discussions in Syd's post collegiate thread but I felt maybe we should separate it out, especially for things not directly connected to her.

News Times - Cat Osterman, Lisa Fernandez among GMs for new Athletes Unlimited softball league

American softball greats Cat Osterman and Lisa Fernandez are among the general managers who will lead teams in the new Athletes Unlimited softball league.

The league made the announcement on Monday. Four general managers and coaches have been selected for the league, which will start with a touring format next year before becoming city-based in 2026. Games will be played in several cities in 2025, including Chicago and Wichita, Kansas.

Fernandez, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, is associate head coach at UCLA. The Bruins have won five national titles in her 26 years on the staff, and she won two as a player for the team.

Osterman is a three-time Olympian and four-time All-American at Texas. She won the Athletes Unlimited individual championship in 2020.

Kelly Kreschman will coach Osterman’s team and Howard Dobson will coach Fernandez’s squad. Jenny Dalton-Hill will be the general manager for a team coached by Stacey Nuveman-Deniz and Dana Sorensen will be the general manager for a squad Alisa Goler will coach.

From what I'm reading, this coming summer will be the same as it has been, but the following year their season will be broken into two separate segments. One, a 30 game city based league, and the second being what we have come to know from previous summers.

ESPN has committed to airing 30 games during their city based season if I'm not mistaken. Team names, locations, and logos have yet to be revealed.

[ShockerDropOut]

It took me a bit, but i ended up enjoying the format of AUX. I do hope we see more of it. I would think the city based format will be much more expensive to the league. I am sure they are much smarter than me and have it all figured out though. I’m looking forward to whatever they do as long as it is a quality product.

[SubGod22]

It took me a bit, but i ended up enjoying the format of AUX. I do hope we see more of it. I would think the city based format will be much more expensive to the league. I am sure they are much smarter than me and have it all figured out though. I’m looking forward to whatever they do as long as it is a quality product.

I think it's one of the reasons they're going to continue doing what they've done, but trying to establish a legit league of sorts should be the ultimate end goal. They just have to choose markets wisely. I don't know what four markets would make the most sense to try and set up shop in.

Perhaps you find your four markets, and then run your second season in a market or two outside of those and try to grow professional softball in areas where you could potentially add more markets down the road.

They've said Wichita will be considered. One would think OKC would be on the list. I'm not sure of the status of some of the other upstart attempts at professional softball. I know Florida has had a few teams as well as Texas. You'd think early markets would possibly be targeted in the southeast where softball has more footing, though AZ and CA could play a role too. But getting too spread out early on could also increase travel costs. Do you do something like ICT/OKC as a pair and then a couple of FL markets or FL/GA? Might help keep travel costs down a bit and then maybe future growth could be a pair in CA/AZ? I know they've had a long presence in Chicago so maybe that's an option. Perhaps they spread the markets out a bit with CHI and OKC and then FL and I don't know who. Does the FL league still exist? If so, maybe you put two elsewhere and if things move in the right direction you try to bring in existing professional teams. I want to say one of the leagues that was started a few years ago has had some issues, but a few of the teams I think still remain and tour as a professional exhibition team. If such organizations still exist and have potential to be city based then merging them in down the road could help with some upfront organizational costs. I think there's also a Texas team that has been doing that. It was hard to keep track of what some of these leagues were going through and which teams were able to keep running.

Starting a new league in any sport is difficult. Starting one in a growing but maybe still 'fringe' sport is even tougher. But in the long run, it's what needs to be established. Are they doing it too soon aiming for 2026? I don't know, but having some solid backing from ESPN has to help.