The Athletes Unlimited Softball League has really taken the pro softball space by storm. With the rise in popularity across the game at the college level, the AUSL has solidified that in the professional ranks.
The numbers are backing up the buy-in from fans. Merchandise sales through the first month of the season are up 200% over the same point last year. Also, the average viewership numbers through the first couple of weeks were up 181% over that point last year as well.
On Tuesday night during the Carolina Blaze at Portland Cascade game, Tennessee Lady Vols head softball coach Karen Weekly joined the broadcast for the Chair Chat. When asked about professional softball and what she had seen over the years, she had much praise for what the AUSL is doing.
“It’s truly professional,” Weekly said. “With Kim Ng as the commissioner now, and just the way they’re running the teams. I mean, the teams have all the resources that they need, and that wasn’t always the case. I have watched a lot of the attempts over the years, over 30 years in this business, try and not succeed, and this one is succeeding, and I’m a big AUSL person.”
Weekly loves what the AUSL is doing, and that has been no secret. What she and many others, players included, would like to see is for everyone to join forces and get behind one league. It would make for a stronger professional landscape here in the United States. One that the players who give their all for this game deserve.
“There’s one league for me, and it’s AUSL,” Weekly said. “I think the best thing we can do in softball is everybody get behind one league. Because that’s been a lot of the problem is dividing our loyalties, dividing our resources, dividing our efforts. And this one’s got it going like none ever has, and I think it’s only gonna get better.”
In order for that to happen, people at the top of these different entities will need to come together and make it work. Pride and ego would have to take a back seat.
