Major League Baseball is introducing a new fast-paced 3x3 game format at its upcoming All-Star Weekend in Philadelphia. MLBx will feature four teams of three players going head-to-head, with points awarded for home runs, hitting targets, and defensive plays.

But this isn’t another stage for MLB to build or promote its stars. In fact, the made-for-TV competition on Sunday, July 12 won’t feature a single active big leaguer. 

MLBx teams will be composed of legends, celebrities, and Athletes Unlimited Softball League stars (see: Alyssa Brito, Tiare Jennings, Rachel Garcia, and NiJaree Canady). Remember, MLB made an eight-figure strategic investment into AUSL in May 2025.

Baseball hopes to draw in a younger and more diverse audience to the league’s tentpole celebration––and create additional momentum for the professional softball league in the process.

“Our partnership has been mutually beneficial, establishing an opportunity for female softball players to continue their career at the professional level while simultaneously serving as a new source of aspiration for millions of young female players. The AUSL’s seamless assimilation into MLB’s Jewel Events provides a high-profile platform to grow softball while enhancing our [programming] schedule,” Uzma Rawn Dowler (Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Partnerships, Major League Baseball) said.

The tailwinds behind AUSL are unusually strong for an emerging and/or women’s sports property. 

For starters, softball has an existing audience larger than many women’s sports. Nielsen’s 2026 Top of Sports report indicated an average of 422,000 fans tuned in to NCAA softball tournament games in 2025 (+5% YoY). For context, that per game audience is larger than the 364,475 fans drawn by the ‘25 UEFA Women’s Euro soccer tournament (even as that event’s viewership more than doubled YoY).

The sport’s youth participation base is growing rapidly too, and a widening grassroots player pipeline is considered one of the strongest predictors of a league’s long-term success. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association reported that fast-pitch participation has climbed 56% over the past six years, the highest growth rate of any team sport and the fourth-fastest-growing sport or activity among the 126 it tracks.

But that doesn’t mean AUSL is assured of breaking through or finding commercial success. Capturing sports fans’ attention remains a challenge for any property in today’s crowded entertainment landscape and several nascent pro softball leagues have failed in recent years.

The four-team American Softball Association folded in 2019, National Pro Fastpitch suspended operations in 2021, and Women’s Professional Fastpitch, which launched the following year, has since stalled too. It is worth noting that several former WPF clubs are now part of the Professional Softball League, which debuted in June. 

By any metric, AUSL is doing better than any of the failed leagues that came before it. The league sold out 90% of its games in 2025 and moved $1 million in merchandise. 

“We have been impressed by AUSL’s vision, strategy, and their executive team led by Kim Ng and Allie Kleva,” Rawn Dowler said. “The momentum the league has built further demonstrates they have a special opportunity to grow the game. They've done the work of standing up a sustainable league and learning from earlier attempts at pro softball, which is what made this a partnership worth investing in.”

AUSL added two expansion teams expanding the league’s footprint for the 2026 season (see: Oklahoma City and Portland).

It will also enjoy broader exposure this summer. The league signed a new multi-year pact with ESPN that increases exclusive annual game inventory on the network (to 50) and includes the first professional softball game broadcast on ABC (Game 1 of the Championship). CBS Sports Network will also carry several dozen nationally distributed games. 

But that history is what makes MLB’s investment and ongoing support so meaningful, and why AUSL is positioned to capitalize on the demand that exists. WNBA aside, no other challenger league has enjoyed this level of institutional credibility, promotional support (see: All-Star Weekend integration), or distribution assistance from a Big Three sports property. 21 AUSL games will air across MLB platforms this season (11 on MLB Network, 10 on MLB.TV).

AUSL will also be able to ‘co-market’ its product across Major League Baseball’s digital and social channels, which reach hundreds of millions of fans annually. 

“The partnership with MLB has been instrumental in helping us expand [our] reach,” Allie Kleva (Chief Growth Officer, AUSL) said. “We’ve created authentic opportunities to connect our athletes with millions of baseball fans while growing the game in meaningful ways.”

MLB’s collaborative sales efforts are expected to open doors to new sponsorship opportunities with major brands too. 

And the calculus should be compelling for marketers. AUSL can serve as a natural extension of league and club partnerships, giving advertisers another summer sports platform to leverage. It’s a stick-and-ball property with an audience complementary to baseball’s core demo and it offers activation opportunities across live events, television broadcasts, and athletes at a price point far below what the established leagues command. 

But the tie-up isn’t a one-way street. MLB benefits from AUSL too. The league gives MLB another diamond-sports property to program around and to reach a cohort of fans who may not be engaging with the core product.

AUSL’s presence at MLB All-Star Weekend is a strong proof point for the value of aligning with a larger rights owner. MLB is using one of its biggest stages to elevate a property that did not exist two years ago.

Whether the arrangement becomes a template for how other major leagues grow their fandoms and businesses will depend on what happens in the years ahead. AUSL still must convert all of this newfound attention into habitual viewing, team affinity, incremental sponsor demand, and ultimately enterprise value.

On the latest episode of JaneWallStreet Presents: At The Table, a bi-weekly podcast exploring the intersection of sports, media, and finance through the lens of (mostly) female decision-makers, JaneWallStreet Executive Chair Deirdre Lester sits down with former CEO of CBS News, Stations, and Media Ventures, former President of ABC Stations, and current Advisor to beehiiv and Merzigo Wendy McMahon.

In this near-hour-long conversation, the pair talk through a multitude of topics including:

📺 Watch the full episode on JohnWallStreet’s YouTube page.
🎧 Listen or watch on Spotify.

We’ll be back with the next episode of JaneWallStreet Presents: At The Table in two weeks. A-Rod Corp Chief Business Officer and Minnesota Timberwolves Chief Strategy Officer Kelly Laferriere will be our guest.