AUSL adds two new investors: Brewers and Ryan Sanders Baseball 

MILWAUKEE -- With the preeminent women’s professional softball league less than a week away from beginning its season, the Athletes Unlimited Softball League added to its ownership group on Thursday with investments from the Milwaukee Brewers -- the first Major League club to invest directly in the AUSL -- and Ryan Sanders Baseball, one of the premier operators in Minor League Baseball whose holdings include the Triple-A Round Rock Express.

The agreements continue the bond between the AUSL and Major League Baseball, which first announced a partnership in 2025.

“We have seen the sustained growth in the popularity of women’s sports, and with the best players in the world professional softball has strong appeal across many demographics,” Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio said in a statement. “The AUSL has built a strong leadership team and they are in an ideal position to capitalize on the momentum of their inaugural season.”

The AUSL launched last season with four teams and played a traveling schedule that saw 24 sellouts, more than $1 million in merchandise sales and resulted in a three-year national broadcast agreement with ESPN.

Now the league has expanded to six teams for Season 2 -- the Carolina Blaze, Chicago Bandits, Oklahoma City Spark, Portland Cascade, Texas Volts and Utah Talons -- and will play in dedicated home markets in 2026. Opening Day is Tuesday.

“Really, since the first season concluded, we turned right away to what would Season 2 look like,” said Jon Patricof, the founder and CEO of Athletes Unlimited, which operates leagues in women’s volleyball, basketball and softball.

Both Attanasio and the principals of Ryan Sanders Baseball -- Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, his son Reid Ryan and Don Sanders -- have already played significant roles in the league’s early momentum. Attanasio, as a chairman of MLB’s Investment Committee, helped lead the way to the leagues’ partnership last year. And Reid Ryan Baseball is the operating partner of the Texas Volts, who compete at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.

“We’ve seen the reaction from our fans at Dell Diamond and we’re thrilled to become strategic investors in AUSL,” Ryan Sanders Baseball CEO Reid Ryan said. “Our history with professional softball goes back several decades and we know it takes people willing to invest in these athletes. We want to be long-term partners in this league and help continue the growth of the game.”

Attanasio’s involvement further extends his family’s sports empire. Besides putting together the group that purchased the Brewers from the Selig family for the 2005 season, he became majority shareholder of English football club Norwich City in August 2022. Now his family is branching into women’s professional sports.

“We’ve been fortunate to get to know Mark and his organization, the Brewers,” said Patricof. “To bring in an MLB team of this caliber brings not only capital, but a tremendous amount of talent and expertise. We’re really excited to benefit from that. It’s a huge endorsement of the league and our momentum as we head to Season 2. …

“We’ve benefitted from a lot of good relationships with a number of teams around MLB to events in their markets and with marketing efforts. This is the next step.”

Does the Brewers’ involvement portend a franchise in Milwaukee someday?

“Everyone will have to stay tuned,” Patricof said. “We haven’t made any announcements about where we will go next. We have six teams … and one would think there would be future expansion, and one of the criteria is looking at markets where there are MLB teams and where they have been successful.

“Softball, as evidenced by ratings for the College World Series and our continued growth, is a sport that really has a nationwide fanbase and has strong momentum throughout the country. We are very much looking to build a national property.”

Tickets for the 2026 AUSL season are on sale now at theausl.com.