Former Miami Marlins GM Kim Ng will be the first commissioners of the new Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL).
Kim Ng’s three decades in Major League Baseball were relentless and unprecedented. Her departure was swift and unexpected. She remains, 18 months later, a sports executive like no other, still envisioning opportunities that have never before existed.
On Wednesday, Athletes Unlimited announced that Ng, the former Miami Marlins general manager, will serve as commissioner of the upstart Athletes Unlimited Softball League, a professional circuit that held its inaugural draft in January, opens it regular season in June, and already is planning an expansion for next summer.
“You’re not going to see too many general managers make this kind of pivot,” Ng said in a phone interview. “I can’t say any of my other comrades in arms would be able to make this kind of move.”
It is, for now, a true transition for Ng, who left the Marlins in October of 2023 and said she is not actively looking for another job in Major League Baseball. She will not rule out a return in the future, but at 56 years old, her focus is back where it was at 16 — on softball.
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The moment is right, Ng believes, for softball to take a step forward in the American sports landscape. She sees evidence in the viewership and attendance data from the College World Series. She sees it in reports of growing participation among young girls across the country. She sees it in Texas Tech ace NiJaree Canady signing a million-dollar NIL deal, and she sees it in Tennessee flamethrower Karlyn Pickens throwing the fastest pitch in recorded NCAA history. She sees it all in the context of women’s sports in general receiving more attention than in the past, and with an eye toward softball returning to the Olympics in 2028.
“I think it all adds up to this being a great foundation for pro softball to jump on the scene,” Ng said.
Athletes Unlimited was founded in 2020 and has previously launched women’s softball, volleyball, basketball and lacrosse leagues with unusual structures that award individuals within team competition. Rosters change regularly. Teams are untethered. The focus is on individual players and competition.
The AUSL is more like a standard professional league with set teams chasing a collective championship. The league already announced managers, general managers and advisors for the upcoming season, and the list includes some of the biggest names in the sport’s history — Lisa Fernandez, Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza, Cat Osterman, Natasha Watley — presenting a united front pushing for this league’s success. The AUSL will open as a 2025 tour, with each team playing 24 games in 12 different cities, and ESPN broadcasting 33 of the games across various platforms. The league plans to expand to six teams and give each a home city in 2026. It’s using this season as a testing ground for the various markets to determine which cities are most receptive to professional softball.
“Knowing what an established, mature system of governance looks like, I think will be really helpful in establishing this league,” Ng said.
See here for the background. The tour runs for a bit more than six weeks in June and July, with the closest games to Houston being played in Round Rock from July 17-20. I’m going to do my best to catch some of the action on TV, to see what they’ve got. I’m rooting for their success and for a team to maybe eventually end up here in Houston.