 Interim logo | |
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founder |
|
| First season | 2026 (planned) |
| No. of teams | 6 (planned) |
| Country | United States |
The Women's Pro Baseball League (WPBL) is a planned professional women's baseball league to commence in 2026, with six teams in the northeastern United States.
The Women's Pro Baseball League was co-founded in 2024 by former Major League Baseball coach Justine Siegal, and owner of the Intercounty Baseball League's Toronto Maple Leafs, Keith Stein. [1] [2] An advocate for gender equality in sports, Siegal previously founded Baseball for All, a 501(c)(3) organization that promotes girls' participation in baseball. [3] [4] The commercial success and stability of the Women's National Basketball Association and National Women's Soccer League inspired Siegal and Stein to create a professional league for women's baseball, [2] [3] and hired Japan national team pitcher Ayami Sato and former Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston as special advisers to help develop it. [1] [2] The league's primary aim is to increase the visibility of women's baseball by establish a pathway to professionalism – while over 1,300 girls played on boys' high school baseball teams in the 2023–24 academic year, only nine women played on men's NCAA college baseball teams in the 2024 season. [5] [6]
The league's establishment was announced to the public via a press release in October 2024. [7] Player registrations opened shortly afterwards, and within 24 hours, over 400 players from the United States, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom registered their interest in playing in the league. [5] [6] A scouting camp is planned to take place in early 2025. [6]
The Women's Pro Baseball League competition will consist of a regular season, followed by a playoff tournament that will determine the league's champion. [4] [8]
The Women's Pro Baseball League aims to have six, independently-owned clubs in its inaugural 2026 season, all based in the northeastern United States. [1] [3] An expansion to eight clubs is expected to occur in the near future. [5]
The Women's Pro Baseball League intends on striking a national broadcasting deal, as opposed to deals with regional sports networks. [4] [8]
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league and the highest level of organized baseball in the United States and Canada. It comprises 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional baseball league in the world. The league is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.
United Soccer League (USL) is an organizer of soccer leagues in the United States. It operates several men's and women's leagues, both professional. Men's leagues currently organized are the USL Championship, USL League One, USL League Two, and the youth league, USL Youth. A women's league, the USL W League, began play in 2022. It is directly affiliated with the United States Soccer Federation and the United States Adult Soccer Association. The USL is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
Soccer is the fourth most popular sport in the United States behind American football, basketball, and baseball.
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its dedicated national sports cable channels. Formerly operating as "a service of NBC News", it broadcasts a diverse array of sports events, including Big East basketball, Big Ten football and basketball, NASCAR, the National Football League (NFL), Notre Dame football, the Olympic Games, PGA Tour golf, the Premier League, the Tour de France, and Thoroughbred racing among others. Other programming from outside producers – such as coverage of the Ironman Triathlon – is also presented on the network through NBC Sports. With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, its own cable sports networks were aligned with NBC Sports into a part of the division known as the NBC Sports Group.
Sports in the United States are an important part of the nation's culture. Historically, the most popular sport has been baseball. However, in more recent decades, American football has been the most popular spectator sport based on broadcast viewership audience. Basketball has grown into the mainstream American sports scene since the 1980s, with ice hockey and soccer doing the same around the turn of the 21st century. These sports comprise the "Big Five".
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada traditionally include four leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL). Other prominent leagues include Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Canadian Football League (CFL).
Women have a long history in American baseball and many women's teams have existed over the years. Baseball was played at women's colleges in New York and New England as early as the mid-nineteenth century; teams were formed at Vassar College, Smith College, Wellesley College, and Mount Holyoke College. An African American women's team, the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens, was formed in 1867.
The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began play in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) as a Division II league since 2017, placing it under Major League Soccer in the hierarchy. The USL is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
The prominent women's sports leagues in the United States and Canada serve as the pinnacle of women's athletic competition in North America. The United States is home to the vast majority of professional women's leagues. In North America, the top women's leagues feature both team sports and individual athletes. While some leagues have paid professional female athletes, others do not and function at a semi-professional level.
Mark Walter is an American businessman and the chief executive officer of Guggenheim Partners, a privately held global financial services firm with more than $325 billion in assets under management and headquarters in Chicago and New York. He is also the part-owner and chairman of the Major League Baseball franchise Los Angeles Dodgers and co-owner of Premier League club Chelsea. He also owns the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL).
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional soccer league at the top of the United States league system. The league comprises 14 teams. Headquartered in New York City, it is owned by the teams and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation.
The expansion of the National Women's Soccer League began with the league's sophomore season in 2014, when the league expanded to a ninth team in Houston, and is an ongoing process that currently has seen five expansions, three direct or indirect relocations, and one contraction. The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) was established as the top level of professional women's soccer in the United States in 2013 in the wake of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association and Women's Professional Soccer.
The Women's Super League (WSL), known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features twelve fully professional teams. The league replaced the FA Women's Premier League National Division as the highest level of women's football in England, with eight teams competing in the inaugural 2011 season. In the WSL's first two seasons, there was no relegation from the division.
Professional sports leagues in the United States includes major professional sports leagues, other highest-level professional leagues, and minor leagues.
Women's Professional Fastpitch (WPF) is a professional women's fastpitch softball league in the United States. The new league began its promotional campaign in 2021 and launched its first official season in 2023.
ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by the ESPN division of The Walt Disney Company, in partnership with ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications. It is one of Disney's three flagship subscription streaming brands in the United States, alongside Disney+ and Hulu, and operates using technology of Disney subsidiary BAMTech, now known as Disney Streaming.
Amazon first acquired sports rights in April 2017, when they signed a $50 million deal for the non-exclusive rights to stream portions of the NFL's Thursday Night Football games during the 2017 NFL season to Prime subscribers, replacing a previous deal with Twitter. Since then Amazon has acquired exclusive sports rights in 10 countries, including Australia, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Premier rights include the Copa do Brasil in Brazil, Ligue 1 and the French Open in France, the UEFA Champions League in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, the Premier League in the United Kingdom, the NHL's Monday Night Hockey in Canada, and Thursday Night Football in the United States.
The USL Super League (USLS) is a professional women's soccer league in the highest level of the United States league system, alongside the National Women's Soccer League. Organized by the United Soccer League (USL), it operates as its premier league for women above the pre-professional USL W League.
A professional womens baseball league aims to begin competition in the U.S. in 2026, according to a news release issued Tuesday.
It plans on securing a national broadcast deal for its inaugural season, which will consist of a regular season, playoffs and championship throughout the summer of 2026.
Top-level professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's |
| ||||||
| Women's |
| ||||||
| Others |
| ||||||
