The Women’s Pro Baseball League is teaming up with Fremantle, the production company behind shows like the global Got Talent franchise (such as “America’s Got Talent”) and Family Feud, to help grow the league.
The partnership announcement comes on the heels of the WPBL’s recent news that global women’s sports investor Assia Grazioli-Venier has joined the league as chair. Grazioli-Venier’s Muse Sport — the sports advisory arm of her firm, Muse Capital — has also joined the league as an official advisory partner.
“We’re not interested in just documenting games. We’re documenting the rebirth of a sport, and the pioneers who are making it happen,” Grazioli-Venier told The Athletic. “From draft day to the locker room, the training grind to the business decisions, there’s a generational story unfolding here — and Fremantle is the perfect partner to help us tell it.”
Fremantle, part of European entertainment conglomerate RTL, will manage everything from producing and distributing game broadcasts to creating original content, securing sponsors, marketing the league globally and helping the league sign a national broadcast partnership. The company will also develop shoulder programming (such as pre- and post-game shows, for example) and documentaries.
“We’re taking inspiration from storytelling formats like ‘Welcome to Wrexham,’ but the story of women’s baseball deserves its own narrative arc,” Grazioli-Venier said.
Grazioli-Venier, who was an early investor in the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, isn’t the only seasoned sports investor behind the league — she’s part of a broader group that includes sports operators as well as strategic investors from media, tech, and culture. Co-founded by former baseball player and trailblazing coach Justine Siegal, along with attorney and Pro Padel League founder Keith Stein, the WPBL has brought on advisors including legendary Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato and captain of Team USA Alex Hugo.
The league is set to debut in spring 2026 with six teams. The league will have a national footprint and will consist of a regular season, playoffs and championship throughout the summer of 2026. In the lead-up to its inaugural season, the league will hold a nationwide tryout. Following the tryouts, WPBL will host its inaugural player draft in the fall, followed by a high-profile showcase all-star weekend. According to the league, 400 athletes from around the world have already registered for tryouts and draft consideration.
The WPBL isn’t the first attempt at a professional women’s baseball league in the U.S. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) ran from 1943 to 1954, founded by Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley to keep ballparks alive during and after World War II. More than 600 women from the U.S., Canada, and Cuba played in the league before it folded due to declining attendance and revenue. One of its former stars, 97-year-old pitcher Maybelle Blair — who helped inspire the 1992 film “A League of Their Own” — now serves as the WPBL’s honorary chair. (Blair is pictured in the photo at the top of this story.)
Now, nearly 80 years later, women’s pro ball — both baseball and softball — is getting a modern revival.
The Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), a new professional league in the U.S., is set to debut in June. The AUSL is part of Athletes Unlimited, Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros’s multi-disciplinary women’s sport league, and will feature four teams playing a 30-game season in a traditional team format.
ESPN, a longtime AU broadcasting partner, will be the AUSL’s founding broadcast partner and will air at least 18 games exclusively across its main channels — ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU — when the league launches in 2025. In April, the AUSL announced the hiring of longtime MLB front-office executive Kim Ng as its commissioner.
Meanwhile, Grazioli-Venier said fan interest in the WPBL is high, and “that’s before a single pitch is thrown.” According to a consumer polling conducted by Hart Research, 19 percent of respondents said they were “very” or “somewhat” interested in the league, putting the WPBL on par with results related to the WNBA (21 percent) and women’s college basketball (21 percent).
“After investing early in the Washington Spirit before the NWSL boom, and helping grow global leagues like SailGP, it was clear to me that baseball was next,” Grazioli-Venier said. “The player talent is there, the demand is rising, and the commercial infrastructure is finally catching up. What drew me in now was the chance to do more than invest — I wanted to help build. We know this can be more than a game and are honoring the responsibility that comes with this opportunity.”
(Photo: Courtesy of Maybelle Blair)