Softball Players Reach Deal With Athletes Unlimited to Form Union

Professional softball players are officially unionizing.

Athletes Unlimited Softball League and its softball players said Thursday that the sides had reached an agreement on the players’ nascent union.

Athletes Unlimited had not recognized the union for more than a month after players first asked the league to do so on Oct. 13.

“Athletes Unlimited Softball League and the AUSL Players Association today announced the signing of an agreement formally recognizing the AUSLPA as the union representing all players in the AUSL,” the league and players association said in a joint statement Thursday morning.

The two sides will now enter into discussions to create the league’s first collective bargaining agreement. Athletes Unlimited is owned by Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros, while the union has not yet named its leadership.

“We’re grateful to every woman who stood up and made her voice heard throughout this process, and we’re eager to meet the league at the bargaining table to negotiate a contract that ensures player rights and benefits are protected amidst the AUSL’s unprecedented growth,” the union said in a separate statement. “We are confident that the AUSL will be better with a union, and we look forward to working with the league to ensure that professional softball continues to grow into the 2027 season and beyond.”

AUSL debuted in 2025 with a touring model before moving to six markets in 2026. But Athletes Unlimited has been staging softball competitions since 2020. Athletes Unlimited had previously had softball, lacrosse, basketball, and volleyball leagues.

MLB announced an eight-figure investment in AUSL last year, one month after co-founders Patricof and Soros hired former Marlins general manager Kim Ng as league commissioner. After the MLB investment, Athletes Unlimited paused its volleyball and basketball leagues.

“I think what we really want to do is set the precedent for the future,” AUSL infielder Hannah Flippen told Front Office Sports last month, “and get the ball rolling in that way, so that we are set up when it becomes necessary to really fight for something, negotiate something, that we’re ready to go.”

Last season, the highest salary in the AUSL was $75,000. Salaries have gone up every year, and for 2027, salaries are currently set to range in five tiers from $27,000 to $80,000.

In August, Patricof told FOS AU has focused on “building a really impressive commercial engine” and its investment in softball is “substantially larger than it was two years ago.”