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Professional softball fans had a chance to ask questions and get answers straight from the source on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Athletes Unlimited Softball League Commissioner Kim Ng hosted an \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d (AMA) session on Reddit where she answered questions from league fans for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The discussion took place on r\/AUSL, a sports subreddit for the latest news and discussion related to the women’s professional softball league.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Many fans had questions about the upcoming season and wanted information on tickets and TV broadcasts. Others wanted to know about the future of the league and expansion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The league has been operating in a tour format for its first season in 2025, but is now moving to city-based teams at venues announced earlier in the week. The six teams are located in: Durham, North Carolina (Blaze), Chicago, Illinois (Bandits), Portland, Oregon (Cascade), Austin, Texas (Volts), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Spark), and Salt Lake City, Utah (Talons).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But fans were still eager to learn where and when their state could get a top-tier softball team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“In terms of expansion, we are serious about, and will look at, many markets not currently represented in AUSL,” wrote Ng.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“Regarding neutral sites, we will have our match play series and Championship at a neutral site, TBD. In the future, we plan to have neutral sites as well,” Ng shared in response to another user.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Another fan wanted to know how the locations were chosen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“What led to the selection of the team’s home locations? Was the goal to segment the market in areas where MLB does not have teams?” asked one user.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“There was no rational decision to play in non-MLB cities. We chose high-growth areas that are big promoters of women’s sports. Five of the six markets we reached are from the pool of 12 we visited in 2025, between regular season and All-Star Cup games,” wrote Ng.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ng also gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at practices like Golden Ticket Moments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Last year, the department introduced a unique way to announce the class of students who were elected to the college. AUSL representatives visited college campuses across the country to present 12 “Golden Tickets” to players invited to join the league.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Another user asked, “Will last year’s Golden Tickets continue? If so, why are we limiting the pool of players that teams can draft? I think the idea is awesome, but maybe limited when it comes to the drawing. And, if it continues, how are the Golden Ticket winners decided?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ng explained, \u201cIn 2025, we had a private structure there [General Managers] you chose these players. After that, we present Golden Tickets to the selected athletes, indicating that they have been selected. The Draft Show revealed to the players and the public which teams these players were selected by.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
He gave an example of how the system worked for No. 1 draft pick, Sam Landry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“The Volts selected Sam Landry, so he was awarded the Golden Ticket. On the night of the Draft Show, Sam Landry found out who drafted him. The process will be the same in 2026,” wrote Ng.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Among questions about the league, one user simply wanted to know how Ng orders a ballpark staple: a hot dog. N’s answer was outdated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“Ketchup and be happy,” he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
You can read the entire AMA here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Professional softball fans had a chance to ask questions and get answers straight from the source on Thursday. Athletes Unlimited Softball League Commissioner Kim Ng hosted an \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d (AMA) session on Reddit where she answered questions from league fans for 30 minutes. The discussion took place on r\/AUSL, a sports subreddit for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2151,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions\/2151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}