On July 26, the Utah Talons won the Athletes Unlimited Softball League championship for the second straight season, ending a year of strong viewership and attendance for the two-year-old AUSL.
Five days later, Athletes Unlimited called off its upcoming seasons for basketball and volleyball, the other two sports left in a portfolio of leagues that previously also included lacrosse.
In an interview with Front Office Sports earlier this week, Athletes Unlimited cofounder and CEO Jon Patricof said that the company was “pleased” with how basketball and volleyball had been going, and the decision to pause those sports was “somewhat independent” of softball. “But I think it’s related in the sense that my role as CEO is to allocate capital, think about where the biggest opportunities are, and make sure we’re pursuing them,” he said.
Patricof said MLB—which made an eight-figure investment in AUSL last year—did not pressure Athletes Unlimited to drop its other sports.
Even with Athletes Unlimited going “heavy investment mode” on softball, he also didn’t rule out basketball and volleyball one day making a comeback.
