New women's professional baseball league set to launch in 2026: 'Our time is now'
The six team league will be largely based in the northeast United States to start
The United States is getting a women’s professional baseball league.
The Women’s Pro Baseball League will launch in 2026 and feature six teams based in the Northeast. It will mark the first active professional women’s baseball league in the country.
The league is co-founded by Justine Siegal, who was the first woman to coach professional men’s baseball in the United States when she joined the Oakland Athletics organization in 2015. Siegal is also the founder of Baseball For All, which is a nonprofit organization that helps girls play and coach baseball throughout the country.
“I am so excited that there will finally be a professional women’s baseball league,” she said in a statement. “It is a dream come true for all the girls and women who play America’s pastime.
“The Women’s Pro Baseball League is here for all the girls and women who dream of a place to showcase their talents and play the game they love. We have been waiting over 70 years for a professional baseball league we can call our own. Our time is now.”
Further specifics of the league are not yet known. The WPBL said it is working on securing a national broadcast deal for its inaugural season. It’s unclear where the teams will be based specifically, too, though they are expected to be “predominantly in the Northeast.”
The announcement of the league comes amid a massive expansion in women’s professional sports throughout the country. The WNBA, fresh off a record-breaking season in both attendance and viewership, is adding three new teams over the next two years — starting with the Golden State Valkyries next summer. The National Women’s Soccer League is expected to announce a 16th franchise by the end of the year, and the Professional Women’s Hockey League is gearing up for its second season next month. The PWHL is planning to expand for the first time in the near future, too.