The Big Lead

Can the WPBL be the next big thing in women's sports?

By J.P. Hoornstra

February 23, 2011; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Justine Siegal pitches batting practice during spring training for the Oakland Athletics at Papago Park Baseball Complex.
February 23, 2011; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Justine Siegal pitches batting practice during spring training for the Oakland Athletics at Papago Park Baseball Complex. / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
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On a national and international level, girls have been interested in playing organized baseball for generations. Forget A League of Their Own. (Not really — it's a classic — but roll with it for a moment.) Baseball's gender barrier has been falling steadily for years, from the short-lived Women's Baseball World Series (2001-06) to the still-active Women's World Cup to the estimated hundred-thousand-plus girls playing youth baseball worldwide.

Commercial viability for a professional women's baseball league has proven elusive in the United States.

Now, a prominent stakeholder in the game believes the time is right to test the waters.

The Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) announced its launch Tuesday with competition set to begin in the summer of 2026. Billing itself as the only professional women’s baseball league in America, the WPBL lists two co-founders in its first press release: pioneering coach Justine Siegal and lawyer Keith Stein.

“I am so excited that there will finally be a professional women’s baseball league – it is a dream come true for all the girls and women who play America’s Pastime,” Siegal said in the release.

Siegal became the first female coach of a professional men's baseball team, the independent Brockton Rox, in 2009. In addition to coaching men at the pro and college baseball levels, Siegal is the founder and executive director of Baseball for All, an organization that works toward gender equity in youth baseball by strongly encouraging and providing opportunities for girls to participate in baseball.

According to the release, the WPBL has its sights set on a six-team league based "predominantly in the Northeast" for its inaugural season. It plans on securing a national broadcast deal covering the regular season, playoffs and championship in Year 1.

Former Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston has signed on as a consultant, according to the release. So has Ayami Sato, a six-time medalist for Japan in the Women's World Cup and a standout pitcher in Japan's top professional league for women.

Given the success of the WNBA (which just secured a massive new TV contract) and the Professional Women's Hockey League (which is planning to expand from six teams to eight in the next year), the consumer appetite for women's sports in the U.S. seems to be increasing. And the evolving media landscape should have plenty of streaming platforms hungry for live sports content.

As more details emerge, keep an eye on the size and scope of the broadcast deal. That will inform how visible — and lucrative — the new league can be in short order.

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