Athletes Unlimited

Athletes Unlimited (also known by its abbreviation AU) is a women's professional sports organization based in the United States that organizes and administers competitions in the sports of basketball, softball, volleyball, and formerly lacrosse. It was founded in 2020 by Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros. Athletes Unlimited leagues employ formats in which individual players are crowned champions, with the exception of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, which has traditional teams.
Athletes Unlimited was founded by Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros in 2020.
There are no team owners, and league investors are capping their returns. Athletes share in the league profits, and are involved in the daily decision making. Players are not committed to one team but switch teams every week of the season through a draft. The top four players who earned the most points each week become captains for the next week and form new teams. Players earn points based on both their team and individual performances, and are ranked accordingly. The champion is the player with the most points at the end of the season.
Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball is played annually during winter. Its first season featured 44 players competing in a five-week season from January 26 to February 26, 2022, and took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. The second season was played in Dallas, Texas and ran from February 22 to March 26, 2023. The 2025 edition was held on February 5 – March 2 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. It featured forty players competing in 24 games – ten livestreamed on ESPN+, and fourteen simultaneously livestreamed on both the FanDuel Sports Network and the WNBA's mobile app. It was won by Maddy Siegrist, who set an all-time record of 7,052 points.
The AUSL All-Star Cup (formerly known as Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball) is played annually at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Illinois over four weeks during summer. It is preceded by a two-week competition known as Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball AUX (stylized as "AUX"). The Cup's inaugural season was played from August 20 to September 28, 2020. Two games were played each Saturday, Sunday, and Monday over the five week period, 30 games all together (15 per player). The top four players were named the medalists and Haylie McCleney was named the Defensive Player of the Year.
The inaugural AUX competition featured 42 athletes playing 18 games and took place from June 13 to 26, 2022, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Title IX on June 23. Danielle O'Toole won the inaugural AUX softball competition with 1,436 points. Rachel Garcia won the 2023 AUX competition with 1,392 points. Bubba Nickles won the 2024 AUX competition with 1,344 points.
Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball is played annually during fall. Its inaugural season was played in 2021.
Athletes Unlimited Pro Lacrosse was played annually during summer, between 2021 and 2024. Michelle DeJulius, who had founded and was the CEO of the now defunct Women's Professional Lacrosse League was named the Senior Director of Lacrosse. Athletes Unlimited Pro Lacrosse features a "short-form, fast-paced" format. It is played 10-a-side rather than 12-a-side. The field length is shorted to 90 yards as opposed to the traditional 110 yards. The field width remains at 60 yards. There is a 60-second shot clock, and layers can score two-point goals by scoring goals from outside of an 8-meter perimeter. The games are also 10-minute quarters. The game has also been described as more physical, with less fouls called compared to other levels of the game. There are also no shooting space calls (shooting space being a penalty where a defender cannot stand between the goal and a player looking to shoot unless actively guarding another player).
The inaugural 2021 season took place from July 19 to August 22 in Boyds, Maryland at Maureen Hendricks Field. The 2022 season took place from July 21 to August 14 at William G. Tierney Field in Baltimore, Maryland, and returned there for the 2023 season from July 20 to August 13. Goalie Taylor Moreno became the first player to win two Athletes Unlimited championships. After the conclusion of the 2024 season, Athletes Unlimited suspended its lacrosse operations, citing the "availability of the sport's most elite athletes during the summer months over the next few years" as its primary reason for doing so.