The Athletes Unlimited Softball League has announced the locations of five franchises that will start playing in their assigned locations this season.
The teams announced Tuesday are the Carolina Blaze, Chicago Bandits, Portland Cascade, Texas Volts and Utah Talons. The Oklahoma City Spark had been previously announced as a new addition to the league. The season will start June 9.
“These host cities represent the next major chapter of the AUSL’s growth,” Kim Ng, AUSL commissioner, said. “We are building on the momentum of an historic inaugural season by establishing franchises in markets with strong softball traditions, proven fan engagement, and the infrastructure to support a world-class professional experience.”
The Blaze, Bandits, Volts and Talons played last season as part of the league’s touring format. The Cascade and Spark are new to the league.
On opening night, Utah will host Chicago, Carolina will host Portland and Oklahoma City will host Texas.
The Bandits will play home games at The Stadium at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Chicago. The Chicago Bandits name goes back to 2005.
“It was something of a no-brainer,” Ng said. “The Bandits were going to end up in Chicago. Such an incredible historic significance to the softball world."
The Cascade will play home contests at Hillsboro Ballpark in Hillsboro, Oregon. Ng said women’s sports are a significant part of the Portland area’s culture. The city previously hosted the Little League Softball World Series for more than 20 years.
“Portland has been in the midst of this great women’s sports movement that has swept the country and has been making a real push to be the center of women’s sports,” Ng said.
The Talons will play at Dumke Family Stadium at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ng said the league had success visiting there last season.
“It was just a great experience,” she said. “Facilities are great, major metro area. So it made a lot of sense for us.”
The Blaze will play at Duke University Softball Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. The Little League Softball World Series is currently played in North Carolina. Ng said Duke coach Marissa Young has built a strong program that has spurred interest in the sport there.
The Volts will play at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas. The Austin suburb drew the largest crowds when the league toured last year. Ng said the infrastructure from youth softball on up made putting a team in that area an easy decision.
The Spark will play home contests at Tom Heath Field at Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City hosts the annual Women’s College World Series and is the home of USA Softball and the Softball Hall of Fame.
Ng said she sees more expansion in the future, and sites that have been visited in the past remain under consideration.
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FILE - Athletes Unlimited Softball League Commissioner Kim Ng, a former Major League Baseball executive, is interviewed at Major League Baseball's headquarters in New York, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Wednesday vowed to continue releasing prisoners detained under former President Nicolás Maduro during her first press conference since Maduro was ousted by the United States earlier this month.
Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, running Venezuela’s feared intelligence service and managing its crucial oil industry. A 56-year-old lawyer and politician, Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president two days after the Trump administration snatched Maduro from his fortified compound and claimed the U.S. would be calling the shots in Venezuela.
Addressing journalists from a red carpet at the presidential palace, Rodríguez said the process of releasing prisoners had begun under Maduro and “has not yet concluded.”
“That process remains open,” she said, adding that the releases sent a message that Venezuela was starting “a new political moment that allows for understanding of divergence and of political and ideological diversity."
That comment seemingly alluded to detainees held on what human rights groups say are politically motivated charges. Venezuela’s leading prisoner rights organization, Foro Penal, has verified at least 68 prisoners freed since the government under Rodríguez promised to release a “significant number” of prisoners.
The move was seen as an effort to comply with Washington's demands.
Despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term, President Donald Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil sales. To ensure the former Maduro loyalist does his bidding, he threatened Rodríguez with a “situation probably worse than Maduro,” who faces federal charges of drug-trafficking from a Brooklyn jail.
In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump sidelined María Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition who won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for her campaign to restore the nation’s democracy. Machado is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Thursday.
Relatives and friends of political prisoners hold banners and candles calling for their loved ones to be set free outside the Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 after the government announced prisoners would be released. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Narwin Gil cries as she waits for news of her detained sister, Marylyn Gil, outside El Helicoide, headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and a detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Mileidy Mendoza, center, waits at Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police, where her fiancé Eric Diaz is being held as a political detainee in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, after the government announced prisoners would be released.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Students lay out photos of people they consider political prisoners at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez, center, smiles flanked by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, right, and National Assembly President, her brother, Jorge Rodriguez, as they prepare to make a statement at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
