Baseball United is the first professional baseball league to ever focus on the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent, and has officially announced the draft schedule and dates of its inaugural season. The league’s inaugural season will take place from Nov. 14 to Dec. 14, and all games will be played at Baseball United Ballpark in Dubai.
Building on the already historic last three years where it staged three signature baseball events, Baseball United will now launch the first professional baseball season in the history of the region.
It will include the league’s four founding franchises, the Mumbai Cobras, Karachi Monarchs, Arabia Wolves and Mid East Falcons. The teams will each play nine regular season games — playing each other three times each — then a best of three United Series starting Dec. 12 to determine the league champion.
In total, 21 games will be played at Baseball United’s new ballpark in Dubai over the course of 30 days.
Kash Shaikh, Baseball United Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, said: “Our team has labored for so long, through countless obstacles, to bring this news to the world.
“We are immensely thankful for the support of our Dubai and UAE partners, our investors, and all the fans worldwide who have played a role in making BU the most recognized internationally-based professional baseball league worldwide. All that support has been earned through a series of special events and major milestones since launching in November of 2022. And now we’re able to reward our fans with a full season.” Everything starts small, but we think this will be the beginning of a new chapter in baseball history.”
The season will kick off with the Subcontinent Series, Nov. 14 to 16, between the Mumbai Cobras and Karachi Monarchs. This will be the first time that Indian and Pakistani franchises have played each other in baseball, and will form part of a historic series.
The two giant nations — they have 1.8 billion people combined — have one of the fiercest rivalries in any sport. India vs Pakistan- the most awaited game in the ICC Champions Trophy event last month set a new record 600 million viewers- 5 times more than the Super Bowl.
The league said it would announce its official broadcaster partners — which will include television and digital streaming — this summer, extending to all 193 countries.
The Arabia Wolves vs Mid East Falcons UAE Series event from Baseball United recently garnered viewership of 12 million unique viewers globally, with 3.3M unique per game in Pakistan A Sports. They are the most for any MLB regular season game played in the United States last year. Baseball United has a huge market to introduce America’s Pastime, with two billion people in the Middle East and South Asia – one billion of which are cricket fans.
Baseball United has also found strong viewership in baseball hotbeds around the world, from the United States to Japan to Latin America.
Complete rosters for the season will be released later this spring. Thus far, 65% of Baseball United’s players were initially drafted by Major League Baseball teams, including MLB All-Star Robinson Cano, MLB Gold Glover Andrelton Simmons, and MLB World Series Champion Pablo Sandoval.
Baseball United literally erected its new ballpark at The Sevens sports and entertainment complex in Dubai in less than just 38 days last fall, and has since hosted the largest international amateur baseball tournament in regional history, the Arab Classic, in addition to last month’s UAE Series. That ballpark became the first professional baseball field in the region’s history.