The inaugural season of the Women’s Pro Baseball League will take place at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois, league co-founder Keith Stein told Annie Constabile of Front Office Sports.
The 5,200-seat stadium, named after the baseball Hall of Famer, is currently home to the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes of the Prospect League.
“Robin Roberts Stadium not only offers a central, strategic location with convenient access to Chicago O’Hare and St. Louis international airports, but is a first-rate venue where WPBL teams will be the only baseball played during our season,” the league said in a statement. “This will provide the kind of exclusivity that we wanted for our players.”
Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco were revealed last month as the cities representing the four teams, and while they will not host games during the seven-week 2026 regular season, the locations will see barnstorming games played with details still being finalized.
“Our sport is for everybody,” WPBL co-founder Keith Stein told Front Office Sports. “It’s for middle America, everybody. We thought our teams are on these two coasts, it would be good to be in the middle of the country.”
The four-team WPBL, which will expand to six teams in 2027, will mark the first active professional women’s baseball league since the 1940s. Tryouts were held in August in Washington D.C. and the top 100 players, including former Little League star Mo’ne Davis and USA baseball’s Kelsie Whitmore, advanced to be eligible for selection in the WPBL Draft, which is set for Thursday.
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According to the league, teams will make five picks in each of the six rounds during the snake-style player draft — 120 total player selections. The draft order will see San Francisco pick first, followed by Los Angeles, New York and Boston. Each team will have 30 players and not all drafted players will be guaranteed contracts or roster spots. Trades can be finalized after Jan. 1, 2026.
The WPBL’s first season will see the league operate with a $95,000 salary for each of the four teams. Living costs will be covered by the league and players will also receive a percentage of sponsorship money.
