Sydney McKinney, AUX pro softball league coming to Wichita State for games in 2024 summer
When Sydney McKinney wrapped up her senior year on the Wichita State softball team this past spring, she thought she had played her final game at Wilkins Stadium.
It turns out McKinney, Wichita State’s greatest player of all time, and 60 more of the world’s best softball players will be playing at Wilkins Stadium in the near future.
Athletes Unlimited announced Friday morning a multi-year agreement with Wichita State to host the AUX Pro Softball season at Wilkins Stadium, beginning in the summer of 2024 with 18 games from June 10-24. It will be the first professional women’s sports league to ever play a full season in Wichita.
“I didn’t think I would ever get a chance to play on my home field again,” McKinney told The Eagle. “The fact that I get to do it so soon is really cool. This is going to give Wichita a really good platform, bringing in 60 of the best athletes in the world to play on our field.”
With the rise in popularity of Shocker softball under coach Kristi Bredbenner and McKinney, a three-time All-American at WSU, entering the league as the No. 1 pick in the 2023 college draft, WSU operations director Brad Pittman began exploring the possibility of bringing the professional softball league to Wichita.
The recent success of WSU softball, Wichita’s history of supporting sporting events and the appeal of bringing McKinney back to Wilkins Stadium ultimately swayed Athletes Unlimited to reward the bid to WSU and Visit Wichita.
“Wichita fans are going to be able to see the best of the best play,” AU senior vice president Cheri Kempf said. “We’re going to be bringing in Olympians, former College World Series champions, former Most Outstanding Players. And then it’s a huge bonus to have someone like Sydney McKinney on board.
“But on top of that, the facilities Wichita State has to offer were really attractive to us and it’s going to enable our professional athletes to train and play in a state-of-the-art environment.”
After leading NCAA Division I in batting average for her final two seasons with the Shockers, McKinney said the difference in professional softball was stark this past summer. She finished the summer championship season with a .222 batting average, while playing her usual brand of stellar defense in the middle infield.
The league features a unique scoring system with players being drafted on different teams for each week and league MVP being determined by points. McKinney said the scoring format gives fans something else to follow, other than the final team score on the scoreboard.
“I went from being a fifth-year senior who was the oldest player on the team to going right back to the bottom playing against 30-year-olds who I looked up to my whole life,” McKinney said. “It was crazy watching them play. It’s so competitive and everybody is the best player from their college in the last 10 or 15 years.”
Since finishing her playing career at WSU, McKinney has competed in her first season of professional softball and began her coaching career as an assistant at Marshall.
She is thrilled about the prospect of returning to Wichita in the summer to continue to play the game she loves. McKinney believes the competition level will be the biggest draw for not only WSU fans, but for softball fans all over the region.
Fans can make season ticket deposits for this upcoming summer’s slate on the Athletes Unlimited website.
“I would encourage anyone who enjoys softball to come out and bring their kids to watch because these are the best softball players in the world,” McKinney said. “Softball is growing so fast and we hope our league will get to the level of a WNBA. I think this sets a great example and you can bring your girls and show them that playing softball professionally is an option and it’s just a really cool opportunity to show them the game at the highest level.”
Championship lacrosse also coming to Wichita — Visit Wichita also announced earlier this week that USA Lacrosse has accepted Wichita’s bid to host the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associates national championship event next spring.
The championship tournament will be played at Scheels Stryker Sports Complex from May 7-10, 2024.
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