Games move to Tennessee, ‘a hotbed for women’s basketball’
Athletes Unlimited (AU) recently announced that the 2025 AU Pro Basketball Championship season will move to Nashville, Tenn. The 24-game season will run Feb. 5-March 2, 2025.
Last season, 29 of the 40 players had WNBA experience, including Lexie Brown (LA Sparks) and Sydney Colson (Las Vegas).
Megan Perry, AU director of basketball, said in a press release, “Tennessee has long been a hotbed for women’s basketball… We’re excited to bring a roster full of elite professional talent on the court and on the sidelines back to fans in the region. We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball to Music City.”
Added Perry in an MSR interview, “There’s a fan base there that’s eager and they’re hungry and they want more of women’s basketball. I think that’s a microcosm of what the entire world is now experiencing.”
Previous AU Pro Basketball seasons took place in Las Vegas (2022) and Dallas (2023 and 2024). AU Pro Basketball, which started in 2021, is the first pro women’s basketball league launched since the WNBA and ABL in the late 1990s. The league allows WNBA players to stay in the U.S. during the WNBA off-season as well as providing playing opportunities for other players not on WNBA rosters.
Basketball legend Sheryl Swoopes, two-time NBA champion Kevin Durant, and soccer superstar Abby Wambach are among many others on the AU Advisory Board.
“Our players deserve more opportunities to be able to perfect their craft for as long as they can,” stressed Perry.
A former Division I college basketball player, Perry has over 15 years of experience in sports, media and entertainment, including eight years with the WNBA in basketball operations and player relations (2010-16) and team marketing and business operations specialist (2008-10).
She joined AU in 2023 and works closely with the AU Player Executive Committee to oversee all league operations both on and off the court.
“This will be my second season with Athletes Unlimited,” declared Perry. “I had been around the game for a long time. When this opportunity came across my path, I realized that I have more to give to the game. I want to help grow this game.”
“I have an opportunity with the knowledge and my background to grow more and to be able to offer, to grow this across the women’s basketball landscape, but [also] for the players specifically to create another first class experience,” said Perry.
The WNBA’s prioritization rule has been in effect since the 2023 season—players with at least two years of W experience who don’t report to their teams by May 1 or the start of training camp will be fined. Critics of the rule say that it forces players to either choose playing in the WNBA or playing overseas, where players can make more money during the off season.
“We compete for four weeks,” said Perry. “That allows a lot of players to…have the opportunity to come and play at our league in front of their friends and family in a domestic fashion.
“I think it has much about the WNBA prioritization rule,” noted Perry of AU. “That allows a lot of players to prepare themselves for additional opportunities, whether that’s in the WNBA or whether that’s for them to play [elsewhere].”
Perry pointed out that she doesn’t foresee any conflicts with AU games and college games in the area. “We recognize that fandom in women’s basketball are very unique,” she concluded. “They’re hungry and they want more. So, understanding how much that collegiate landscape is, I think there’s room for both.”