On November 21, 2002, WPSL announced a rebranding strategy and official name change to National Pro Fastpitch.
Major League Baseball partnered with NPF as its Official Development Partner as a continuation of MLB's efforts to connect with female athletes and women in general. As "Official Development Partner" in 2003, Major League Baseball provided introductions to Major League Baseball Clubs, community partners, broadcast partners and to MLB.com. As part of its long-term sales, marketing and promotional campaign, NPF featured an All-Star Tour in 2003. The tour provided each of the league's expansion team owners with tools to lay the groundwork in their marketplace for the official launch of league play in 2004. In 2004, the league relaunched with six teams in six markets:
California Sunbirds in
Stockton, California;
Arizona Heat in
Tucson, Arizona;
Texas Thunder in
Houston, Texas;
Akron Racers in
Akron, Ohio;
New England Riptide in
Lowell, Massachusetts; and
NY/NJ Juggernaut in
Montclair, New Jersey. The
2004 season was distinguished by 178 league-wide games, 96 of the best female softball players in the country, the continued support of Major League Baseball as the Official Development Partner of NPF in the category of women's fastpitch softball, NPF playoffs (both best of three series went three games) and the inaugural NPF Championship with the
New York/New Jersey Juggernaut capturing the Championship Cowles Cup with a victory over the
New England Riptide, fourth-place finisher in the regular season. Today, there are 5 National Pro Fastpitch teams: the Aussie Peppers, the California Commotion, the Chicago Bandits, the Cleveland Comets, and the Canadian Wild. Each team has about 20 players on roster. The league's main goal is to provide entertainment and to secure fast-pitch as a professional sports for decades to come.
New ownership (2005) In December 2004, owners of the individual National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) teams announced a plan intended to transition operations of National Pro Fastpitch from the founding Cowles family to an operating group consisting of team owners. The efforts of the new ownership group in 2005 focused on solidifying broadcast agreements locally and nationally, soliciting sponsorship support, and aligning with national softball associations to bring meaningful competition to each team market and various grassroots events across the country. The group continues to recruit new teams and strengthen team ownership in each market. The
2005 regular season included 144 games and 23 opponents including six NPF teams, plus women's ASA major teams and international teams such as
Canada,
Mexico,
Russia,
Venezuela,
China, and
Australia. The season concluded the last weekend in August when the
Akron Racers beat the
Chicago Bandits 5–4 in extra innings to claim the NPF Championship Title. The Juggernaut joined forces with Telecare to broadcast six games in 2005. Telecare reaches almost a million homes in the Long Island area. Comcast SportsNet Chicago aired seven original broadcasts of Chicago Bandits games in 2005. ESPN2 aired two games during the NPF Championship series. The final game was broadcast on ESPN2 with a very impressive .48 rating. The
Philadelphia Force and the
Connecticut Brakettes joined NPF for the
2006 season. The Brakettes, the Akron Racers, the 2005 Regular Season Champions, the Chicago Bandits, the New England Riptide, the
Arizona Heat, the
Texas Thunder competed in league play during 2006. The New England Riptide defeated the Connecticut Brakettes to become champions. For the
2007 season, The Texas Thunder moved to Rockford, Illinois to play as the
Rockford Thunder. The Connecticut Brakettes left the NPF to return to exclusive amateur status. The
Washington Glory was established as a new franchise, picking up many of the former Brakettes' pro players. The Arizona Heat franchise was officially suspended. Each of the six established NPF teams played an official schedule of 44 games during 2007, including games against non-league opponents that counted in the NPF standings. The
Michigan Ice played a more limited schedule as a provisional NPF team. Non-league opponents included Team China, Denso Japan, the Venezuela national team, and the Stratford Brakettes. The league moved its playoffs to Kimberly, Wisconsin in a double-elimination format. Washington was the only team in the playoffs to go undefeated and won the championship in the first game on August 26. Rains on August 24 prevented the first day of competition to be played so all Friday games were played Saturday morning/afternoon and the scheduled Saturday games were pushed later into the evening.
Monica Abbott and
Cat Osterman threw no-hitters during the championship weekend. In
2008, the league saw the addition of four more games as different international opponents appeared on the schedule and every team played in every other league city. The international opponents included Canada, Venezuela, Chinese Taipei, and Netherlands. Each team played two home series against two of the four international opponents. The league also hosted Battle of the Bats throughout the 2008 season. At every Saturday night home game, or a selected date if a series is not played on a Saturday night, four players from each team were selected to represent a different bat manufacturer in a home-run-hitting contest. The contest puts manufacturer against manufacturer and player against player in a competition that concluded in Kimberly, Wisconsin as part of the championship weekend.
Contraction and expansion (2009–2021) The
New England Riptide did not play the
2009 season, citing economic reasons. The Washington Glory folded outright and were replaced by the
USSSA Pride. For
2011, the Diamonds became a traveling team, and the Pride split home games between two new venues. In
2012, the Diamonds relocated to
Charlotte, North Carolina, and became the Carolina Diamonds. They played in various venues in North Carolina during the 2012 season. The league announced that the
Pennsylvania Rebellion would be added as an expansion team for the
2014 season, receiving the roster of the recently defunct
NY/NJ Comets. In January 2015, the league announced the Dallas Charge as an expansion team for the
2015 season. The
Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex-based team will split their home games between the Ballfields at Craig Ranch in
McKinney and a ballpark in
Arlington. On October 23, 2015, the NPF announced that the
Scrap Yard Dawgs would join the league as an expansion team based in
The Woodlands, Texas. On January 16, 2017, the NPF announced that the ownership of the
Pennsylvania Rebellion would be dissolving the team, effective immediately. All Rebellion players under contract were granted free agency. On May 2, 2017, NPF announced the addition of an expansion team, Beijing Shougang Eagles. Its roster is to be populated with members of
China women's national softball team and selected American players. For 2017, the home half Beijing's schedule was played in the home venues of the other NPF teams. Beijing is expected to announce a permanent US home location in the future. On October 12, 2017, it was reported the
Texas Charge would be dissolving, effective immediately. The NPF did not make an announcement regarding the Charge, but all Charge players under contract were added to the league's transactions page as free agents. In an arrangement similar to the Beijing Eagles', NPF announced in December 2017 that
Softball Australia would be operating a 2018 expansion team, the
Aussie Spirit. On January 28, 2018, the Scrap Yard Dawgs announced via press release they would no longer be affiliated with the NPF. However, the NPF announced they had terminated the franchise on January 29 citing that the team had violated several league operating rules and franchise requirements. The Scrap Yard Dawgs indicated they would continue as an independent team known as Scrap Yard Fastpitch for 2018. On the same day, Ohio.com reported that the Akron Racers would be replaced by a Chinese team, similar to the Beijing Eagles. However, on February 1, 2018, Akron, instead, changed their name to the
Cleveland Comets. The Comets will still be an NPF travel team. On October 30, 2018, Softball Canada announced that it will be operating an expansion team called the
Canadian Wild. On September 13, 2019, USSSA Pride announced they would not renew their partnership with NPF for the 2020 season, leaving the league after 11 years. On November 14, 2019, the
California Commotion was announced to be an expansion team, representing the league's first presence on the west coast since the 2005 season. The Commotion's first season in the league was scheduled to be in 2020. Both the 2020 and 2021 seasons were cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. On August 1, 2021, the league announced that, due to a lack of revenue after cancelling the previous two seasons, it would be suspending operations. In June 2024, Athletes Unlimited announced the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), launching in 2025 after the National Pro Fastpitch ended. The inaugural season will feature four teams—Bandits, Blaze, Talons, and Volts—competing in a 24-game touring format across multiple cities. The league plans to adopt a city-based model in 2026. ==Champions==