Nashville, TN – National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) entered the 2009 Season excited about the idea of live streaming over 80 games. To add to the excitement, in April, NPF announced the streaming outlet would be mlb.com. This outlet obviously would provide exposure of NPF to a broader audience of baseball enthusiasts that may crossover as fans.

Seventy-Seven games of the NPF regular season were streamed live.  Akron Racers, Chicago Bandits, Philadelphia Force, and USSSA Pride streamed all twenty of their home games.  In addition, the League streamed all nine of the Championship Series games from host site Akron, Ohio.  In the end, the numbers were impressive for an inaugural year.  In most cases, the NPF internet audiences out numbered the audiences of Minor League Baseball Teams doing similar streaming of live games.

Overall, the average streams per game exceeded 1,000 for each of the four clubs with the managing entity of USSSA topping the category with 1,849 average streams per game.  Chicago saw an average of 1,108 per game, Akron 1,628 per game, and Philadelphia 1,792 per game.

NPF Commissioner, Cheri Kempf commented, “For our initial year, I am really happy with these results. We were able to expose a lot of fans to our games that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to see them.  I know we will continue to enhance the broadcasts in the future and to improve the quality also.”

NPF approaches the second year of the MLB.com relationship looking to add to the quantity and quality of the streaming.  In addition MLB.com is committed to improve the relationship with increased coverage and cross promotion opportunities.  “The MLB.com relationship is something we are fortunate to be apart of and we trust that our continued partnership will increase the overall exposure of our great game to many more fans,” commented Kempf.

National Pro Fastpitch expects to release the 2010 schedule in January and will also announce a streaming schedule for the upcoming season at that time.  Throughout 2009 all games will continue to be available on MLB.com in the “ON DEMAND” area.  To view games, simply go to http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/mediacenter/npf.jsp##.

The Commissioners archived games selection: June 11^th’s Rockford vs. Akron with Rookie Lisa Norris’ home debut PERFECT GAME.  What is your favorite game?  Email us at info@profastpitch.com and each week we will be showcasing your favorite games!