National Pro Fastpitch suspends 2021 season due to COVID-19, facility availability

NASHVILLE, TN – The western hemisphere’s largest professional women softball league has suspended its 2021 season, the league announced today.  Confronted with multiple COVID-related problems, the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) has decided to suspend games for the 2021 season, making this the second consecutive year the league has done so.  NPF home venues either are not available, or are available only with restrictive conditions on attendance and COVID protocols, making individual team operations difficult.  A season already curtailed by the one-year delay of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, is expected to be abbreviated further by quarantine requirements imposed on the international teams participating in NPF. Those Olympic teams of Australia (Aussie Peppers), Canada (Canadian Wild), and Mexico (Cleveland Comets) would be hindered with entrance and exit requirements that would inevitably include practice and training-limiting quarantines, along with general Issues of player health and safety. Planning for a 2022 season will commence once the issues of safety for fans, players, and staff, have been resolved.