New Dubai-based league will also host first national team tournament as part of its yearly calendar DUBAI: Baseball United, the first professional baseball league focusing on the Middle East and South Asia, has announced plans for its first full season. For the latest updates, follow us @ArabNewsSport The ambitious 12-month calendar of events includes a professional tournament, the Baseball United Cup, as well as the Baseball United Arab Classic which will feature the official national teams from across the region. All events will be held in Dubai. Season One will begin next fall, running from Oct. 23 to Nov. 23, 2025. The inaugural season will include five Baseball United franchises — the Mumbai Cobras, Karachi Monarchs, Arabia Wolves, Mid-East Falcons, and a new Riyadh-based franchise to be announced early next year. Each team will play 12 regular season games, culminating with a United Series best-of-three championship featuring the top two. Overall, the league will host 33 games in 32 days. The Baseball United Cup will take place from Feb. 22 to March 1, 2025, and will feature the Cobras, Monarchs, Wolves and Falcons in an eight-day tournament. Teams will compete in a round robin format, followed by semifinals and finals. The cup will represent the first professional franchise baseball games in the history of the Middle East and South Asia, coming roughly 15 months after BU’s All-Star Showcase event which was held in Dubai last November. “After nearly three years of round-the-clock work, and a lifetime of dreaming, we are grateful and proud to announce the dates for the BU Cup and BU Season One,” said Kash Shaikh, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Baseball United. “Our small but driven team has pieced together the entire ecosystem of professional baseball in this incredible part of the world, overcoming daily challenges with commitment, passion and resolve. And now, we are poised to continue making history. I can’t wait to have our players and franchises on the ground in Dubai for the BU Cup in February and our first full season next October. And, most importantly, our team and I can’t wait to continue sharing this beautiful game with our amazing fans in Dubai and across the world.” The franchises are made up of top professional players from around the world. The league’s inaugural draft, in October 2023, saw 70 percent of players originally drafted by Major League Baseball teams, including former MLB All-Stars and Gold Glove winners like Robinson Cano, Jair Jurrjens, and Andrelton Simmons. Roster updates and changes will be shared as they happen on baseballunited.com. In addition to the professional games, Baseball United will also continue to help grow and develop local talent across the region with the introduction of the BU Arab Classic. The new tournament will feature national teams from countries across the Middle East and South Asia and follow World Baseball Classic rules and regulations, with a few regional modifications. The inaugural event will bring together eight nations, including India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and is set to take place this year from Nov. 7-10. “From day one, we’ve believed in both a top-down, and a bottom-up approach to growing the game in this region,” said John Miedreich, Baseball United’s vice chairman, executive vice president and co-founder. “We’ve been working with the national teams in the region for the last two years, and now our Arab Classic event will provide a broader foundation and a bigger stage for us to continue our development work. We truly believe in the potential and talent of young athletes in this part of the world.”