Dorie (left) and Izzy Harrison
Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball is back in Nashville. The women’s league returns Wednesday, Feb. 4, and players and league leaders are hoping to follow up on a strong inaugural season at Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
“We knew when we decided that we wanted to come here that this is a place rich with basketball history,” says Megan Perry, AU’s vice president of basketball. “Professional women’s basketball belongs in the state of Tennessee, for sure, and within Nashville, absolutely.”
Athletes Unlimited landed in Nashville in 2025 during an unprecedented wave of interest in women’s sports, but the city has shown that this new interest wasn’t just a blip. Beloved local lesbian bar Lipstick Lounge opened women’s-sports-focused bar Chapstick in September, and the Vanderbilt Commodores have torn through competition throughout the 2025-26 season. The city even made a pitch for a WNBA expansion franchise in spring 2025. (The Tennessee Summitt, which would have honored Vols coaching legend Pat Summitt, lost out to bids from Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia.)
For its part, AU set records in attendance, viewership and merch sales during its first year in Music City. Perry was especially encouraged by strong social media growth.
“For almost 30 years, we’ve known that there’s a product, and now we have numbers to back it up through social engagement,” says Perry. “There’s no barrier to women’s sports anymore. It’s not broadcast media executives validating or not validating the product. Fans are able to validate it.”
AU has leveled up their own product with their strongest roster since launching in 2022. Twenty-seven of the 40 competitors are also WNBA players, including Kia Nurse, Aerial Powers, Lexie Brown, Bria Hartley, Shey Peddy, Izzy Harrison and Alysha Clark. Harrison and Clark are Nashville natives, and they’ll be joined by Izzy’s sister, Lipscomb University alum Dorie Harrison. Then there are the newcomers, including Te-Hina Paopao, Kaitlyn Chen and Aneesah Morrow. Also new to AU this year: Tina Charles, the hall-of-famer and all-time WNBA leader in rebounds and field goals made.
“I’m excited to play against the young’uns, you know?” says Shey Peddy, the 2025 AU Defensive Player of the Year. “Me and PaoPao have got a little competitive thing going on right now. … I’m excited to play with [the rookies], I’m excited to play against them.”
Bria Hartley, another second-year AU player, first visited Nashville when her UConn Huskies won an NCAA title at Bridgestone Arena in 2014. Like Peddy and so many other women’s hoopers, she spent years playing basketball overseas to supplement income from the WNBA. It’s a common experience, especially since a WNBA season is just half as long as an NBA season.
“Besides being pregnant with my child, I did basically seven years straight,” Hartley says of international play. “Sometimes I was coming late from overseas into W games, or you’re playing in the WNBA Finals and then you have seven to 10 days to get overseas.”
The pro women’s league just wrapped up its season at Municipal Auditorium
With the launch of AU in 2022 and Miami-based Unrivaled in 2025, players now have an option to play domestically year-round. And extra income isn’t the only benefit.
“The best thing is that you can have your family come and visit you,” says Peddy. She goes on to say: “To have that option to make extra money on the side outside of the league and not have to just depend on the W contract, I love it. I love that Unrivaled’s doing their thing in Miami, and I love that we’re growing in Nashville.”
Athletes Unlimited has an unorthodox format where rosters rotate through a weekly schoolyard draft, and a player is crowned champion rather than a team. This emphasis on efficient individual play allows players to set their own goals for the season.
Hartley used the 2025 AU season to find her feet and rediscover the joy of playing following an injury. She was one of several players to turn a strong AU season into additional WNBA opportunities in 2025, with Hartley setting a career high in starts. Peddy became a key late-season contributor to the Indiana Fever, and she says her time playing with AU’s constantly shifting rosters helped her make an immediate impact among new teammates.
“I think they really structure it for you to come and get what you need,” says Hartley. “The way I played here, I don’t know if I’ve been in situations, post-injury in the last few years, where I was able to play that freely.”
League leaders expect player enthusiasm to help fuel another exciting season for fans.
“We had such a great experience last year that this year, we’re looking to carry that momentum forward,” says Perry. “We know that Nashville is a destination, and it is becoming that for professional women’s basketball as well.”
