Australian Baseball League

Baseball was brought to Australia by American gold miners and played on the gold fields of Ballarat for fun on their rest days in the 1850s. Cricketers Gaggin & Goldsmith tried to play baseball at Yarra Park, Melbourne in 1867, but Australian rules football fans arriving for the adjacent football disrupted the games. The first series of full competitive games of baseball by Australians were played by members of the Surry Baseball Club on Moore Park and by members of the NSW Cricket Association on the adjacent Sydney Cricket Ground in June/July 1878. In 1881, American residents formed a Union Baseball Club and a year later with Australians, formed a Sydney Baseball Club with U.S. Consul Gilderoy Wells Griffin forming a NSW Baseball Association in 1885. Following the A.G. Spalding tour by the Chicago White Sox and All-America teams in 1888 & 1889, Harry Simpson stayed in Australia, formed baseball clubs in Melbourne, Adelaide, Broken Hill, and eventually Sydney with competition games being played. Simpson also travelled to New Zealand to promote baseball. When he suddenly died in September 1891, after setting up the NSW Baseball League, it was a New Zealander, Tony Chuck, who took his place in Australia.

The original Australian Baseball League commenced in 1989. At the time, it replaced the Claxton Shield as the top baseball competition in the country, with eight teams from Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Over the course of the league's life, teams were also based in Canberra and Newcastle, with the number of teams competing in any one season varying from six to nine. Only four teams contested each of the ten seasons, with the others folding due to financial problems, or due to a lack of a suitable venue for home games.

The financial difficulties were not restricted to the clubs, as the league was forced to close after the summer of 2000. Running at a loss of A$2 million a season, the rights to the league were sold to Dave Nilsson—an Australian Major League Baseball player with the Milwaukee Brewers at the time—for a reported A$5 million.

On 1 July 2009, a joint press-conference was held by the ABF, MLB and Australian Federal Government at the Palm Meadows Baseball Complex on the Gold Coast in Queensland, the site of the Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program (MLBAAP). During the conference the intention to resurrect a national baseball league for Australia was announced, with the Government announcing A$400,000 towards the new league. Though some sources reported that the new league could be running as early as October 2010, there had been no official timeframe released for the new league to commence.

Initial reports suggested the competition would likely include between eight and ten teams from around Australia. Discussions were held between the ABF and Baseball New Zealand about the possibility of a team based in New Zealand being included in the competition. The offer, however, was declined on the basis that there was not sufficient infrastructure, specifically citing the need for a suitable stadium and a major sponsor for the team. The possibility of a New Zealand team joining the competition at some point in the future had not been ruled out though. Auckland Tuatara joined in 2018.

There were additional concerns about the viability of a team based in South Australia, primarily based on the lack of a suitable stadium with lights to be able to play night games. This, along with playing on baseball-specific grounds — as opposed to playing on temporarily converted rugby league grounds as had been the case in the old ABL — was seen as a necessary requirement to insure the long-term profitability of the competition.

In August 2009, a bid process was launched by the Australian Capital Territory Baseball Association (ACTBA) for a team to be based in Canberra with the name and motto of "Let's Do It Canberra". The bid was not in competition with any other bids, but was required to meet certain minimum standards, such as fan and sponsorship support, to be successful and join the other five teams from Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney that were at the time confirmed. On 18 November 2009, it was announced by the ABF that the Canberra bid was successful, confirming that the inaugural season would include six teams.

In December 2009, a competition was launched for fans to decide the names of the foundation franchises, called "Name Your ABL Team". For each franchise, four team-name options were available to choose from, in addition to being able to enter another name created by the entrant. In August 2010, the names of the teams were announced, along with team logos and colours: Adelaide Bite, Brisbane Bandits, Canberra Cavalry, Melbourne Aces, Perth Heat, and Sydney Blue Sox.