Nearly every other sport I can think of has their youth sport season running concurrently with the pro sport season. Boys find a way to watch baseball games even if they're playing all the time. I don't think that's a real issue (I would argue that turning youth softball into a full-time summer job for kids is a problem for other reasons).
But you do touch on something I find interesting: Girls don't seem to want to watch, especially on television. I agree that the girls who play for me who really love the sport all have favorite baseball players, but they don't go out of their way to watch softball. Why is that? Is it just because baseball is more established?
Niche sports can be successful. Niche sports can grow. I strongly disagree with so many here who don't seem to think that's the case.
I think it depends on the age, tbh. 2 years ago, my kid had the attention span of a fruit fly.
This past year? She would pull up the dvr and play the games that went on during the week and is actually paying attention to the different plays.
I think the most disheartening thing about the sport is it's not regularly on tv like baseball or basketball where if you flip the channel you stop and watch. It makes it much harder for girls to watch a game and have a favorite player in that way. I think we are lucky that we live in Texas and receive the Longhorn Network which shows ALL of the different games for each sport for the school, instead of just the ones they think are going to get the most attention from viewers.