During the late 1940s, the NGBL drew an average of 500,000 spectators each year, but began to see a decline in attendance after the 1951 season, as waning interest in women’s softball in the city led to financial difficulties. Hoping to open new markets to steady the decline, NGBL officials sought to expand the sport beyond Chicagoland, including efforts to establish a winter circuit in Florida. Spearheaded by Music Maids owner Frank Darling, the four-team International Girls Baseball League (IGBL) was created to begin play during the winter of 1952–1953. The Miami Maids, Hollywood Queens, Fort Lauderdale Rockettes, and Miami Beach Belles, each named after an NGBL club, with the Rockettes as the lone exception, featured a mix of players from the AAGPBL and NGBL and played under the same softball rules as the NGBL, with one variation: they used an 11-inch ball instead of the standard 12-inch softball. The IGBL folded midway through its season due to weather and attendance issues. Before the start of the 1953 season, teams in the Chicago circuit began to fold and merge, leaving only four clubs: the Bloomer Girls, Bluebirds, Music Maids, and Queens. The following year, another club, the Maids, folded, and discussions emerged about a potential merger with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was also facing franchise instability. Ultimately, Emery Parichy purchased the Queens and Bluebirds franchises, effectively leaving him to operate a three-team circuit on his own. Although a new team joined later that summer, the league ceased operations after the 1954 season. Parichy attempted to keep the Bloomer Girls and Bluebirds alive in 1955 by scheduling independent games. He even signed star slugger Freda Savona to the Bluebirds, but both teams shut down midway through the summer, bringing an end to what was left of the National Girls Baseball League.