NWSL Moves Forward With Star Rule After Players Rejected Plan

The NWSL announced Tuesday it will move forward with its plan to allow superstars to sign bigger contracts, one week after its players overwhelmingly opposed the framework.

The NWSL’s salary cap has come into the spotlight recently because of the expiring contract of Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman. The U.S. Women’s National Team player is one of the NWSL’s biggest stars, but the league’s salary structure didn’t match global standards as Rodman began receiving lucrative offers from clubs in Europe. Two of Rodman’s USWNT teammates, Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson, left the NWSL for Chelsea earlier this year.

Earlier this month, the league proposed a High Impact Player fund that would allow players who meet certain criteria, such as international rankings lists, to sign deals that put their teams up to $1 million over the salary cap without taking on the full cap hit. The National Women’s Soccer League Players Association told the league last week that they opposed the deal, saying that too few players would meet the criteria and instead wanted to raise the salary cap for all teams by $1 million.

“I have not heard from a single player who thinks this is a good idea,” NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told Front Office Sports last week.

The league announced it will go forward with the plan in a press release on Tuesday. The High Impact Player rule will go into effect in July, allowing teams to go up to $1 million over the salary cap for certain players, though that amount will grow “at the same base rate as the salary cap,” the league said. The salary cap for teams this year was $3.3 million and will grow to $5.1 million by 2030, or even higher with revenue sharing.

Teams are not currently limited in how much they pay any one individual player, and the High Impact Player funds can be spread across multiple players. The cap charge of a High Impact Player will be at least 12% of the base salary cap, the announcement said.

“Ensuring our teams can compete for the best players in the world is critical to the continued growth of our league,” league commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement. “The High Impact Player Rule allows teams to invest strategically in top talent, strengthens our ability to retain star players, and demonstrates our commitment to building world-class rosters for fans across the league.” 

The league’s announcement said they consulted with the NWSLPA, although the NWSLPA said that the unilateral move was illegal and that the players would be taking steps to block it.

“The NWSL Players Association opposes the League’s decision to move forward without bargaining over the High Impact Player Rule. Under federal labor law, changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining — not a matter of unilateral discretion,” the NWSLPA said in a statement.

“Fair pay is realized through fair, collectively bargained compensation systems, not arbitrary classifications. A league that truly believes in the value of its Players would not be afraid to bargain over it,” the statement continued.

“The NWSLPA has put forward a clear, lawful alternative: raising the Team Salary Cap to compete in a global labor market. Additionally, we have proposed that through collective bargaining, we work together to create a system for projecting revenue sharing numbers in future years so that Teams and Players can negotiate multi-year deals with certainty. The Union remains ready and willing to engage in good-faith bargaining.

“The League’s unilateral action leaves the NWSLPA no choice but to take action to enforce the rights of the Players we represent.”

As for Rodman, the NWSL said teams can sign High Impact Players immediately, as long as that portion of their deal doesn’t kick in until July. Rodman had previously signed a back-loaded contract with the Spirit that was vetoed by the league.

The league in its announcement laid out the criteria to be considered as a High Impact Player. It identified appearing high on rankings lists such as ESPN FC, the Guardian, Ballon d’Or voting, and SportsPro Media’s top marketable athletes. A certain number of USWNT minutes also qualify, although other national teams are not indicated. Certain league accomplishments like being a finalist for MVP or making the End of Year Best XI First Team can also qualify a player. The league said it will “regularly review and update” the criteria.

– Annie Costabile contributed reporting.