NWSL Players Propose Raising Salary Cap by $1M to Keep Stars Like Rodman

NWSL players have overwhelmingly rejected the proposal from the NWSL’s board of governors to create a “High Impact Player” fund in order to keep stars like Trinity Rodman. 

“I have not heard from a single player who thinks this is a good idea,” National Women’s Soccer League Players Association executive director Meghann Burke tells Front Office Sports.

Instead, the NWSLPA has proposed raising the salary cap by $1 million per team. The salary cap was $3.3 million per team this year and is set to grow to $5.1 million by 2030, though revenue sharing can further increase that amount. The CBA does not limit how much teams can pay any individual player.

The league last week proposed a plan to allow teams to go up to $1 million over the salary cap to sign certain star players without taking on the full cap hit. The players felt the criteria for players to meet that “High Impact Player” designation was too restrictive, and the union sent a letter to the league on Wednesday formally rejecting the “High Impact Player” proposal.

Salary conversations have reached a boiling point in the NWSL because of Rodman, the U.S. Women’s National Team and Washington Spirit forward who is one of the best and most marketable players in the league.

“It is not a problem for this collective that Trinity Rodman would consume a significant percentage of Washington’s salary cap,” Burke says. “Our position is simply, take that million dollars and move it into the team’s salary cap so that teams have flexibility and the opportunity to spend it where they see fit in order to be competitive.”

Rodman’s USWNT teammates Noami Girma and Alyssa Thompson both left the NWSL for Chelsea on seven-figure transfer fees. With her Spirit contract expiring, European clubs and the Gainbridge Super League’s D.C. Power have offered Rodman lucrative deals.

“The NWSL has created a plan that gives our teams the financial ability to compete for the top players in the world,” the league said in a statement to FOS on Thursday. “The rule is specifically crafted to attract and retain these elite athletes while increasing compensation to players across the roster. We are actively reviewing feedback from the NWSLPA as part of the consultation process outlined in the CBA. The league remains committed to being the home of the world’s best talent, and this path gives our clubs the opportunity to pursue that goal while raising overall player investment.”

Rodman and the Spirit recently agreed to a multimillion-dollar deal that would have backloaded her pay to get around the salary cap, but the agreement was vetoed by the NWSL. In response, the NWSLPA filed a grievance with the league, saying it had committed multiple violations of the 2024 collective bargaining agreement. “If the NWSL can interfere with Trinity Rodman’s free-agency rights, they can interfere with anyone’s,” Burke told FOS at the time. (The union gave the league an extension to Wednesday’s deadline to reply to the grievance. That grievance over interfering with free-agency rights is separate from the salary cap discussion, Burke says.)

The NWSL’s “High Impact Player” proposal was similar to MLS’s Designated Player rule, which originated out of necessity for another star player, David Beckham. However, MLS doesn’t limit how much teams can pay the players on those deals, as the NWSL proposed. Certain criteria like ranking lists, national team participation, and commercial success would determine whether NWSL players could be eligible for the bigger deals. The plan needed NWSLPA approval to go forward.

The players met Tuesday night to discuss the “High Impact Player” proposal. They felt that few players would qualify for the criteria to sign that kind of deal, and took issue with allowing third parties like ranking lists to determine their value. As an example, Burke says that Orlando Pride player Barbra Banda, one of the league’s best players who was recently named to FIFPro’s Women’s World 11 list for the second consecutive year, would not meet the “High Impact Player” criteria.

Given the growing global market for women’s soccer, a $1 million increase still might not be enough for the NWSL to compete with teams like Chelsea, Lyon, and Arsenal.

“The $1 million figure is clearly tied to what the league is already comfortable with,” Burke says. “There’s a legitimate question over what the market will require, and I think there’s a very strong statistical argument to be made it requires more than that.

“But what we’re proposing is intended to provide the cost certainty the league’s looking for, meet them where they’re at, and empower the league to sign a new deal with Trinity Rodman and other players like her.”