Sources: NWSL ‘star’ salaries would be tied to player profiles

The NWSL’s Board of Governors approved a new roster mechanism to pay select star players above the current salary cap, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.

However, the proposed mechanism still requires consultation with the NWSLPA because of its impact on the salary cap and the terms of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

ESPN first reported Wednesday that the NWSL’s board was close to a solution to its salary cap issue, which has been complicated by recent uncertainty. washington spirit Trinity Rodman’s future ahead.

The new arrangement, which multiple sources have dubbed “high-impact players” behind the scenes to describe who will be eligible for the new funds, will allow teams to spend up to $1 million over the salary cap on top-tier players, while only a portion of that salary will be spent as a cap hit.

In the short term, the new rule may allow nwsl And the spirit of preventing Rodman from departing as a free agent. However, the creation of the rule does not resolve Rodman’s future without an agreement between Spirit and the USWNT star – which has not yet happened.

But the NWSL board’s adoption of this rule will also have long-term implications based on who will be eligible for the league’s top salaries.

Sources told ESPN that the exact eligibility of players eligible for the new funds was refined and updated in recent days ahead of the NWSL’s board vote, which took place on Thursday.

However, the spirit of the rule is that there will be guidelines for teams as to who qualifies as a “High Impact Player”, and that funds should be spent on retaining and attracting the world’s best talent. Those guidelines will differ from the league’s previous format of allocation money, which was used freely by teams in all types of transactions.

Sources said a High Impact Player (HIP) will have to meet certain requirements from a list of both sporting and commercial benchmarks to be eligible for the funds.

Sporting benchmarks discussed in board deliberations in recent years included ranking on lists such as the Ballon d’Or, appearances on the NWSL Best XI, or USWNT minutes earned.

Sources confirmed that the board also discussed the business profiles of the players, giving an indication of the profile of the players targeted by these new funds.

Sources said the qualifications discussed also included third-party media outlet rankings of top world players and most marketable athletes, though it was unclear whether those qualifications were made the final criteria.

The cap charge for each high-impact player was still being finalized ahead of the board vote this week. A source told ESPN that a player’s salary cap hit must be 12% of the team’s total cap hit before HIP funds can be used.

A source confirmed to ESPN that the new mechanism requires at least 11 out of 16 board votes to pass.

As the most prominent and significant example, Rodman is expected to meet many of the requirements projected for a high-impact player.

Sources said a team could spread extra money over more than one player if a player meets some combination of salary thresholds and sports or business requirements.

Board approval is not necessarily the final hurdle for the rule. Section 8.16 of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the NWSL Players Association states: “The NWSL may, in its discretion, after consultation with the NWSLPA, reduce or eliminate salary cap charges against the team salary cap for certain roster classifications.”

In the same way that sources have introduced the High Impact Player concept, the league is creating a lower salary cap for a specific roster classification.

The NWSL’s board will convene next week for its year-end meeting that had been scheduled months ago.

The proposed High Impact Player concept is intended to allow NWSL teams to compete financially for the world’s top players while still having a salary cap. Departure of USWNT stars alyssa thompson And Naomi Girma Earlier this year concerns resurfaced about the NWSL’s ability to compete in a rapidly evolving global player market.

Both players left for transfers worth over $1 million to join chelseaWhich is one of the handful of teams in Europe that are willing to pay players close to or above seven-figure salaries.

Under the NWSL’s current salary cap, a team cannot pay a player seven figures without sacrificing the remainder of its roster construction. The adjusted salary cap in 2025 after revenue sharing was $3.5 million for rosters of at least 22 players.

The NWSL’s new concept is a crossover – or, perhaps, an evolution – of several MLS roster concepts and an older NWSL mechanism.

A “high-impact player” sounds like a designated player in MLS nomenclature, and the concept of attracting the world’s best talent is justified. However, MLS teams can pay designated players whatever they want up to a set maximum salary cap; The NWSL’s proposed rule would still place limits on spending of these new funds.

This makes the new concept of NWSL more akin to allocation money. There are several variations of MLS, including “targeted allocation money”, which was created to increase the salaries of entry-level players and deepen the roster. Similarly, TAM also has a limit, but the NWSL’s new rule is clearly tailored to the world’s elite players in a more specific way than TAM.

Ironically, the NWSL has almost eliminated its own form of allocation money, which it first introduced in 2019 to increase salaries for top players outside the salary cap. The NWSL announced in January 2024 that allocation money would be eliminated entirely by the end of 2026, and multiple sources praised the move at the time as a way to simplify team finances.

But expansion teams have since been awarded special allocation money in exchange for expired draft picks in the new CBA, and the introduction of a High Impact Player brings back a similar mechanism that would exist outside of the hard salary cap.

With respect to Rodman, specifically, an active complaint has also been filed against the NWSL by the NWSLPA on Rodman’s behalf, which the players’ union called a “gross violation” of her free agency rights and at least five parts of the CBA. It was filed on December 3, just days after an agreement between Rodman and Spirit was vetoed by NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman. The league has 14 days to uphold or reject the complaint in writing.

If it is not resolved within 14 days, a complaints committee consisting of a representative appointed by the league and a representative appointed by the players’ union will review the matter.

If that committee cannot resolve the issue, the dispute will go to arbitration (at which both parties may jointly agree to proceed directly).

In related news Thursday, 39 members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and the House Democratic Caucus wrote a letter to Berman, urging “the NWSL to work in good faith with the NWSLPA and Ms. Rodman to resolve this matter in a timely and transparent manner consistent with federal labor law, which requires that the terms of collective bargaining agreements be respected.”