Can Professional Women’s Soccer in the U.S. Keep Up with the Global Market?

So the scrutiny on Rodman as she entered the NWSL final in November was intense. His performance that day was, by his own assessment, disappointing. About twenty minutes after coming on, Gotham’s Rose Lavelle scored what would become the only goal of the game. When it was over, Rodman was visibly distraught. Much more than the loss that seemed to weigh on him. His contract with the Spirit expired at the end of the year. She had made it clear that she didn’t want to leave the team, but the championship might be her last game.

There was no doubt that Rodman could command an eight-figure salary on the open market. In fact, DC Power, a team in the new Gainbridge Super League, which is looking to challenge the NWSL as the dominant women’s league in the United States and has no salary cap, reportedly offered Rodman more than $1 million. Wealthy European clubs were also interested in Rodman. Players have many reasons for choosing which club they want to join, including geographic considerations and tactical styles. Not everyone chooses the highest bidder. But money matters too. Constrained by the salary cap, there was no way NWSL teams could remotely compete with these kinds of deals.

The stakes were high: If Rodman left, not only would it fuel the growing sense that the NWSL is incapable of retaining top talent, but it would also mean the loss of the league’s most charismatic and recognizable player. Alex Morgan is retired; Megan Rapinoe is now a podcaster. Rodman is sponsored by companies such as Adidas and Red Bull. Verizon put her in a commercial. Home Depot signed her for their “designer portal.” Dove Men has built its advertising campaign for 2026 FIFA World Cup – the men’s tournament – ​​around it. During the annual State of the League address in November, just before the championship game, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said the league would “fight” to keep Rodman. But she also defended the need for a salary cap to maintain balance and encourage owners to continue investing.

Then, in early December, the Spirit reportedly presented Rodman with a contract averaging more than $1 million, with a contingency so that most of the money would be paid after the NWSL negotiated a new television deal, which is expected to lead to an increase in the salary cap. But the league office — which played a role in contract negotiations because, technically, players sign with the league, which operates as a single entity, not directly with individual teams — rejected the deal, calling it contrary to the “spirit” of the salary cap. The logic was that Spirit had anticipated that the league would grow at a rate that the league itself deemed unreasonable, and therefore would not be able to field a team while still paying Rodman. The Spirit could indicate a mechanism allowing it to buy out the remainder of the contract if this proved impractical, but this did not convince the commissioner. In effect, the league was betting against a lofty projection of its own success.

The commissioner’s office did not provide details on the decision. “Our goal is to ensure that the best players in the world, including Trinity, continue to live in this league,” a Berman spokesperson told me in an emailed statement. “We will do everything we can, using every lever available within our rules to keep Trinity Rodman here.” Except it wasn’t clear what rules, if any, the Spirit was breaking. The NWSL Players Association immediately filed a lawsuit, claiming the league had interfered with Rodman’s free agent rights — and thus, potentially, with every player’s rights. “Not a single person” pointed out a rule that was actually violated by the proposed contract, NWSLPA Director Meghann Burke told me. Whether or not a contract was a wise contract was a question best left to teams and individual players to decide, she argued. It was, she added, “really hard for me to understand, other than the league wants to be in control.”

In mid-December, ESPN reported that owners were crafting a new rule to create a salary cap exception for “high-impact players” — not limited to Rodman but obviously built around his profile. Toward the end of the month, the rule was officially enacted by the NWSL, over the union’s objections. It allows teams to use up to $1 million to sign players who meet certain criteria, including number of minutes played on a national team, being recognized as an NWSLMVP finalist in one of the previous two seasons, or being named to one of a number of lists, such as Ballon d’Or Top Thirty, Ballon d’Or Top Forty. Tutor The Top 100 Soccer Players, or the top 40 players in the ESPN FC Top 50 over the previous two years. One of the lists – SportsPro Media’s Top 150 Most Marketable Athletes – had no measure of athletic value.

“To my knowledge, there is not a single player who supports this rule,” Burke told me. Some lists were notoriously Eurocentric. African players, who include some of the NWSL’s best, were less likely to be eligible for these funds. And the inclusion of marketing criteria created incentives that might suit a social media influencer better than an elite athlete. The union’s proposal was to increase the overall salary cap by $1 million and give each team the right to use the funds as they see fit, rather than dictating how the money could be spent. In fact, the CBA allowed for the cap to be lifted at any time in consultation with the NWSLPA.