Well, the NWSL offseason has officially begun with several player moves announced and teams releasing final rosters. The Washington Spirit haven’t done much just yet, and that’s likely because their priority this offseason — see if Trinity Rodman wants to re-sign, and if so, re-sign her — has had a few hiccups. A lot has happened, so let’s walk through it…

Does Trinity Rodman want to stay?

It appears so. Despite saying in an interview earlier this year that she would ‘kick herself‘ if she ended her career without playing in Europe, it seems she’s not angling for a move abroad just yet. Rodman has found a home not just in Washington, DC, where she literally bought a home, but at Rowdy Audi.

Her persistent back injury may also play a role. On multiple occasions the Spirit have afforded her the time and space to rehab and return on her schedule, which is a level of patience and acceptance that might not come from a team that just dropped bank to sign her.

Great so she re-signed then, right?

Well it’s not that simple unfortunately. The NWSL operates with a salary cap, and one that seems quite small for a league that’s raked in nearly $400-million in expansion fees in three years. Oops, bit of a rant there, I digress.

The minimum salary cap was negotiated as part of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the league and NWSLPA. Here’s the breakdown for each year of the current agreement:

• 2025: $3,300,000
• 2026: $3,500,000
• 2027: $4,400,000
• 2028: $4,700,000
• 2029: $4,900,000
• 2030: $5,100,000

These are baseline numbers, with revenue sharing at year’s end added to the upcoming year’s final cap number. For instance, in 2025 revenue sharing raised the $3.3-million cap to $3.5-million.

The struggle comes in trying to compensate Rodman fairly while fitting within the constraints of the salary cap for the duration of the contract. Rodman is one of the few women’s soccer players who can, and should, hit the $1m/year mark. Problem is, giving Rodman a flat $1m each year would significantly eat into the salary cap, especially the projected $3.5-million for 2026.

With other player contracts on the books, it might not even be viable to pay Rodman $1m next season. Player salaries are not made available, so we can only speculate that given the talent level and star power on the team, there likely isn’t much wiggle room to fit in a $1m payment (nearly 30% of next year’s cap) to one player.

Ugh, that’s annoying. So what now?

I agree, it is annoying. In part because the CBA also includes language allowing the NWSL’s Board of Governors to vote to raise the salary cap anytime they wish.

Since they didn’t, the Spirit attempted to be creative. They offered a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to Rodman that she seemed prepared to accept, except that it was vetoed by NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman.

Excuse me wut

The reason given was that the contract ‘violated the spirit of the rules‘ in the CBA. The league’s issue with the deal is that it was heavily backloaded (pays out more money in the backend; a common practice in professional sports contracts), and that the figures used to generate the numbers in the final two years of the deal assumed an amount of growth and cap space that were overly ambitious.

This, of course, from a league that just had its first million-viewer match (the NWSL Championship, which featured Trinity Rodman), has seen expansion fees grow from $50m to $165m in just two years, and had club valuations skyrocket from the $35-million Y. Michele Kang paid for the Washington Spirit in 2022 to the $250-million shelled out by Willow Bay and Bob Iger for Angel City last year.

It would seem that whatever slideshow the league uses to solicit $150m+ expansions fees must not mention that they also don’t believe the league will grow enough to accomodate million dollar salaries for star players by 2028 and 2029.

So that’s that then? Welcome to Arsenal/Chelsea/Manchester City/Lyonnes/Barcelona, Trinity Rodman?

Not quite. As you may imagine, the NWSLPA weren’t pleased with ‘violates the spirit of the rule’ as a reason to reject a deal that falls within the parameters of the CBA. As such, they filed a grievance against the NWSL on December 3rd. The grievance started a 14-day clock in which the league must respond, and if no agreement or settlement is reached between the parties, the matter will go before a grievance committee or arbitrator.

Adding to the pressure on the league, the matter has also gotten the attention of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, who recently sent a letter to the league noting that they ‘are compelled to take seriously any allegation that the terms of a duly negotiated CBA are not being upheld.’

Ok so we just wait for this grievance process to play out?

Kinda. But also earlier in the week Jeff Kassouf of ESPN reported that the Board of Governors was likely to vote on a proposal that would allow certain players to be paid beyond the salary cap. That vote has happened, and the measure to introduce a “High Impact Player” mechanism was approved.

Wait, they’re just now trying to solve all of this?

Erm, yup!

Trinity Rodman signed a contract extension with the Spirit in February of 2022 which ends December 31, 2025, giving the league nearly four years to figure something out. Instead we’re here.

Wow, ok, um alright back to this ‘High Impact Player’ thing. Guess that’s the solution and she’ll sign soon, right?

Well, not really. Despite the High Impact Player rule being approved by the Board of Governors, the mechanism requires consultation with the NWSLPA since it would impact the salary cap. The proposed change would function as a Frankenstein-esque monster of the NWSL’s (former) Allocation Money system, and MLS’s Designated Player rule. What’s likely to be of interest to the NWSLPA is the criteria used to determine who would apply. In the ESPN report, ideas such as the Ballon d’Or shortlist, Best XIs, and/or minutes played for the USWNT would determine a player’s eligibility. If officially adopted, all of that would need to be negotiated and refined.

But there are still pros and cons to rules like this. The major pro is retaining and recruiting some of the most well-known talents in women’s soccer, but a major concern would be codifying class separation within locker rooms. Not only are certain players paid more, but their salaries could rise while there would still be an incentive to limit the amount given to players who don’t meet the criteria. Instead of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ when it comes to player compensation, there’d be a growing separation between ‘haves’ getting more and ‘have nots’ getting less (this is also why ‘trickle down economics‘ doesn’t work, but again, I digress).

There hasn’t been an official statement or comment yet from the NWSLPA on the new proposal, but that’s likely to come soon.

This is…a lot. Is there any risk that Rodman decides that it’d just be easier to play overseas until the NWSL figures all this out?

Perhaps! The league has seemed confounded by the fact that she wants to stay, and are just now scrambling to come with ideas for how to make that happen.

If the proposed contract goes to arbitration, then (barring a prolonged legal battle) she could sign the contract and put it all behind her. If the arbitration decision goes against Rodman and the NWSLPA, then she’d be left waiting for the resolution of the ‘High Impact Player’ proposal.

So yeah, it would be a lot more straightforward to sign with a club outside of the NWSL, at least until the league can get its shit together.

Does that seem like it might happen?

Thankfully, not yet. The NWSLPA is fighting for her initial contract proposal, and the NWSL is (finally) doing something to figure out how to keep players like her in the league. It makes sense to wait and see how one or both of these processes plays out, but the process is certainly taking a toll.

Her agent, Mike Senkowski, went on the CBS Morning Show to discuss his (and her) disappointment with the league rejecting the proposed deal, and Rodman herself showed frustration in a recent video on her YouTube channel (she’s in the middle of Vlogmas, attempting to post a video a day in December so if you’re reading this you should consider subscribing).

Alright, so, how do you think this will all end?

I’m not a lawyer of any type, and contract law sounds like one of the most exhausting things in the world to me. If you forced me to choose between going to school to become a contract lawyer or hiking Kilimanjaro on my knees I would immediately go buy kneepads. Still, I find it hard to believe that ‘spirit of the rule’ would stand up in a legal setting. It’s much too vague to be enforced in any legal way, and would violate a contractual agreement the league made with the NWSLPA. Therefore, a resolution might be for the Spirit to rejig some numbers a bit and the league to sign off on it, just so both sides can have a win.

The High Impact Player thing seems like it needs a lot more discussion and refinement. Plus, it’s sort of a sinister move from the owners to spring this instead of simply raising the salary cap. The urgency could force the NWSLPA to accept it, especially if the grievance isn’t resolved in their favor. But it’s not great policy, and has some crucial flaws that would need to be worked out, and in the end it still wouldn’t be better than raising the cap.

Despite all this, unless a team in Europe swoops in with an absurd offer and Rodman is tired of waiting, I expect her to eventually sign an extension, then take a week-long nap.