After reading the High Impact Player rule announcement and all the criteria that go with it, it seems we’ve reached a tipping point where the decisions made by the league are about to actively start negatively impacting its future. Frankly NWSL players and fans deserve better.

I remember seeing the impact of the 1999 USWNT World Cup team firsthand. My family and I watched the game on TV at the Orlando Airport. Shortly after that match, my younger sister put a Mia Hamm poster on the wall of her room. It was still there when I left for college several years later. I don’t have any data to back it up, but over the last few years, it seems women’s sports in general, and soccer specifically, have been riding a wave of enthusiasm and energy that eclipses the one created by the 99ers. I want this wave to continue well into the future. This wave will resonate more if the best players are based in or play regularly in Washington, D.C., Harrison, Seattle, and San Francisco as opposed to London, Madrid, Lyon, and Berlin.

 One of the other aspects that I really love is the community that exists within Spirit fandom and across the fan bases. Looking at the Chico Stand and seeing it full of a diverse representation of the DMV is pretty impressive. Everyone deserves a place they feel comfortable and safe and it is wonderful many feel that way about Audi Field when the Spirit are home. It is also impressive to see fanbases in stadiums across the country put aside rooting differences in the 51st to cheer “Free DC”. As far as I am aware, NWSL is the only league where this has occurred. It is a community I am very glad to be a part of.

For all the great qualities of NWSL, league decision making has not been among them. Many of the decisions made by Commissioner Jessica Berman, league officials, and the owners appear to be informed by an odd sense of American exceptionalism (see Berman’s comments about who wouldn’t want to play here) or an arrogant belief that they are the only game in town that matters as opposed to any genuine respect for players and fans. Just look at some of the decisions made during the last season. When Angel City’s Savy King collapsed in a May match against Utah and required 10 minutes of potentially life saving treatment on the pitch, NWSL made the call to continue the match. The league issued a statement saying the match should not have continued eight days after the incident. Fast forward to August when Commissioner Berman reportedly threatened to fine the Kansas City Current’s owner over a 3.5 hour weather delay in the Current/Orlando match out of concern for missing the league’s television window. Kick off for the match was scheduled for midday in the heat of summer. Then finally, Berman and league ownership remained quiet as Angel City’s Elizabeth Eddy authored an anti-trans op-ed aimed at players in the league, online trolls harassed players, and a “bounty”  was issued for more players to come forward.

NWSL’s introduction of the High Impact Player rule is another outgrowth of this arrogance.

The league is clearly able to raise the salary cap to accommodate players like Rodman or Cat Macario in the short run. Forbes just rated over half the teams in the league as among the most valuable women’s sports franchises in the world. They just don’t want to. The league took in $53 million in expansion fees from the Boston Legacy ownership group and $110 from the Denver Summit. Meanwhile, there are still many viable expansion candidates for NWSL expansion (Philadelphia, Minnesota).

While they are collecting these huge expansion fees, its very clear why NWSL doesn’t want to raise the salary cap. Raising the salary cap doesn’t just raise the salary of one player, but it starts raising the minimum floor for everyone over time. Rather than allow that, and to save face with fans by attempting to show they are committed to keeping talent, they are attempting to impose the HIP which only impacts certain players if they can meet the byzantine criteria.

NWSL fans and players deserve better from the league. Despite what they may believe, NWSL isn’t the only game in town, just the oldest. Games from Europe and Mexico are getting easier and easier to watch. Leagues like the Gainbridge Super League are rising to challenge the league’s primacy. It won’t happen overnight, but if NWSL doesn’t start making decisions that respect its players and fans, the league could be supplanted, because as Trinity Rodman is currently seeing, other options exist.