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Jeff Carlisle
The NWSL introduced a new “High Impact Player” (HIP) rule on Tuesday, permitting teams to allocate up to $1 million outside of the salary cap for elite players starting in 2026. This includes athletes like Washington Spirit‘s Trinity Rodman, who fulfills specific criteria.
The announcement coincided with a response from the NWSL Players Association, which expressed its opposition and stated intentions to advocate for the rights of its members.
The union’s statement declared: “The NWSL Players Association is against the League’s decision to advance the High Impact Player Rule without prior negotiations.”
“Changes to salary cap compensation are subject to mandatory bargaining under federal labor law, rather than being unilaterally determined. Fair compensation arises from negotiated agreements, not arbitrary classifications,” the union continued.
“A league that truly values its players would engage in negotiations instead of avoiding them,” they added.
“The NWSL Players Association has put forth a legitimate alternative: increasing the Team Salary Cap to align with global labor market standards.” They also proposed a collaboration through collective bargaining to establish a revenue-sharing framework for future years, ensuring teams and players could negotiate multi-year contracts with clarity. The union remains committed to engaging in genuine negotiations.
Earlier this week, NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told ESPN that any new rule of this kind necessitates collective bargaining and that the union is opposed to it.
“We believe this proposal exceeds the league’s authority,” Burke explained on Abby Wambach and Julie Foudy’s “Welcome to the Party” podcast. “They must negotiate with us over such proposals, rather than merely consult.” Burke added that the league seems to be attempting to dictate player compensation through this fund approach. “It’s the team’s executives and operations staff that are truly positioned to make informed decisions about roster structure and contract negotiations,” she stated.
According to the new rule, starting in 2026, each club can exceed the established salary cap by up to $1 million for high-impact players.
The NWSLPA had previously suggested increasing the salary cap by $1 million starting in 2026, matching what the league has permitted each team to spend through the HIP initiative.
The league indicated that this cap would rise annually at the same rate as the salary cap. Teams could apply this additional funding to recruit a single player or distribute it among multiple players, allowing for strategic investment in top talent while maintaining competitive balance. A minimum of 12% of the base salary cap must be allocated as the cap charge for any contract using this provision.
The NWSL deemed this new measure a “historic increase in league investment” in a news release, projecting an enhancement of overall player spending by up to $16 million, potentially totaling $115 million over the term of the current collective bargaining agreement.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman stated, “Attracting the best players globally is crucial for our league’s sustained growth. The High Impact Player Rule enables teams to strategically invest in elite talent, strengthening our capacity to retain star players and reinforcing our commitment to building top-tier rosters for our fans.”
Teams will be able to utilize this rule “immediately, as long as the contract terms do not require implementation until the effective date.”
This change follows the contract stalemate with Rodman and the earlier departures of U.S. women’s national team stars Alyssa Thompson and Naomi Girma, both of whom transferred to the English side Chelsea for more than $1 million.
As for Rodman, her contract expires at the end of December, allowing her to sign with another team without the Spirit receiving any compensation.
Recently, the NWSL rejected a proposed contract between the Spirit and Rodman, claiming it violated the essence of the rules and accusing Rodman of attempting “salary cap circumvention.” In response, the NWSL Players Association filed a grievance on Rodman’s behalf against the league on December 3rd. The grievance argues that the contract was legitimate and that the league’s denial of the deal breached multiple aspects of the collective bargaining agreement. It’s still unclear how aligned the NWSL Players Association is with the league’s recent announcement.
In its news release on Wednesday, the NWSL stated that it enacted the new rule according to the current collective bargaining agreement, asserting that it had “exercised its discretion” after “consulting” with the NWSLPA.