The saga over Trinity Rodman’s future in the National Women’s Soccer League took a rather strange twist this past week when an agreement reached between Rodman and the Washington Spirit was shot down by the league.
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The reported multi-million dollar deal, which was for four years, was structured to comply with the salary cap rules. It would have kept Rodman in the NWSL, something everyone agrees would be best for the league. Now, she may be choose to take her talent elsewhere.
The National Women’s Soccer League Players’ Association filed a grievance alleging the league violated the collective bargaining agreement when it denied the Spirit’s offer to re-sign Rodman.
“Trinity Rodman agreed to a compensation structure in good faith that would allow her to remain loyal to her first professional club, consistent with both the CBA and NWSL Competition Rules,” union executive director Meghann Burke said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Thursday. “The NWSLPA has challenged the League’s rejection of this agreement on the grounds that it violates her free agency rights, but this isn’t about Trinity Rodman. If NWSL can deny her free agency rights, they can deny anyone’s. The NWSLPA will not allow it.”
Rodman, who joined the league in 2021, is now a free agent and has been drawing interest from European teams and even, as The Athletic reported, a Gainbridge Super League team.
In response to the NWSLPA’s action, the league issues a statement: “Our goal is to ensure that the very best players in the world, including Trinity, continue to call this league home. We will continue to do everything we can, utilizing every lever available within our rules to keep Trinity Rodman here,”
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Commissioner Jessica Berman said the same last month, vowing that the league would fight for Rodman to remain in the NWSL. At the same time, insisted that team investment “has to have a rational relationship to revenue.”
At the center of all of this is the NWSL’s salary cap, which is $3.5 million for each team for the 2026 season and will rise each year until it hits $5.1 million in 2030. And certainly, there are valid reasons for a salary cap, in that it helps maintain a level of parity across the league.
While the details of the offer to Rodman were not made public, the union said it was salary-cap compliant in three ways:
1) The compensation structure fit within the projected team salary cap, calculated to include team revenue share.
2) The NWSL can increase the base salary cap in any given year.
3) Even if the deal does not fit within the cap by 2028, league rules permit each team one buyout per year without hitting their cap.
The Athletic reported that the contract offer to Rodman backloaded compensation into 2028 and 2029. With the league’s current media rights deal set to expire in 2027, a new deal could increase league revenue.
Rodman’s agent Mike Senkowski said on the CBS Morning Show: “We worked really hard to put together an agreement that we felt complied with the CBA (and) would keep Trinity in the league for the foreseeable future. The NWSL doesn’t have a certain way at the moment to pay (Trinity) her fair market value.”
There’s an interesting new twist to all of the drama, too. This week former Orlando Pride sporting director Haley Carter has joined the Washington Spirit as the team’s president of soccer operations.
Carter left the Pride last month. She was with the team for three years, during which time the team won an NWSL title and acquired Barbra Banda and Lizbeth Ovalle.
“Haley represents exactly the type of leader we want driving our soccer operations forward,” Spirit majority owner Michele Kang said in a statement released by the team. “She brings unique experience as a former NWSL player and proven executive with a clear commitment to elevating women’s soccer.”
Carter said in the announcement: “To be part of Michele’s vision to set a new global standard in women’s football was an opportunity I could not pass up. What Michele is building is truly special — a player-first investment model focused on sustainability, innovation, and growth.”
Can Carter wade through the mess and pull the deal over the line? Can it be saved at all? It’s all now a waiting game. But it sure would be a shame if Rodman was this close to remaining in the NWSL and ends up bolting for Europe.
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LINKS
The Athletic did a great explainer into all of this
SB Nation’s Phuoc Nguyen spoke to Christen Press and Tobin Heath
Emma Coates is Bay FC’s new coach
Bloomberg broke the Rodman story
Rodman situation highlights NWSL’s labor issues, from Sportico
USA Today’s Nancy Armour says the league is wrong for rejecting the Rodman deal
Just Women’s Sports with the Year-End review of the NWSL
CNN with a nice story on the Minnesota Aurora
Germany will host the 2029 Women’s Euros
Bonmati breaks her leg in practice.
The TV rights for the new women’s club Champions Cup remain unsold.
The BBC looked at one weekend of social media abuse in men’s and women’s football.
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I wrote about the Wave winning the World Sevens as the tournament expands
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