The NWSL Players Association has sent communication rejecting the league’s proposed High Impact Player (HIP) mechanism for the 2026 season, which would allow teams to pay stars who meet certain criteria above the salary cap.
Though the mechanism was born out of the ongoing negotiations to keep Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman in the NWSL, a league source said the mechanism was “bigger than one player.”
“There are a lot of unanswered questions,” NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told The Athletic on Thursday, “and we don’t think (the league) have clearly thought through all of the practical implementation.”
The NWSLPA raised concerns about the speed at which the NWSL created the proposal and the lack of clarity in how it would be used, including metrics such as U.S. women’s national team minutes, Ballon d’Or honors and appearances in rankings created by publications outside the U.S.
The league’s board of governors voted to approve the HIP mechanism last week, which would allow teams to spend up to $1 million outside the salary cap on those players, according to sources. ESPN was first to report the initial approval.
Because it involved changes to the salary cap, the Players Association was also required to weigh in. Burke said that this specific change needs to be collectively bargained.
“The league is trying to assert control over something that should be within the purview and discretion of teams,” Burke said.
The league shared the proposal last Thursday ahead of a previously scheduled union board meeting. The PA also spoke to more than 400 players across the league who shared the opinion that the proposed change was not in the best interest of the league. The group used that meeting to discuss and craft a response to the league, saying that the mechanism takes control away from teams to decide which players add value to their team.
“This is the league asserting itself in the middle of negotiations that are between a team and a player, and they’re imposing ill-conceived criteria,” Burke said. “We do not agree with its premise, and we also find the criteria problematic. Our position is that they cannot unilaterally adopt this, or they exceed the scope of their authority in Section 8.16 of the CBA.”
That section defines the league’s salary cap through 2030 and states that “NWSL may, in its discretion, after consultation with the NWSLPA, reduce or eliminate the salary cap charge for certain roster classifications.” However, it does not state what that consultation must look like.
The PA sent communication to the league suggesting a $1 million salary cap increase instead of subjectively limiting how teams could use that money, which is what they said the HIP mechanism would do.
“We think the simplest, most efficient, soundest approach, without undermining the very things that drive the value in this league, which is collective strength, is to just increase the cap,” Burke said. “It is the job of teams to make assessments of value and figure out how to manage their rosters. The league is not the only business that’s operating. There are 16 independent businesses that also operate within this league. They have an incentive to get it right.”
The league has not yet responded to the PA’s communication and new proposal, nor to a request for comment by The Athletic.
The PA’s suggestion would allow teams to spend as much or as little as they want on any given player above the minimum salary requirement and within that year’s salary cap — the NWSL does not have a maximum salary ceiling in the current CBA. The 2025 salary cap was $3.5 million, which included a $200,000 addition from team revenue shares. The 2026 minimum salary cap is also $3.5 million.
The HIP mechanism was intended to help keep Rodman in the NWSL after commissioner Jessica Berman rejected a four-year, multimillion-dollar offer agreed upon between the Spirit and Rodman, as it would have violated the “spirit” of the league’s rules, according to league sources. That rejection resulted in an NWSLPA grievance filed on Rodman’s behalf against the league for violating five sections of the CBA, according to the filing.
“We have a world-class young talent who’s fun to watch, who’s exceedingly marketable for the league’s commercial purposes, who wants to stay,” Burke said. “We think there’s a very clear and obvious solution, if not accepting the deal that was already negotiated, then simply increasing the team salary cap.”
Burke said that the PA appreciates the board of governors’ vote to increase their investment in player compensation and that it is taking the league in the right direction. The parties just do not agree on how to spend that money.
“Part of the frustration of some of our elected leadership who were involved in the recent CBA negotiations is that both sides agreed to a salary cap system that, at the time we struck the deal, was just enough to accommodate contracts as they then existed, but not high enough to accommodate anticipated year-over-year growth,” Burke said. “The transfer fee record was being broken every week or two that summer.
“We knew this was going to happen, and when we made that point in the final hours of negotiation that these caps are too low, the league’s response was, ‘Well, we can increase them.’ They need to increase them.”
Burke said increasing the cap is a gamble on the union’s part because the free market should and will make it clear what the board of governors should do.
The resolution from the ongoing rule change would not necessarily guarantee a deal to keep Rodman in the league, nor would it resolve the grievance.
“In our view, the grievance is not resolved by this proposed High Impact Player rule, and even if Trinity does reach an agreement with Washington under new terms, that also does not resolve the grievance,” Burke said. “The grievance will move forward. We’re awaiting the league’s response.”
Rodman’s current contract, signed for $1.1 million in 2022 after her rookie season, ends on Dec. 31. The next European transfer window opens in January, which puts more pressure on all parties to get some kind of deal done before teams abroad, who are not beholden to salary caps, start making more aggressive offers.
The league sees the HIP mechanism as a way to keep players in the league, especially after the departures of Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson to Chelsea this year. However, the PA holds that it favors European players and does not account for talents, including 2024 championship MVP Barbra Banda.
Alyssa Thompson left Angel City for Chelsea in September (John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
“Rather than opening a door, they’re actually shutting several,” Burke said.
It is unclear how the sides proceed from here, as the league also had its annual board meeting earlier this week in Miami. Burke said a lack of agreement on how to proceed could result in a legal dispute.
“I will say, I’m a lawyer. I’m not afraid,” Burke said. “There’s no harm in using the mechanisms that are available to us to have clarity over the rules of the road and how to interpret the contract. So I don’t perceive that to be a bad thing, but we do think there needs to be clarity.
“Aside from the legal implications, strategically, we don’t think this is in the league’s best interests, and that also needs to be conveyed while we exercise legal mechanisms available to us to enforce the collective bargaining agreement.”