Saturday marks the culmination of the season in the National Women’s Soccer League, as Washington Spirit and Gotham FC prepare to face off in the NWSL Championship game.
But it will also be the start of a crucial window that tests just how far one of the top women’s sports leagues in the country has come in advancing the game.
On the field, there is little reason to doubt that the two finalists will put on a compelling matchup. The Spirit and the New York/New Jersey-based Gotham have a growing rivalry, including the Spirit’s dramatic win on penalties in last year’s semifinals. Gotham entered the playoffs as the eighth and final seed, but they’ve already toppled the Kansas City Current, who had the best regular season in NWSL history, and the Orlando Pride, the defending champions.
Washington lost to the Pride in last year’s finals and finished this regular season as runners up as well. But much of the buzz around the Spirit centers around star forward Trinity Rodman, and not just because it’s unclear how much she has recovered after spraining her knee last month. Rodman’s dazzling play, big personality and heroics with the U.S. national team at last year’s Olympics have made her into the face of not just the team, but arguably the entire league.
The top overseas clubs can offer salaries that NWSL clubs, under league rules, cannot match.
Saturday’s game, however, could be her last with the Spirit, after spending all five years of her career so far with the team. Rodman’s contract is up at the end of this season, and whether she signs with the Spirit or departs the league could be hugely significant not just for the Spirit, but also for women’s sports in the U.S. as a whole.
The NWSL has a salary cap, similar to most American sports leagues, but rare in international soccer. That means the top overseas clubs can offer salaries that NWSL clubs, under league rules, cannot match. This year alone, two American players who have shined for the national team — Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson — have left their U.S.-based clubs to sign with English team Chelsea FC.
Rodman could be next to go. The Athletic reported over the weekend that at least three English teams are pursuing the 23-year-old star, and that Rodman’s agent has directly asked the league to modify its policies so the Spirit can sign her.
In a follow-up story Thursday, the Athletic also reported that a team in a competing U.S. league with no salary cap, DC Power of the Gainbridge Super League, offered Rodman a contract that the Spirit would not be able to match under the current rules.
If she does leave, it won’t be for a lack of love for D.C. or the Spirit. For Wednesday’s NWSL Awards show, Rodman showed up in a dress that incorporated the Spirit’s primary black jersey.
When Rodman came on late in the Spirit’s semifinal win for what could have been her final game in D.C., the sold-out crowd gave her an emphatic round of cheers and applause. Afterwards, Rodman told MS NOW how much it has meant to be part of the team: “The roars when I go in, it’s even more rewarding, especially with how long I’ve been playing for the Spirit, and each time I come on, it’s even more exciting.”
The team’s owner Michele Kang has not been afraid to invest millions of dollars into women’s sports. All signs are that the Spirit can pay Rodman what they feel she’s worth, if they are allowed.
Other NWSL owners have also shown signs that they have the money to do the same. Last year, Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay completed a $250 million purchase of the Los Angeles-based Angel City FC. Last week, the league announced an expansion team in Atlanta set to begin play in 2028, with incoming owner Arthur Blank paying a league-record $165 million expansion fee.
The NWSL has a few options. The most tempting to fans and players may be to remove the cap entirely. But in an interview last weekend with CBS Sports, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said the salary cap wasn’t going anywhere, calling it “the reason our league is the most competitive in the world.” (Indeed, the NWSL is more competitive from top to bottom than its European counterparts. Girma and Thompson’s new club, Chelsea, have won their league title six years in a row.)
“Hamstringing ourselves with artificial limitations is not the way to be competitive in a global market.”
– NWSL Players Association Executive Director Meghann Burke
Another option could be for the league to allow teams to offer a small number of players on each team contracts that are exempt from the league salary cap. That model would be similar to the Designated Player rule that American men’s league Major League Soccer first implemented to sign superstar David Beckham.
But what’s good for one league doesn’t necessarily work for another. “MLS isn’t the best league in global football, so it’s not a model for the NWSL to follow because we’re trying to be the best league in global football,” said former U.S. national team star Christen Press.
Press and her RE-CAP Show podcast co-host Tobin Heath, who as players had central roles in the national team’s fight for equal pay, both take a dim view of the designated player idea.
“This is a team sport, and if you’re going to create a system where you’re going to continue to cap the players, a low maximum salary cap, and then you’re gonna have exceptions to that salary cap, it then becomes a very disjointed league,” Heath told MS NOW.
A third option would be a much bigger jump in the salary cap. The league’s collective bargaining agreement with the NWSL Players Association includes a specified increase in the salary cap each year. But those are actually the minimum increases to the cap. The CBA allows the league to raise the cap by as much as it sees fit.
“A lot of the conversations around the salary cap are being overly complicated,” NWSL Players Association Executive Director Meghann Burke told MS NOW. “It’s really quite simple. These are minimum numbers and the league can increase it, and they should.”
Investors are lining up and clamoring for expansion teams. Many owners in the league have the deep pockets to not just match Europe’s biggest clubs, but outspend them. Women’s sports in the U.S. as a whole are in an economic boom, with millions flowing into existing leagues such as the WNBA and new leagues for sports including volleyball and baseball.
Burke said she believes lifting or removing the cap would be the way to maintain the league’s stature globally. “The competition for talent is not confined to the NWSL, and hamstringing ourselves with artificial limitations is not the way to be competitive in a global market,” she said.
In a press conference Thursday, Berman addressed the rumors about Rodman’s possible departure but didn’t publicly commit to any changes. “We want those top players here in the NWSL and particularly, we want [Rodman] in the NWSL, and we will fight for her,” she said.
The league leadership will have to balance maintaining competitiveness between its teams and keeping its status as a home for some of the best women’s soccer players in the world. And it will have to walk that fine line very quickly. The decisions it makes could turn its league into an American staple or hamper the growth of women’s sports for a generation.
One team will lift a hard-earned NWSL Championship trophy Saturday night. But it will be on the league in the weeks that follow to decide how much that trophy means in the years to come.
