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Jeff Kassouf
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman cited the historic deal between United States forward Trinity Rodman and the Washington Spirit as evidence that the league’s new High Impact Player is working as intended: to retain and attract top players.
«We couldn’t be more excited to have Trinity in the NWSL,» Berman told ESPN on Friday. «We always said that it was a priority and that we would fight for her and that our goal was to find a way to sign her within the confines of the rules that apply to all clubs, and we were able to do that.»
Rodman became the first player in NWSL history to officially utilize the High Impact Player rule with the signing of her new three-year contract that was announced on Thursday. The deal will pay Rodman over $2 million annually all-in, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN, making her the highest-paid player in NWSL history.
According to her agent, Mike Senkowski, it also makes her the highest-paid women’s player in the world.
The NWSL Players Association, however, opposes the implementation of the High Impact Player (HIP) rule and recently filed a formal grievance attesting that the league’s implementation of it violates the collective bargaining agreement and federal labor law.
The HIP rule, which has already colloquially been dubbed the «Rodman Rule,» allows teams to spend up to $1 million over the salary cap on star players.
Instead, the PA proposed raising the cap by $1 million with no qualifications needed for players.
But Berman said the HIP rule was implemented to strategically grow the league. The NWSL has lost USWNT stars Naomi Girma, Alyssa Thompson and Sam Coffey to England over the past year, and the goal of the HIP rule is to compete for top players.
«It’s our job at the league to create policy that influences behavior,» Berman told ESPN. «It is also our job at the league to make sure that capital and resources are being deployed strategically to grow the business for the long term.»
She continued: «We are incentive aligned with the players to grow this business and grow this league to make sure that it’s being built sustainably and with an eye toward long-term growth and sustainability. I think all of that is important. It’s not uncommon for leagues to be prescriptive and tailored in how they create policy that enable certain behaviors that particularly have the ability to invest so much capital into the system.»
The union believes that the HIP rule needs to be collectively bargained. Article 8.16 of the CBA states that the league «may in its discretion, after consultation with the NWSLPA, reduce or eliminate the Salary Cap charge against the Team Salary Cap for certain roster classifications.»
Berman said she could not speak in greater detail out of respect to an open grievance, but she said that the NWSL is within its right to implement the rule after good-faith consultation with the union.
«In its most general sense, when there is a consultation right in good faith, it is exactly that,» Berman said. «The party — and in this case, us — has the right to continue to move forward despite there being an objection on any number of factors.
«The good faith element is really important, and important to us and important to the Players Association, which is that in that situation — and candidly in any other situation — is that we are and were genuinely interested in the Players Association’s input and feedback.
Berman said the concept of the HIP rule had been discussed «in a variety of different forms» among the NWSL’s board of governors as early as 2023. The league monitored the global market, Berman said, before deciding this fall that the time was right to implement such a rule.
«Of course, in parallel, Trinity’s contract was expiring, and that was always something that we were aware of, paying attention to, and on the radar, but they very much were happening in parallel,» Berman said.
«Trinity’s contract is really just one of many examples in the market that we were paying attention to. It was always our hope that Trinity would be able to take advantage of whatever rule we decided to implement, and we’re glad that became to be.»
High Impact Player funds will rise proportionally with the cap, ESPN confirmed: $1.257 million in 2027, $1.342 million in 2028, $1.4 million in 2029 and $1.457 million in 2030.
Berman said that adds up to $115 million in new investment over that time, factoring in the rise in the cap with revenue sharing, in addition to the HIP funds.
The criteria for a player to qualify for the HIP rule is also a point of contention for the union. Among the potential qualifications is players’ marketability according to an external media outlet.
«The league is trying to control and interfere by trying to dictate which players get paid what with this pot of funds,» NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told ESPN earlier this month. «Our position is that teams — GMs, soccer ops, business folks at the team level — are uniquely positioned to make judgment calls about how to structure their rosters, how to negotiate deals.
«We genuinely believe that how you measure a player’s value, both in terms of sporting merit and business criteria, is nuanced. It is more complicated than a handful of bullet points. It is within the purview of the teams to make those judgement calls, and in a system of free agency like we all agreed to, that’s how it works. It’s a free market.»
Berman said the criteria was meant to be «surgical and tailored in how this additional capital is being deployed and in service of growing our business,» and that the league did not subjectively dictate the list of players.
«That leaves you looking for external sources that are objective, that give a lens or an indication to who are the top players,» Berman said.
There is a second grievance, which was filed by the NWSLPA, over the league vetoing an agreement between Rodman and the Spirit (prior to the ratification of the HIP rule). The union called the league’s actions a «flagrant violation» of Rodman’s free agency rights and a violation of at least five sections of the CBA.
That grievance remains open as well despite Rodman and the Spirit reaching a new deal.
«Unequivocally yes, it violated the league’s rules,» Berman said of that proposed previous deal. «In the macro, it is our job to apply our rules consistently and with integrity across all of our clubs. For that reason, the contract was not approvable.»
Both grievances could be heading to arbitration.
Berman said that she does not believe the grievances or the recent months of events have strained her or the league’s relationship with the union or players.
«Not from my perspective,» Berman said. «I wouldn’t speak for anyone else. From my perspective, absolutely not. It’s our job to operate professionally, transparently and with respect. We have done that; we’ll continue to do that. Based on my assessment of how we continue to operate with the Players Association, that has not changed.»
