The NWSL Players Association is speaking out, filing a grievance against the league's new "High Impact Player" rule on Monday after claiming that the mechanism violates both the CBA and US labor laws.
"Player compensation is a mandatory subject of bargaining," the union said in its Wednesday statement. "The League has no authority to unilaterally create a new pay structure that bypasses negotiated rules."
The union requested "immediate rescission of the HIP Rule, an order requiring the League to bargain in good faith over any proposed Player compensation rules prior to implementation, and to make-whole relief for any Players impacted by the League's unilateral actions."
With the future of stars like Trinity Rodman hanging in the balance, the "High Impact Player" rule allows clubs to exceed the salary cap by up to $1 million so long as players qualify under specific criteria — measures that a mere 27 current NWSL athletes currently meet.
The NWSLPA instead suggested simply raising the overall salary cap by $1 million, with the NWSL going on to institute the rule despite union objections.
"We want to make sure everybody has a level playing field," NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told The Athletic in December. "If the league can come in here and put their thumb on the scale…they can put their thumb on the scale of any player's contract negotiation."
With free agency heating up, players making moves, and the 2026 NWSL preseason kicking off, the pressure is mounting for both sides to figure out a lasting fix.
The Washington Spirit are one step closer to securing Trinity Rodman, with ESPN reporting late Thursday that the NWSL Board of Governors approved a new "High Impact Player" roster mechanism which will allow teams to exceed the current salary cap in order to retain stars.
Designed for use on players crucial to a team's competitive and commercial bottom line, the rule would permit clubs to spend up to $1 million over the cap with a limited hit.
The change will still need approval from the NWSL Players Association, with the union maintaining the ability to negotiate any deviations from the league's compensation structure under the current CBA.
The 11th-hour move could help the Spirit put together a more lucrative contract to re-sign USWNT forward Trinity Rodman, though the team's previous offer remains under arbitration after the league office vetoed the deal.
The new roster mechanism will likely come with individual restrictions, with sources telling ESPN that the NWSL "refined and updated" the "exact qualifications for players eligible for the new funds" prior to Thursday's board approval.
Notably, this is not the first time the league has made such a move to blur the salary cap line in order to keep star talent on its rosters.
The NWSL made similar salary cap concessions in 2020, introducing extra allocation money for certain top-line players before deciding to discontinue the rule by the end of 2026.
While the NWSL remains committed to the established salary cap, the league is also coming up with loopholes to compete in the growing global market — but only the future can tell whether the move is too little, too late to keep Rodman in DC.
The Washington Spirit are all in on forward Trinity Rodman, with club GM Nathan Minion telling reporters that the 2025 NWSL runners-up are working "pretty much daily" to re-sign the free agent despite salary cap concerns.
"I think everyone's trying to work together to get a deal in place," said Minion, acknowledging that the NWSL and the Spirit are actively working with each other to retain the 23-year-old star. "[We're] trying to figure this out and trying to get a resolution that can hopefully keep Trinity here with us for a long time."
"The reality is our current salary cap structure — it was built for a different era of women's soccer," said the DC club's recently hired president of soccer operations Haley Carter. "We're going to need mechanisms that allow NWSL clubs to compete for not only players from overseas, but our own players."
The NWSL vetoed the multi-million dollar offer from the Washington Spirit to keep Rodman last week, with the NWSLPA subsequently filing a grievance claiming the league violated the USWNT attacker's free agency rights by blocking the deal.
"These are nuanced conversations, and I would love to just toss the salary cap out the window and pay the players," said Carter. "But we also have to appreciate that, pragmatically, it isn't always payroll that's going to keep our athletes here. It's investment in other things as well."
"We are going to have to start getting creative, I believe, because it's bigger than just one team," continued Carter. "It's bigger than just one player. It's about the league's ability to keep its best players in this league as we continue to grow."
The NWSL may be forcing Washington Spirit superstar Trinity Rodman to "look elsewhere" for her next contract, after the league vetoed a multi-million dollar offer from her current squad last week, Rodman's agent told CBS Mornings last Friday.
"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," said Rodman's rep Mike Senkowski.
"With no certain way to get her fair market value within the NWSL, naturally, that forces you and encourages you to look elsewhere," he continued.
While the fight to keep Rodman Stateside is not over, with the NWSLPA filing a grievance last week arguing that the league office's mandate to reject the Spirit's back-loaded contract — worth more than $1 million per year — is a free agency violation, the NWSL appears unwilling to budge.
In a weekend clarification to The Athletic, an NWSL source noted that commissioner Jessica Berman contests that the Spirit's offer to raise Rodman's compensation in the contract's later years would pull Washington out of salary cap compliance in 2028, with the league disagreeing with the club regarding the potential cap growth under a new broadcast deal.
The league source also noted that the offer has a built-in buyout clause, which the NWSL believes signals an admission of possible salary cap circumvention.
As the Washington Spirit and NWSL fans hope for a win from the union's grievance, the door to recruit Rodman elsewhere seems to be wide open for overseas clubs — particularly those with deep pockets.
The NWSL Players Association has filed a grievance against the NWSL in response to the league's reported veto of a multi-million-dollar contract offer from the Washington Spirit to retain star forward Trinity Rodman, alleging that blocking the deal puts the NWSL in violation of multiple sections of the current CBA.
Commissioner Jessica Berman reportedly vetoed a four-year deal that would see Rodman earn an average of more than $1 million per year, saying the back-loaded structure of the contract violated "the spirit" of the league's rules by trying to "circumvent" the salary cap.
Calling it a "flagrant" violation of Rodman's free agency rights, the NWSLPA instead asserts that scaled contracts are legal under the current CBA, which includes a section specifically stating that "a player's free agency rights as set forth herein supersede any other inconsistent NWSL rules, regulations, handbooks, or competition guidelines."
"It comes down to a very simple premise," NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told The Athletic. "If they can mess with Trinity Rodman's free agency rights, they can mess with anyone's. And we won't stand for that."
Estimated salary cap growth could back Rodman's deal
Notably, while the salary cap increases each year, team revenue share from the previous season is tacked onto the base annual number, meaning all multi-year player contracts are calculated using best estimates for future salary cap figures.
In Rodman's case, the Spirit are estimating that a new NWSL media rights contract in 2028 will likely raise the salary cap beyond its current base of $4.7 million.
The CBA also provides for a contract buyout for teams to remain in compliance should those salary cap estimates supersede the actual cap in the future.
"All parties can do is make a good faith estimate of what they think it's going to be to negotiate fair market value," Burke explained.
League sources did confirm to The Athletic that the NWSL would approve a base $1 million-per-year offer to Rodman immediately, if presented.
While the exact amounts and structural details of the Spirit's offer to Rodman — and the NWSL veto — remain murky, the league will soon have to answer to the grievance as the Players Association pursues a clear answer.
Fresh off her rookie WNBA season, Seattle Storm star Dominique Malonga is causing a stir overseas, abruptly withdrawing from her offseason contract with Turkish club Fenerbahçe this week — and creating controversy in her wake.
Malonga initially signed a three-year deal with the two-time Euroleague champions in March before she "unilaterally terminated her professional player contract with our club without any just cause," according to a Fenerbahçe social media post on Monday.
"We inform the public that we will exercise all our legal rights to seek compensation for any material and moral damages incurred by our club during this process," the team continued.
While she didn't disclose a reason for leaving Istanbul, the 19-year-old did reveal that she recently required surgery to repair a dislocated tendon in her wrist, estimating that she'd be in a cast for six weeks.
The 2025 WNBA Draft overall No. 2 pick finished her debut WNBA season averaging 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, earning herself a spot on the stacked 2025 All-Rookie Team.
Should the contract dispute remain unresolved, Fenerbahçe could attempt to disrupt Malonga's second season in Seattle due to a longstanding "letter of clearance" rule requiring approval from both the WNBA and Europe's FIBA before athletes can move between leagues.
Front Office Sports reported on Tuesday that while the WNBA signed off on the 19-year-old's Turkish contract, Fenerbahçe could deny her ability to return to the US league "under the condition that she violated the terms of her contract."
"If the season tips off in May as it did in 2025, this would give Fenerbahçe and Malonga about six months to rectify any potential dispute and clear her for a WNBA return," warned FOS.