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.
The Washington Spirit's quest to retain their biggest star has hit another snag, as multiple reports on Wednesday revealed that NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman vetoed a proposed multi-million dollar deal to keep USWNT standout Trinity Rodman in the top-flight domestic league.
Per The Athletic, the offer included a four-year scaling contract that would see Rodman's compensation increase in the deal's final two years, with Washington banking on a new NWSL media rights contract in 2028 to help with the 23-year-old free agent's salary bump.
Rodman was reportedly on board to accept the offer, which averaged over $1 million per year, but according to Bloomberg, Berman blocked the deal due to its structure violating "the spirit of the rules."
Per the current NWSL CBA, there is no maximum salary for any individual player, and the competition manual does not ban year-to-year contractual salary increases so long as they do not exceed the team's salary cap — a figure that is currently on track to grow to $5.1 million by 2030.
As such, the NWSLPA has filed a grievance on Rodman's behalf, asserting that the vetoed contract offer does not violate any standing league rules.
Amid the ongoing negotiations to retain Rodman, the Spirit have also shored up their front office, hiring of former Orlando Pride sporting director Haley Carter as Washington's new president of soccer operations on Wednesday.
One of Carter's first goals is to re-sign Rodman.
"Trinity should be a cornerstone of what we're building in Washington," Carter told The Athletic. "We're committed, from a talent retention standpoint, from a league standpoint, to making that happen. It's just a matter of working with the league to see what the potential solutions are."
The ongoing WNBA CBA battle is back in the headlines, with several reports this week saying the league's latest proposal radically shifts current operating and scheduling practices.
According to sources, the front office is open to raising base salaries, but is simultaneously looking to cut previous guaranteed perks like team housing — a WNBA standard since 2016.
The league is also reportedly proposing an earlier start to the season, with training camp beginning as early as mid-March — directly conflicting with growing offseason leagues like Unrivaled and Project B.
Expanding the season on the front end also comes with several challenges — namely overlapping with the NCAA basketball postseason, which extends into April.
With the 2026 WNBA Draft set for Monday, April 13th — one week after the NCAA championship, in which top lottery picks will likely compete — a mid-March WNBA start raises questions about how incoming rookies would try-out and integrate into teams, with season rosters traditionally locked prior to opening day tip-off.
However, the latest WNBA CBA proposal does reportedly push maximum base salaries into the seven-figures while upping the minimum to more than $225,000.
With multiple players eligible for max payouts, the WNBA offer would see the average salary exceed $500,000 with salary caps expanding from $1.5 million to $5 million — though the proposal does not yet determine roster minimums.
Ultimately, the WNBA is entering this new CBA negotiating phase with its own interests in mind — but the threat of a lockout could push both the league and the players union closer to compromise.
The WNBA and WNBPA agreed to a second CBA extension late Sunday night, officially pushing the contract's deadline to January 9th, 2026, to allow for 40 more days of negotiations.
Like the original CBA extension from October 31st to December 1st, either the WNBA or WNBPA now has the option to terminate the agreement with 48 hours of notice.
"We expect substantive movement from the league within this window," the players union told Front Office Sports, while the WNBA issued a statement saying both parties are "continuing to work toward a new agreement."
While total annual compensation offers have reportedly crossed the million-dollar mark for players earning the league's maximum, the WNBA's salary model — particularly in regards to revenue sharing — remains a core issue.
According to sources, the WNBA's proposal offers players a revenue-sharing option only after reaching certain minimums, while the WNBPA continues to advocate for a bigger cut of the exponentially growing league.
The players union is also reportedly advocating for a salary cap that increases with the league's income, rather than at an arbitrarily fixed growth rate.
With important offseason processes like the planned two-team expansion draft to stock incoming 2026 WNBA franchises the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo now delayed until a new CBA is in place, the pressure is approaching new highs on both sides of the negotiating table.
The WNBA has put a new CBA offer on the table, a source told the Associated Press late Tuesday, with the league proposing to raise the maximum player salary to more than $1.1 million while also implementing a new revenue-sharing plan.
The league is targeting a minimum salary exceeding $220,000, boosting the average salary to over $460,000 in the first year of the agreement.
The CBA offer would apply to more than 180 WNBA players upon initial ratification, with paydays continuing to scale upward over the life of the contract.
The WNBA and the Players Association recently agreed to extend talks from the existing CBA's original October 31st expiration to November 30th, a similar move to the previous CBA negotiations in 2019, which finally settled in early 2020.
In accordance with that prior deal, this past season's minimum salary ranged from $66,079 to $78,831 depending on terms while the maximum salary was $214,466 — meaning players averaged $102,249 league-wide.
In response to significant league growth, the WNBPA opted out of that CBA earlier this year to push for a more lucrative revenue-sharing model as well as increased salaries, better benefits, a less rigid salary cap, and other improvements.
The pressure is on to settle on a new CBA before the latest deadline, with a potential work stoppage threatening to derail a league exploding in popularity.
"When it comes to things like renewals and partnership opportunities, sitting here with an uncertain labor negotiation, it's already having an impact on the basketball calendar and the business," a source told ESPN this week.
New offseason league Project B is raising more than eyebrows, with the international upstart reportedly far exceeding WNBA salaries as it builds out its pro women's basketball roster ahead of a planned 2026 debut.
According to Front Office Sports (FOS), Project B is offering athletes like inaugural signee Nneka Ogwumike multimillion dollar salaries, with indications that multi-year deals could see paydays reach upwards of eight figures.
Project B also gave the Seattle Storm star equity in the venture, putting WNBA stakeholders on edge as CBA negotiations continue to simmer Stateside.
Sources also reportedly told FOS that the budding league has already signed additional WNBA players.
While the winter league's F1-style tournament structure doesn't directly compete with the WNBA calendar, history shows that players will sometimes de-prioritized domestic league play if offered enough money to compete overseas.
One of the most notable instances of this occurred when now-retired superstar Diana Taurasi sat out the entire 2015 WNBA season after top EuroLeague side UMMC Ekaterinburg paid her $1.5 million to forgo that summer's competition.
Other offseason leagues are also making financial inroads that supersede the WNBA's current salary offerings, with 54 WNBA players set to take the Unrivaled 3×3 court in the winter league's 2026 season in January — including equity-holder Paige Bueckers.
Even more, big names like four-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson, 2024 Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark, 2024 champion Sabrina Ionescu, and two-time All-Star Angel Reese opted out of joining the 2026 Unrivaled season, leaving some speculating that seven-figure deals could see those stars instead eyeing a jump to Project B.
Ultimately, the reports of additional options for lucrative offseason contracts only increases the drama surrounding the US league's ongoing CBA negotiations, putting even more pressure on the WNBA to offer an attractive financial agreement to its athletes.