When Washington plays Chicago this Sunday in DC, “Rowdy Audi” will probably be full. It will also be full when the post-season starts, should they lock up their top-four position with a positive result on Decision Day. Equipped with an accessible stadium in a big city, a proud fanbase, and a formidable roster rife with players qualifying for the High Impact Player (HIP) rule’s initial criteria (including Trinity Rodman, who gave the rule its moniker), the Spirit hold sway in the attendance charts.
But starting next season, everyone on the Spirit will qualify for the “Rodman Rule”. So will every player in NWSL. Announced Friday, NWSL settled a grievance with the league’s Players Association, who argued that the initial criteria violated federal labor law.
Admittedly, when the new policy arrived on the scene last winter, it appeared half-baked, a somewhat frantic attempt to keep Rodman from floating across the Atlantic and doing something terrible, like playing for Michele Kang’s London City Lionesses instead of Michele Kang’s Washington Spirit. A rule was born to prevent that. It allocated added funds beyond the salary cap for players who met league-set criteria which clearly prioritized international name recognition in a global market.
Qualifying players needed to meet one of eight categories including SportsPro Media’s top 150 Most Marketable Athletes (only Alessia Russo and Aitana Bonmatí placed in 2026, though 16 female football players did in 2025, including three in the NWSL at the time – Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson and Marta, in that order). It also included ESPN’s Top 50, the Guardian’s top 100, top minutes on the US National Team, the Ballon d’Or’s 30-player list, or NWSL’s MVP and Best XI awards. Some measure of umbrage followed, as invested onlookers argued for a more simple solution: just raise the salary cap.
And perhaps they should, but keeping an American-style sports league competitive in a global football landscape is less straightforward. The looming spectre of Europe’s super-teams, who have attracted key members of the USWNT starting XI, is ever present, waiting to take Croix Bethune away for the right amount of money. No doubt, the NWSL’s appeal is evident in its expansion and growth, in the success of its spine of stateside stalwarts, in its rapidly expanding dedicated facilities, and in the international talents such as Esme Morgan or Ann-Katrin Berger that choose to sharpen their skills in the US.
However, the domestic sporting culture of the NWSL is somewhat at odds, in some ways a disadvantage, when it comes to maintaining its margins, with a stand-alone team structure in a parity-driven league, while competing for international glory with teams such as Chelsea, Lyon or Barcelona, who spend three times or more the amount that some NWSL teams do. While competing for status as the world’s go-to destination, for players and fans, glory hunting and name recognition do matter. Just look at the Ballon d’Or: Barcelona’s women took all but one of the awards available to them, though Alexia Putellas, who collected her third main prize, now plays in London.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
