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The NWSL introduced a new “High Impact Player Rule” on Tuesday that allows teams to exceed the salary cap by up to $1m to help attract and retain star players. The rule goes into effect on 1 July 2026.
One of the first players who could potentially benefit from the new rule is Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, who reportedly has received lucrative offers from teams in Europe.
“Ensuring our teams can compete for the best players in the world is critical to the continued growth of our league,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said. “The High Impact Player Rule allows teams to invest strategically in top talent, strengthens our ability to retain star players, and demonstrates our commitment to building world-class rosters for fans across the league.”
The rule increases league-wide spending by up to $16m in 2026 and up to $115m over the term of the current collective bargaining agreement.
“These investments represent intentional, deliberate action to address an increasingly competitive global market for top players, while expanding clubs’ overall capacity to invest across their rosters,” the NWSL said in a news release.
However, the proposal has received pushback from the NWSL Players Association, who said it will take action “to enforce the rights of the players we represent.”
In a statement, the union said: “Under federal labor law, changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining – not a matter of unilateral discretion. Fair pay is realized through fair, collectively bargained compensation systems, not arbitrary classifications.
“A league that truly believes in the value of its Players would not be afraid to bargain over it.
“The NWSLPA has put forward a clear, lawful alternative: raising the Team Salary Cap to compete in a global labor market.
“Additionally, we have proposed that through collective bargaining, we work together to create a system for projecting revenue sharing numbers in future years so that Teams and Players can negotiate multi-year deals with certainty. The Union remains ready and willing to engage in good-faith bargaining.”
Under the league’s new proposal, players must meet at least one of the following sporting or commercial criteria in order to meet the definition of a “high-impact player”:
– Player is selected in the Top 40 of the Guardian Top 100 football players in the world in the two years prior.
– Player is on SportsPro Media’s Top 150 most marketable athletes within one year prior to the current league season.
– Player is selected in the Top 30 in Ballon d’Or voting in the two years prior to the current league season.
– Player is selected in the Top 40 of ESPN FC Top 50 football players in the world in the two years prior.
– Player is in the top 11 in minutes played for the US women’s national team in the prior two calendar years for field players for all competition types.
– Player ranks first in minutes played for USWNT in the prior two calendar years for goalkeepers for all competition types.
– Player selected as NWSL MVP finalist within the previous two league seasons.
– Player selected to the end-of-year NWSL Best XI first team within the previous two league seasons.
The $1m threshold will increase year-over-year at the same base rate as the league’s salary cap. The additional allotment can be applied to a single player or distributed among multiple players. The cap charge of the high-impact player(s) must be a minimum of 12% of the base salary cap.
The NWSL salary cap in 2025 was $3.5 million following adjustments for revenue sharing.
