12/04/25 01:01:00
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12/04 12:59 CST Players' union files grievance with NWSL over rejection of
offer to Trinity Rodman
Players' union files grievance with NWSL over rejection of offer to Trinity
Rodman
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Soccer Writer
The National Women's Soccer League Players' Association has filed a grievance
with the league for rejecting a contract offer extended to Trinity Rodman by
the Washington Spirit.
The union is alleging the league violated the collective bargaining agreement
when it denied the Spirit's four-year, multimillion-dollar deal to re-sign
Rodman.
"Trinity Rodman agreed to a compensation structure in good faith that would
allow her to remain loyal to her first professional club, consistent with both
the CBA and NWSL Competition Rules," union executive director Meghann Burke
said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Thursday. "The NWSLPA
has challenged the League's rejection of this agreement on the grounds that it
violates her free agency rights, but this isn't about Trinity Rodman. If NWSL
can deny her free agency rights, they can deny anyone's. The NWSLPA will not
allow it."
Rodman, one of the NWSL's biggest stars who also won a gold medal with the
United States at the Paris Olympics, joined the league in 2021 and signed a
four-year deal in early 2022. Now a free agent, she has been drawing interest
from deep-pocketed European teams. Commissioner Jessica Berman said last month
that the league would fight for Rodman to remain in the NWSL.
"Our goal is to ensure that the very best players in the world, including
Trinity, continue to call this league home. We will continue to do everything
we can, utilizing every lever available within our rules to keep Trinity Rodman
here," the league said in a statement Thursday. Bloomberg was the first to
report that the league had rejected the Spirit's offer to Rodman.
At issue is the NWSL's salary cap, which is $3.5 million for each team for the
2026 season and will rise each year until it hits $5.1 million in 2030.
While the details of the offer to Rodman were not made public, the union said
it was salary-cap compliant in three ways. The compensation structure fit
within the projected team salary cap, calculated to include team revenue share;
the NWSL can increase the base salary cap in any given year; and even if the
deal does not fit within the cap by 2028, league rules permit each team one
buyout per year without hitting their cap.
The Athletic reported that the contract offer to Rodman backloaded compensation
into 2028 and 2029. With the league's current media rights deal set to expire
in 2027, a new deal could increase league revenue.
Berman insisted in November before the league title game between Gotham FC and
the Spirit that team investment "has to have a rational relationship to
revenue."
"When we go through that process of reviewing the overall ecosystem and the
value proposition that we're offering to top talent and to our players, and
we're looking at the amount being invested in training facilities, in stadiums,
in compensation for players, we have to look at it in the context of where our
business is at," Berman said. "And of course, we've made incredible strides in
a very short period of time to drive commercial growth both at the league level
and our clubs. But that is the lens that we consistently look at it through."
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