The National Women’s Soccer League will no longer require players to meet a specific commercial or sporting criteria to qualify for the High Impact Player rule (HIP), which allows teams to use $1 million more than the team salary cap on player contracts.
The change is part of a wide-ranging settlement reached between the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association that resolves six outstanding grievances, including the implementation of the HIP rule, league commissioner Jessica Berman’s rejection of an initial contract between the Washington Spirit and forward Trinity Rodman and the league’s shoe brand deal.
The players union described the settlement in a statement to The Athletic as “securing meaningful gains in player compensation, financial transparency, and contractual protections” under players’ collective bargaining agreement. The settlement follows a series of grievances that the union says challenged the league’s “unilateral decision-making and enforcement of provisions” in the CBA.
“This settlement is about Players having a voice in shaping the future of this League,” Meghann Burke, the union’s executive director, said in a statement. “Players have earned a seat at the bargaining table, and our Union will enforce it. This settlement demonstrates that what is good for Players is good for NWSL and for the game.”
The agreement eliminates HIP eligibility restrictions beginning in 2027, expands performance bonus opportunities and strengthens transparency of revenue-sharing contributions to the team salary cap.
“Disagreements are a natural part of any mature labor relationship, particularly in a league that is growing and evolving as quickly as ours,” NWSL executive vice president Bill Ordower said in a statment. “What matters is how you work through them. This agreement gives the players, clubs and league greater clarity and certainty moving forward, while protecting the integrity and competitive balance that is fundamental to the NWSL. Throughout this process, we were focused on finding solutions that work for the league and our players and ultimately benefit our fans. We’re pleased to have reached a resolution that does exactly that and allows everyone to stay focused on the tremendous opportunity ahead. We appreciate the NWSLPA for their partnership and work in resolving these important issues.”
ESPN was first to report news of the settlement, which was announced separately by the league and NWSLPA on Friday. The agreement follows months of arbitration over varying disputes.
Here are the key takeaways from the settlement and what it means for the league and its players.
Eliminates HIP eligibility restrictions
The $1 million in HIP funds, which are only accessible once a team reaches their salary cap, are now eligible to all players as long as 12 percent of their salary still applies to a team’s cap. HIP funds will grow incrementally year-over-year at the same base rate as the NWSL salary cap.
The NWSL says that HIP, in its new form, maintains “the core of its framework to provide targeted incremental player investment.”
The league can limit the number of HIP players on a team but must do it equally across clubs and must notify the PA by the opening of the nearest Free Agency Window. The league may also lower the salary cap percentage threshold, including for a part of a season.
The league established the HIP rule, known colloquially as the “Rodman Rule” for its role in keeping Rodman in the league, in December 2025 with an effective date of July 1, 2026. It previously applied only to players who meet at least one designation in an eight-part criteria. The list was widely criticized for its seemingly arbitrary and limiting nature, with the union quickly coming out in opposition.
The initial qualifications ranged from being one of the most consistent players for the U.S. women’s national team in the previous two calendar years to appearing on one of three annual media lists of the world’s best or most marketable players. Those lists include those from The Guardian, ESPN FC and SportsPro Media’s Top 150 Most Marketable Athletes. Players who received certain NWSL end-of-season honors also qualified, as did players who appeared on the Ballon d’Or shortlist in recent years.
The HIP criteria will be lifted on Jan. 1.
The NWSL and its players union have been at odds over the HIP rule since it was announced on Dec. 23, 2025, in large part because it was implemented without collective bargaining. From the outset, the union proposed that the league instead raise the cap by $1 million, rather than implement a rule with such a limiting criteria for players.
Does not raise the salary cap
While the HIP rule increases the money teams are able to use to sign players, stakeholders have refrained from specifying it as raising the salary cap. That cap is outlined annually in the league’s current CBA, which runs through 2030.
The players union has been adamant that raising the cap would have been the preferred alternative. Stakeholders around the NWSL, including those in the front office and players, have been vocal about their own wishes that the cap be raised at a larger rate than currently designed in the CBA, especially as the global women’s soccer landscape continues to grow exponentially.
The NWSL’s salary cap increases every year under the current CBA. The base funds for each team in 2026 is $3.5 million. That base will increase to $5.1 million by 2030. However, the salary cap also includes team revenue share from the previous year. This is calculated using things like media and sponsorship revenue. The total salary cap for 2026 is $3.7 million after these calculations.
While the settlement does not raise the cap, it does establish annual disclosure requirements throughout the calendar year, which the union says allows it to independently review those league’s revenue-sharing calculations. That includes two key deadlines: an annual disclosure by June 15, when the league must provide the financial records necessary to verify media and sponsorship revenue calculations; and an annual projection by Oct. 1, when the league must determine projected team revenue share figures for the following season after meeting and discussing those projections with the union.
This opens the possibility for same-year salary cap adjustments. In the instance that revenue exceeds projections, a team’s salary cap must increase in that same year to reflect the difference. The union and its auditors also now have the opportunity to identify “insufficient documentation” during disclosures, allowing the union then to request reasonable, relevant supporting records to verify reported team revenue shares.
The league said it agreed to eliminate the eligibility criteria “in order to provide clubs greater flexibility to retain and sign elite talent while protecting competitive balance.” The league, as outlined in the CBA, maintains the discretion to raise the cap at any time.
Prevents another contract rejection like what happened to Rodman
The HIP rule was created three weeks after Berman rejected a multimillion-dollar offer by the Spirit to keep Rodman in the NWSL, accusing Rodman of circumventing the salary cap. The deal had been designed around future projections of league revenue.
The Players Association quickly filed a grievance against the league for rejecting the Spirit’s offer, saying the league engaged in a “flagrant” violation of Rodman’s free agency rights. That grievance was settled as part of Friday’s agreement.
The league must now provide written notice to the union when it rejects a player contract as well as an explanation within 72 hours.
In Rodman’s case, her initial deal with the NWSL was rejected because Berman and the league believed that the structure of the proposed contract violated league rules, according to a source briefed on the league’s decision who spoke with The Athleticat that time.
According to sources, the Spirit had proposed a four-year scaling contract that would have seen the then-free agent paid more in the final two years of the deal, with the hope of an increased media-rights deal for the NWSL helping with those costs. The current media-rights deal expires in 2027. Sources did not provide exact figures for Rodman’s proposed salary for each of the four years, though the annual average would be over $1 million, and felt it was competitive with inbound offers from top European clubs.
In January, Rodman signed more than $2 million annually.
Several other players who qualified for HIP have been signed or extended by NWSL teams since, including Denver Summit’s Lindsey Heaps, San Diego Wave’s Cat Macario, Orlando Pride’s Barbra Banda and Gotham FC duo Emily Sonnett and Rose Lavelle. Teams are not required to reveal who is signed through the HIP rule.
The league retains authority to address salary cap circumvention, while the union preserves its right to challenge whether particular transactions constitute circumvention.
Amends the League’s shoe brand policy
The league launched a footwear sponsorship policy in June of this year, which restricted which brands were allowed to appear on players’ shoes during broadcasts. Friday’s settlement removes previously issued fines and honors pre-existing endorsement deals for the majority of players who already entered into compliant agreements.
Several players were penalized under the league’s footwear sponsorship policy, despite its intention to create a “minimum standard” for brands to pay players, The Athletic previously reported. Players who wore cleats not produced by Nike, the league’s official outfitter, were subject to fines if they did not cover unauthorized logos in accordance with the policy.
The league worked to negotiate deals with brands Adidas and Puma to have their sponsored players wear their cleats. However, players who wore Adidas or Puma but did not have a deal were subjected to penalties if they did not cover the logos. The equipment manufacturers have to pay for the right to have their cleats visible during league matches and meet a minimum $5,000 cash investment to their players.
“Our job as a league is to set policy that drives the behavior we want to see. We want our players to get paid by these brands if (the brands are) going to benefit from the promotion that comes from it,” Berman previously told The Athletic. “It’s not just that the league’s getting paid; players are getting paid, too.”
One of the first players fined under the footwear exposure agreement was the Kansas City Current’s Michelle Cooper. The forward was first issued a $500 fine for wearing New Balance Furon Elite V9 cleats during a July 3 match against the Denver Summit after receiving a warning for wearing her cleats at the Challenge Cup on June 26. The league announced on Friday that it has reached a new agreement with New Balance.
Chicago’s Jordyn Huitema was fined up to $1,000 for wearing New Balance and the Seattle Reign’s Sofia Huerta was issued up to $500 for her Lotto cleats, according to sources with knowledge of the fines. At least two other players were fined for wearing Adidas cleats.
What else does the settlement achieve?
The settlement expands the categories of performance-based compensation that players and clubs may negotiate into contracts, widening the opportunities for player compensation.
This includes: club appearance milestones (50, 100, 150 and 200 appearances); minutes-played milestones (10,000 minutes played, 15,000, 20,000 and 25,000); bonuses for consecutive starts and goalkeepers goals-against-average; negotiated salary increases tied to individual honors and end-of-year awards; bonuses related to senior USWNT matches without previously-required league approval; and individual performance and appearance bonuses that may include Concacaf and official FIFA tournaments.
“Behind each of these grievances are rights that matter to Players’ careers and livelihoods, from the compensation they can negotiate to the benefits they depend on, ” said Tori Huster, the union’s deputy executive director, in a statement. “Our union is committed to ensuring that the lived experience of players lives up to the terms we collectively bargained for.”
Lastly, the settlement preserves previously negotiated housing and automobile benefits for qualifying players identified in the agreement. That means, beginning Jan. 1, those players will continue receiving the benefits specified in their existing contracts, including team-provided housing, housing stipends, team-provided automobiles and automobile stipends for the duration of their existing agreements.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Portland Thorns, Chicago Red Stars, Houston Dash, North Carolina Courage, Seattle Reign, Orlando Pride, Gotham FC, Kansas City Current, Washington Spirit, Angel City, Racing Louisville FC, San Diego Wave, Utah Royals FC, Bay FC, Denver Summit FC, Boston Legacy FC, NWSL, Sports Business, Women's Soccer
2026 The Athletic Media Company