The Washington Spirit’s bid to retain Trinity Rodman has reportedly hit a brand new impediment: NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman.
In keeping with and , the Spirit had a multi-million greenback supply ready for Rodman and the star ahead was prepared to just accept, just for Berman to veto a deal that may have stored one of many faces of the NWSL within the U.S.
Commercial
The four-year deal reportedly would have paid Rodman a mean of greater than $1 million per yr — just like what she may get from the highest European golf equipment — however with a sliding scale that may have paid her considerably extra within the second half of the deal. That may have coincided with the expiration of the NWSL’s media rights deal, with more cash theoretically coming in with the following deal.
Berman reportedly felt the construction of the contract would have violated the spirit of the league. In response, the NWSL Gamers Affiliation has reportedly filed a grievance on Rodman’s behalf.
The league’s remark, from The Athletic:
“Our purpose is to make sure that the easiest gamers on this planet, together with Trinity, proceed to name this league dwelling. We’ll do the whole lot we will, using each lever out there inside our guidelines to maintain Trinity Rodman right here,” a league spokesperson mentioned Wednesday night time.
Whereas the NWSL mentioned it desires to do no matter it will probably to retain Rodman whereas remaining throughout the guidelines, it is unclear what rule the proposed contract would have truly violated. The Athletic notes the NWSL’s wage cap laws don’t seem to forbid rising a wage year-to-year so long as the crew stays below the wage cap, and there’s no restrict on how huge a single participant’s wage can get.
Commercial
The wage cap is reportedly set to develop from $3.5 million in 2026 to $4.9 million in 2029.
Trinity Rodman seems to be value more cash than the Spirit may realistically give her.
(Erin Chang/ISI Pictures by way of Getty Photos)
None of that’s encouraging information for anybody invested in Rodman persevering with her NWSL tenure, with . The scenario , as quite a lot of notable gamers, similar to Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson, have already crossed the Atlantic for extra profitable offers.
Rodman’s agent has even met Berman to attempt to determine an answer, however we now know at the least one concept will not go muster on the league’s facet.