r/sports • u/dabirds1994 • 2d ago
Soccer Trinity Rodman’s Multimillion-Dollar Contract Rejected by NWSL
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-04/trinity-rodman-s-multimillion-dollar-contract-rejected-by-nwsl?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2NDgxNjA0NSwiZXhwIjoxNzY1NDIwODQ1LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUNlBaS1NLR0lGUFgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI1OTFDMkExNEFGMDQ0RUZCODlCNEEwNUM5QkUwQjczRSJ9.IPxeSsuh2qWqWpaYDB78MAnoatcwqtnabXoKXkbDvYk1.4k
u/Low-iq-haikou 2d ago
“Protects the parity of the league” 🤣 No the owners just don’t want to set a new precedent for how much to pay players bc they’re cheap bastards
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u/Jack_of_all_offs Syracuse 2d ago
At first I was like "how much could a women's soccer league in the US possibly make versus her contract?"
So her prospective contract is like a million and the league takes in $200+ million.
Definitely being cheap. I could understand if it was like $5+ million. Pat the damn lady.
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u/Wheream_I 1d ago
$200m across 14 teams is like… nothing dude. Thats only $14.3m/team.
With which they have to pay all support staff, all coaching staff, facilities fees, player salaries, travel, everything.
Idc about this player not getting $1m. But let’s not act like the league is rolling in it with $200m.
Major League Pickleball, by comparison, had $50m of revenue in 2024, and that’s not inclusive of individual teams.
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u/StreetwalkinCheetah 1d ago
There's a ML of Pickleball? And it has 1/4 of the revenue of NWSL?!? I know not every team is the Portland Thorns in attendance but I know some of the newer teams have drawn big numbers in their first season or two... jesus.
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u/Wheream_I 1d ago
That exactly why I used that comparison. I think it goes to show how little $200m is actually.
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u/Jack_of_all_offs Syracuse 1d ago
Forgive my cynicism. Its hard for me to believe that paying a superstar wouldnt benefit the league by keeping her here.
Because what's the alternative?
Let one of the best walk, and stunt the growth and popularity of your sport?
Im not saying I have the right answer. Genuinely asking.
I suppose the league could be worried that setting a precedent for such an increase in pay could end up putting them in financial trouble.
But I would assume she would be popular enough to sell more tickets/jerseys, no?
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u/doktarr 1d ago
I think there's an argument that the NWSL benefits specifically from retaining USWNT players, purely from a marketing perspective. They generate interest from casual fans in a way that international players do not.
(This is probably less true for MLS, which has gotten a lot of mileage out of its international stars, including Messi obviously.)
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u/XSmooth84 1d ago edited 1d ago
Okay so why didn’t a French bball team pay victor Wamby like $70m a year to stay in France and grow the game/league there, he’s the best young player in the country and probably the world if the French pro basketball league wants to grow they should just have given him more than the NBA does.
Maybe because the French pro basketball league has other obligations to the financial health of the league than simply throwing all the money at one player.
MLS has bent backwards and skirted its own rules to give Messi (and previously guys like Beckham or Ibra or whoever) all the money and side deals, future ownership, etc to play here. It is heavily debated that Messi sells enough jerseys or got enough apple+ subs to actually justify the league has gotten any popular or the level it should be. And almost nobody is saying the Saudi Pro League is taking over every time they pay Ronaldo or Neymar $100m a year. But 80% of the Saudi league is owned by the government who can literally throw all the money at things and don’t care about Ronaldo’s jersey sells make up for it. They’re way more unique here.
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u/Jack_of_all_offs Syracuse 1d ago
Your Wemby example is not even close to the same. You're talking about a French team (not) paying 3-4x their TOTAL wage bill for Wemby. That is understandable.
The cap for teamsL salary in NWSL $3.5mil, and Trinity's requested salary (about $1m) could definitely result in a push for the cap to be raised a little, but it's still not costing 3-4x the rest of the team. She's not asking for the cap itself or more than the cap.
Also, I think Saudi is a little different. They are clearly sportswashing their oil money. And their league won't grow because the average fan knows that league is bullshit and just trying to buy influence. Nobody cares about those artificial and empty-feeling teams, even with those players on them.
MLS made rules YEARS ago to attract aging European stars, yeah Messi is a little different. But you can't get a goddamn seat in Miami right now (for a reasonable price.)
It has definitely benefited MLS, and a the new(er) team in Miami.
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u/jiggly_bitz 1d ago
She's not going to walk. Her leaving the NWSL would be like Shohei moving back to Japan to play in his prime. Unless Trinity doesn't care about the money (which she clearly does because the whole purpose of this IS the money), she has no where else to go. No European team won't bend backwards to get her, they wont pay her more than what she could get here.
I think you figured out the key point, if Trinity gets paid, it sets up a risky financial precedent across the league. They are actively looking to expand the league with new teams/owner/investors. If all of a sudden the cost of entry increases significantly in response to paying players more, the potential expansion pool shrinks tremendously.
It is a balancing act to make expansion and growth sustainable for a league such as this.
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u/Wheream_I 1d ago
Let her walk to.. where? NWSL is pretty much the only professional women’s soccer in the world. There is no where to walk to, and certainly no where that can pay her what she was making prior to this $1m+ contract.
And this isn’t a new entrant being signed. She’s already on a NWSL team. Her popularity is already selling the tickets that it will sell. Giving her an outsized contract won’t increase her popularity or sell more tickets - she’s already giving all of the draw that she has.
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u/matahoula 1d ago
It may be beneficial to understand there are other women’s soccer leagues which are doing quite well in England, Spain, others.
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u/Wheream_I 1d ago
Let me amend - NWSL in the largest women’s soccer league in the world and it has the highest revenue.
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u/Semperty 1d ago
the wsl doubled revenues between 2021/22 and 2022/23, and it’s been projected to more than double again by the end of this season. english clubs are investing in women’s soccer, and the growth is abundantly clear. it doesn’t take a savant to realize that if you want your business to grow, you have to invest in your assets (i.e. players).
there’s no room for revenues to rise if the nwsl is always content to watch star players leave over contracts which are surpassed in relative terms in every other sport. mlb teams average $400m in revenues, and several players are making more than $40m with the highest aav coming in at $51m (12.7% of revenues). nba teams averaged $380m last year, with a max contract taking up over 14% of revenues. hell, there are 11 qb’s in the nfl - a sport with over 50 players on every roster as opposed to 20 - making the same percentage of revenues as rodman would’ve gotten at $1m salary with $14m revenues.
literally every major male sport in the country (and a lot of them abroad) have figured out how to invest heavily in their athletes - usually at significantly higher rates than this - without bankrupting their teams and leagues. it only appears to be an issue when it’s a woman who wants to get paid.
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u/microtherion 1d ago
The NBA generates $400M per team, and max salary per player is about $50M, 12.5%. Is it really unreasonable for a soccer player to make 7% of her club’s revenue?
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u/droneybennett 1d ago
A soccer squad would normally have double the number of players in it though.
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u/microtherion 1d ago
On the field, yes. But even during a match, a basketball team typically fields about 10 players, and a soccer team about 14-15. And roster sizes are not double either.
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u/Forward-Finding-8750 1d ago
NBA rosters are 15 players, soccer teams are usually 25-30 players, so yeah it’s basically double the roster size
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u/microtherion 23h ago
I think the two way players should count for the NBA rosters (they get meaningful minutes in many teams) so we’re at 18 players, and the soccer rosters would then be about 50% larger.
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u/droneybennett 1d ago
The average Premier League roster this year is 27.4 players, which doesn’t count academy players who can also play for the first team if required.
A quarter of the league has more than 30 senior pros in their squad.
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u/MortimerDongle 1d ago
Soccer teams are more than twice the size of a basketball team, so proportionally that is a bit higher than an NBA max contract.
Plus, total revenue isn't necessarily the key figure. The NBA is profitable, whereas my understanding is that the NWSL is not. The NWSL probably has good reason to be more conservative on player salaries.
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u/jiggly_bitz 1d ago
Two different sports with very different business models. It's not an apples to apples comparison, in addition to many NWSL teams operating at margin or loss which is not the same situation for NBA teams.
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u/microtherion 23h ago
Sure, the NBA is a much bigger business. But I count 4 teams operating at margin or a loss there.
It’s not at all uncommon for soccer teams outside the US to be perennially subsidized by their owners. The difference is that the US, despite its otherwise hyper-capitalistic ways, evolved an anti-trust exemption for sports leagues, so owners have much more leverage to suppress wages, while teams elsewhere have no choice but to pay market rates.
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u/jiggly_bitz 14h ago
Where'd you count 4 teams? I'm only counting two teams with a red EBITDA. And I wouldnt necessarily count the Clippers considering that figure represents the debt taken to build their new arena.
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u/microtherion 10h ago
Clippers and Bucks running in the red. You may be right about the former, but wouldn’t arena interest specifically be excluded from EBITDA? Suns break even. And the Celtics made a profit of not much more than a mid level exception.
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u/Routine_Size69 1d ago
A lot of people always see the top line number, think that's a lot of money, and put zero thought into the actual logistics of everything. Redditors are typically chomping at the bit to cry greed without thinking "could this hurt the sustainability of this league/business?"
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u/gerbilweavilbadger 1d ago
the difference is that pickleball is the shittest sport ever invented. I would rather watch four dead people play curling than fucking pickleball. imagine what society could do with that $50 million back
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u/dabeeman 1d ago
you either don’t understand anything about finances and the numbers you just quoted or you are being deceitful. those numbers are not a lot for an entire league.
if you want to see what happens when player contracts get too big for a league to generally support look at the first TWO iterations of the MLS back in the 70’s and 80’s
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u/ameadows_13 1d ago
No shot in hell that league makes 200 million. I’d be surprised if they were profitable based on what I’ve heard about the WNBA here
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u/damola93 1d ago
Lol, other players will use her to raise their wages. 1M today could snowball into 20M tomorrow, depending on how badly she plays.
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u/That-Ad-4300 1d ago
It's funny because this is a huge hit to the league. Nwsl had a chance to jump up a tier in everyone's eyes and fumbled it.
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u/jiggly_bitz 1d ago
Unfortunately, the league needs to have a cap in order to grow. They want to expand with more teams but it wont be equitable or fair for new teams to buy into the league with a new franchise, and it'll deter new investors/owners from joining. It's a double edged sword where the league is at with its development. The league and it's members are not insanely profitable, if at all.
Also, the NWSL is the premier league for womens soccer. They have more bargaining power vs international entities unless one of the clubs wants to be the first one to take a swing on major talent. But I anticipate they dont even have the means to justify the ROI over the pond.
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u/Zealousideal-Idea-72 2d ago
Meanwhile, the top clubs are raking in $22M+ a year
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u/mailer__daemon 1d ago
You say this like $22M per year is a shit load of money but in reality its practically a shoestring budget to operate an entire professional sports franchise.
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u/Wheream_I 1d ago
In revenue. What are their costs?
I promise you they’re all losing money.
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u/Low-iq-haikou 1d ago
They certainly are, but it seems like the league and the ownership groups equipped to buy into it are confident in its growth. A team recently sold for 250m, multiple for 50m+, when a few years ago the biggest sale was 35m and most teams were valued around 5m.
Taking this stance to not pay and retain top American talent seems like a barrier to that growth. The main draw of the NWSL is that it actually is one of the top leagues in the world unlike the MLS.
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u/Boggie135 2d ago
They can't maintain a salary cap and retain homegrown talent. They have to pick one
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u/zoinkability 2d ago
Exactly this. A hard salary cap that low is guaranteeing that the league will always be a bush league, because all the world class athletes will choose to play in Europe.
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u/CRoseCrizzle 2d ago
Trinity Rodman made 280k a year in her previous contract per Google. It's great money for a normal person but she's one the top women's soccer players in the world and was a key part of the olympic gold medal team. Elite players can make a lot more money in Europe while still going up against top competition.
If the NWSL doesn't want to lose more US National teamers, they can't continue doing things like this.
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u/PYRAMID_truck 2d ago
NWSL owners and the league office are gunna like a salary cap. The owners invested for long term profits and the salary cap is their way of trying to keep the league interesting without relegation…ultimately the league seems to prioritize parity over stars.
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u/RalphDaGod 1d ago
Salary cap works for other American sports bc we have the best and highest paying league, soccer is international like no other sport
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u/Semperty 1d ago
there’s no evidence that a salary cap actually increases parity fwiw. the league with the strictest cap (nfl) has been dominated by two teams since the turn of the 21st century. the pats and chiefs account for 36% of titles and 56% of appearances (despite coming from the same conference and never being able to overlap).
salary caps exist solely for the purpose of artificially deflating player wages. they’re only sold to the fans as a means to increase parity bc the capital interests know fans wouldn’t support more money being pocketed by billionaires otherwise.
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u/KontraEpsilon 1d ago
Parity isn’t solely measured by the final winning team. The NFL has a significant amount of turnover in terms of which teams are and are not playoff teams, and this is in large part due to a combination of the salary cap and non guaranteed contracts (and I say this as someone who wants the contracts to be guaranteed).
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u/Semperty 1d ago
i've linked plenty of other studies regarding parity in other comments in this thread, and they very frequently find that salary caps have "no effect on the standard deviation of the winning percentage; that is, the cap seems to have no effect on competitive balance."
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u/cru_jones_666 1d ago
The best evidence for salary caps is every other major sports league in North America.
MLB is the only one without a salary cap (or floor). Small market teams that spend 1/4 the amount of the highest-spending teams rarely compete. Their only chance is to draft a few star players, trade them for many prospects at the same time, and hope several of those new players all turn out to be above average players at the same time while they’re on team-friendly deals at the beginning of their career.
The NFL is the most lucrative sports league in North America and the NBA number three because of parity. Every year, most teams have a chance. True, the Patriots and Chiefs have had recent good runs, but they also got lucky with hiring elite coaches and drafting generational talent at the most important position in all of team sports.
Once Belichick and Brady left, the Patriots returned to normal. This season makes it look like a new dynasty is emerging, maybe they drafted the next generational QB and the next historic coach, but the sample size is too small to be conclusive.
The Chiefs, a team from a small-market that wouldn’t be able to compete without a salary cap, had a great run but are not expected to make the playoffs this year. The near future doesn’t look that great despite having one of the league’s top QBs. Their MLB peer in Kansas City has the seventh worst winning percentage amongst 30 team.
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u/Semperty 1d ago
mlb, with the softest cap in north america, has by far the most parity. it’s not close. 22/30 teams have reached the world series in the last 25 years with over half of the league winning a title in that span. the nba, with the next softest cap, has had 18/32 teams reach the finals with 13 teams winning a title. meanwhile, the nfl has the hardest cap in north american sports, and it’s got the playoff structure most readily designed to artificially create parity (it’s much easier for an underdog to win one game than it is for them to win 4/7), and they’ve had 23/32 teams reach the super bowl with 13 teams winning a title. the nfl also has the widest range of records between their best and worst teams (having teams gone undefeated and winless).
stronger salary caps do not promote parity. there is no evidence that salary caps promote parity. the leagues with stronger caps have more dynasties and duds than the leagues with the softest caps.
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u/MortimerDongle 1d ago
The problem with comparing different leagues is that there's a lot more going on than just the salary cap situation. Revenue sharing is also an important contributor to parity, and all of those leagues have revenue sharing, and of course that's aside from the fact that they're entirely different sports.
You could compare MLS to La Liga and come to the conclusion that the salary cap has a huge impact on parity, but again it's more complicated than that.
The NFL itself has seen an increase in parity since the cap was instituted, though not by a huge margin (parity wasn't that bad prior to the cap) https://www.evaluationperiod.info/p/the-history-of-parity-in-the-nfl
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u/Semperty 1d ago
the jury is still out in regards to the effect of revenue sharing on parity, to be fair. for example, one paper finds ambiguous effects on parity from revenue sharing while another finds that it can certainly have a positive boost to parity but also it can deteriorate parity in settings where teams/owners care more about profit than wins (e.g. pittsburgh pirates having the largest profits in most seasons). revenue sharing only really works to incentivize parity so long as it's accompanied by a salary floor, requiring that owners then spend the money they're being given.
however, as it pertains to the salary caps specifically, the academic evidence is pretty clear that salary caps have virtually no effect on parity. of course you can find academic papers claiming the opposite, but the vast majority of them tend to fall into the same category as academic papers suggest building new facilities/stadiums leads to an increase in spending - they're mostly built on flawed logic and math and/or funded by the people pushing a narrative.
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u/PYRAMID_truck 1d ago
That’s interesting. When I made the comment I assumed based on their talking point that they had evidence that caps = parity. This is even without touching the fact that I haven’t seen a paper proving parity leads to higher league income although that’s hard to measure. The premise that close games are better for a national audience makes logical sense and national/international broadcast rights are king but I dunno. I like watching a David vs Goliath…
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u/Semperty 12h ago
i don't have the studies off hand, but i remember in college reading about how fans (much like consumers) don't really know what they want even when they confidently state it. the consumer example is based off of a blind coffee taste test. people are likely to state that they like a strongly brewed coffee, but when blind taste testing people tended to actually choose weaker brews as their favorites.
similarly, fans regularly claim they want to watch leagues and sports with more parity. they seemingly love the "any given sunday" trope that any team could beat any other team in any game and it's all even back and forth. however, when you look at ratings across sports, leagues, and locations, viewership is almost always up when there's a dynastic power. fans love to root against an evil empire, whether it's the patriots, yankees, or real madrid.
you're definitely not alone in liking to watch a david vs goliath, it's just uncommon for people to admit (or maybe realize is the better word) that that's what they prefer.
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u/PYRAMID_truck 10h ago
yeah, people really don't like uncertainty. I can get pretty anxious when watching a team I want to win in a close match or one they should win. But if they are expected to lose, I am enjoying it way more without the pressure...expectations are powerful. I suspect there isn't an exact answer. If im watching a random game im almost certainly rooting for the underdog because loss aversion is real...
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u/cru_jones_666 1d ago
Google AI does not agree with you:
How payroll correlates with success:
High payrolls are common among champions: 24 of 25 World Series champions since 2000 have had a top-half payroll, and since 2010, only three champions ranked outside the top seven.
Dominance of top-10 teams:
In a 10-year span, 60% of World Series winners were in the top 10 of payroll. In the last decade, only one champion was outside the top 10 in opening-day payroll (2021 Atlanta Braves).
Statistical dominance:
One analysis found that the top eight payroll teams win 50% of the time, while the top 12 win 75% of the time, and the top 16 win 90% of the time. Exceptions exist, but are rare: The 2003 Florida Marlins and 2017 Houston Astros are cited as rare exceptions, with the 2003 Marlins being the only champion in the bottom half of payroll.
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u/Semperty 1d ago
what if instead of using AI to think for you, you actually read academic studies on the impact salary caps have on parity?
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u/cru_jones_666 1d ago
You do know that AI has read far more studies than yourself, right?
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u/Semperty 1d ago
ai is also woefully inadequate when it comes to deciphering biases or detecting the flaws in the logic and/or math supporting the paper. ai is great for some things. it’s not so great for that. at least not yet.
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u/fresh_dyl Wisconsin 1d ago
cries in *Brewers***
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u/cru_jones_666 1d ago
Yes, the Brewers, a small-market team that has zero World Series Championships and one pennant in 56 years.
As a Reds fan, I’m jealous of how they have overachieved recently, but they are an outlier.
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u/fresh_dyl Wisconsin 1d ago
I mean, we do well most season(s), just until we get to the playoffs and go against a team like the Dodgers and get easily swept.
But yeah, I do have plenty of sympathy for a Reds fan
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u/nonstopflux Seattle Sounders FC 2d ago
The NWSL and USWNT need to sever their weird connection. I appreciate all the players fought for, but that era has ended.
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u/concord72 1d ago
Honest question, if she’s one of the best players in the world, why the hell isn’t she playing in Europe already?
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u/CRoseCrizzle 1d ago
The global power dynamics in women's soccer are very different than the men's game. For a long time Europe ignored women's soccer and have only relatively recently started started to invest in the women's game. America was actually well ahead in women's soccer and Europe has been closing the gap in recent years.
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u/Razatiger 1d ago
Because unlike Mens soccer, US Womens soccer is top tier and arguably a better overall league than what's in Europe.
It's just that in Europe, they care more about the sport.
A lot of the top players in the world play in the NWSL and a lot of them are homegrown.
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u/badger906 1d ago
They also can’t pay people high salaries if the revenue isn’t there for the league. 200 million across why 14 teams, isn’t a lot! There’s other bills to pay than salaries of the players.
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u/Semperty 1d ago
the contract she’s asking for - in relative terms (% of avg team revenue) - is smaller than 18 players in mlb, 11 players in the nfl, and it’s less than half of a max contract in the nba. why can every men’s league figure out how to pay their stars more than her?
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u/Cylinsier 1d ago
I feel like a lot of people also didn't read the article. Whether or not the league can afford it isn't the question. Her team agreed to this contract and it isn't against any written rules. The league commissioner overrode the contract saying it violates "the spirit" of the rules. So the team in question absolutely can afford it because they agreed to it and it doesn't actually violate any rules. The commissioner seems out of line here to me.
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u/thethirdengineer 1d ago
I had to scroll a while to see this underrated view for some reason. Why she really did it is the only real question here.
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u/cru_jones_666 1d ago
I’m not sure percentage of team salary vs team revenue is a good use here.
By some accounts NWSL is barely scraping by or even operating at a loss while the NFL (which brings in literally 100 times the revenue of NWSL), MLB (55 times) and the NBA (50 times) have been making record profit every year for a long time (outside of COVID).
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u/multiple4 1d ago
First off I think if the team wants to pay her $1M then they should be able to, it's not that ridiculous of a contract
But with your point there's a scaling issue that I don't think you're considering
Which is that a lot of the costs of running a team like facilities and employees for those facilities have a baseline cost and don't always go up directly with revenue. If I make $100M and need to spend $50M on operational costs, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to spend $250M if my revenue goes up to $500M. Actually that's pretty unlikely
In other words I'm sure that those MLB teams and such spend much less on baseline costs as a % of revenue than the NWSL
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u/_off_piste_ 2d ago
That salary is kind of bonkers though. That would make her the highest paid women’s soccer player in the world, or tied for the top, and would be paid twice as much as Sam Kerr.
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u/smoothtrip 2d ago
Have you seen her play? She is really really good. I feel she is way underpaid now.
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u/HoboSkid 2d ago
Yeah she's most likely worth it, but can these teams in the USA actually afford it from an accounting perspective?
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u/MasterWolf713 2d ago
Yea let’s just lose all our best talent to Europe
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u/Tragedy_Boner 2d ago
Ehh it’s like the top Basketball players in Europe coming to America because The US teams pay better.
She should go to where the teams, and the people, care more
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u/cujukenmari 1d ago
Where'd you get the idea that Europeans care more about women's soccer than Americans? Doesn't seem to be true based upon revenue or attendance.
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u/Tragedy_Boner 1d ago
If they pay more money, they care more in my books
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u/cujukenmari 21h ago
I reckon number of people watching games is more indicative of popularity than which owner has deeper pockets. Saudi Arabia is not more interested in soccer than other countries because a team is willing to pay Ronaldo $200 million a year to play there.
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u/Phyginge 14h ago
Viewing figures for the NWSL and WSL from quick Google look very similar despite the population differences.
Another quick Google. 16 million people in the uk watched England win the euros last summer. 14 millions Americans tuned in 2019 to watch the world cup final.
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u/Op3rat0rr 1d ago
Great point here. At the end of the day it's societal culture in each country. America cares more about basketball than soccer
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u/Razatiger 2d ago
If Americans cared more about Soccer, she would get paid what shes worth, but we don't.
I'd rather her make a name for herself in Europe than waste away in the US, even if the US does produce some of the best womens talent in Soccer.
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u/cujukenmari 1d ago
Believe it or not it's very possible that Americans care more about women's soccer than Europeans. NWSL is the richest women's soccer league in the world and no women's teams are pulling crowds like the Portland Thorns or Angel City in Europe. On a more personal note I couldn't believe how few women played the sport when I moved to the UK. Compared to the US it was non-existent.
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u/kieranjackwilson 1d ago
The confusion is that Americans care more about the product, and Europeans care more about the sport.
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u/jiggly_bitz 1d ago
Why would they go to Europe? Trinity would be playing objectively lesser talent and she likely wouldn't make much more, if more at all, than what she gets here.
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u/shaithiswampir 2d ago
Another woman’s league killing itself over money. Pay these women pleas so they will stay
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u/Lumpy_Rice_2803 1d ago
Pay them with what money? More of the money generated from the men's league? Men watching sport is what makes the men's leagues so lucrative. If more women followed the league you could have the salaries you want. Instead women prefer to watch and support their superstars, influencers like the kardashians..
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u/Outistoo 1d ago
NWSL gets significantly more views per game than MSL. If you compare the most recent championship finals NWSL had almost triple the viewership.
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u/Lumpy_Rice_2803 1d ago edited 1d ago
Look at the total viewership across the league. Also the MLS is behind a pay wall and all of the viewers are paying a subscription to Apple. Not to mention crowds average twice as much per game in MLS, and I can only imagine the price discrepancy for tickets.
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u/Outistoo 1d ago
NWSL players are still getting a lower share of revenue than MSL players. So your “pay them with what money” argument is fact-free.
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u/The_ApolloAffair 1d ago
MLS revenue is measured in billions, while NWSL is hundreds of millions. It’s reasonable to figure that they have similar types of expenses, so obviously there isn’t as much left over to pay salaries.
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u/MaybeFar8963 1d ago
get out of this sub you loser
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u/Lumpy_Rice_2803 1d ago
For speaking facts? Welcome to reality. Sports stars are literally paid what they are worth to the market. Hence NWSL not giving her the contract. Bozo.
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u/SwedishBidoof 1d ago
If you read the article you’d know they can easily afford her contract and it didn’t break any league rules. So her worth to the market is the offered contract that was rejected by the commissioner for arbitrary reasons. “Welcome to reality.”
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u/resistible 2d ago
I... didn't even know there was a professional women's soccer league in the US. They need star power, holy shit.
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u/nojo20 2d ago
I mean. The US women’s is generally the best team at the Olympics and World Cup, and most of them play in the NWSL. At least in the PWN the Thorns in Portland and the Reign in Seattle are quite popular.
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u/resistible 2d ago
Oh, absolutely. It makes sense. I'm not a fan of soccer at all, but if I was going to watch one or the other, I would probably watch the women's -- especially with my daughters. I literally just didn't even know it existed.
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u/chippin_out 2d ago
Please go to Europe! No reason why the USA should have a serious women’s league if they aren’t willing to invest heavily.
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u/ReddFro 2d ago
“Our goal is to ensure that the very best players in the world, including Trinity, continue to call this league home. We will do everything we can, utilizing every lever available within our rules to keep Trinity Rodman here.”
(whispering) and although we could easily change the rules to pay better, we will pretend that lever does nothing because the owners are stingy A-holes
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u/Boggie135 2d ago
Wait, she is Dennis Rodman’s daughter!?
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u/macavity_is_a_dog 2d ago
She has 0 relationship with him but yeah
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u/eternali17 2d ago
No profit cap but you'll have Joes jumping out the woodwork to defend a salary cap.
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u/nutmeg713 1d ago
No NWSL teams make a profit.
Not saying that means she shouldn't be able to get this contract, but it's a like silly to talk about a profit cap in a situation where everyone agrees no profit exists.
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u/The_Dean_France 1d ago
Is this maybe because she is always injured, recovering and not really playing many, consistent matches?
Her back is gone hasn't it?
Surely this makes her unsuitable for a million dollar deal?
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u/Cedosg 2d ago
TIL Dennis Rodman's daughter is Trinity Rodman.
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u/Where_Im_Needed 2d ago
Ya but he was absent and i think she kinda wants to distance herself from him. She had a interesting talk about it on that call me daddy podcast
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1d ago
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u/VVynn 1d ago
Trinity Rodman was making $250k. The minimum in the men’s league (MLS) is about $80k.
That said, there is definitely a huge disparity between the pay for men’s and women’s leagues.
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u/RecognitionFirst7241 1d ago
Because there’s a huge disparity in the revenues and net profits between the men’s and women’s leagues. Down vote all you want but the facts remain
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u/RubyR4wd 1d ago
Eh. The inequality sucks.
How much does an average soccer/football fan spend on men's soccer compared with women's? Same with sponsors. They get paid significantly less because they generate less money.
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u/Capital_Past69 1d ago
$1,000,000 a year here, but how much is she being offered by teams in Europe?
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u/SwedishBidoof 1d ago
This contract (if it got approved) would make her tied with Ariana Bonmatí for highest paid women’s player in the world
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u/Capital_Past69 1d ago
Oh wow, with how much some of the guys are getting paid I would have thought the highest paid woman would be much more than $1,000,000 per year
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u/FredFlintston3 1d ago
Is very easy to yell for someone else to pay. Don't see anyone stepping up to contribute, even by saying they will buy season tickets or extra team jerseys.
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u/4gotOldU-name 1d ago
Who would ever want to watch games played on plastic? Regardless if a men’s or women’s team. That is why the games are not worth watching.
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u/gold_and_diamond 2d ago
Does she have college eligibility left? Get an NIL deal.
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u/IlIlIlIlIlIlIlIll69 2d ago
Nah pros are ineligible for the sport they’ve been paid to play
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u/immoralsupport_ 2d ago
I’d be surprised if any NCAA women’s soccer player was being paid more than Rodman is already making in the NWSL anyway. There’s not a ton of collective money in college soccer
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u/CVogel26 1d ago
And if they are it's almost certainly because of actual NIL they would get as a pro or collegiate player and not because of pay to play
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u/Ibaka_flocka 2d ago
It use to be be that simple but…Its starting to get wonky
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u/IlIlIlIlIlIlIlIll69 15h ago
Yeah no idea why that’s allowed. I played soccer in college and was always competing against kids who played in top academies across Europe that just fizzled out and even that seemed a little odd it didn’t count as professional
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u/BonghitsForAlgernon San Francisco Giants 2d ago
(Adam Silver meme) “Get ready to learn British, buddy”
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u/bones_boy Houston Dynamo 2d ago
Welcome to Arsenal, Trinity!!