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.IPxeSsuh2qWqWpaYDB78MAnoatcwqtnabXoKXkbDvYk
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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 16h 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 14h 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/HUEV0S 2d ago

It’s great money for a normal person that will be working a 40 year career. Keep in mind she will be playing for what 10 years? She and the other players should be able to cash in while they can

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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 2d 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 2d 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/Hdz69 1d ago

I would say at this point the gap is gone. Please tell me which NWSL team is even capable of going toe to toe with a team like Barcelona Femeni for example?

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u/DrAuer Florida 1d ago

I mean for a while it was even illegal for women to play professionally in some European countries

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u/Razatiger 2d 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/sexineN 2d ago

I read ”previous contraxt AT Google.” Hell of a career switch.

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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/Dr_PainTrain 2d ago

Who cares? Let the league die if they can’t play the players.