When Washington plays Chicago this Sunday in DC, “Rowdy Audi” will probably be full. It will also be full when the post-season starts, should they lock up their top-four position with a positive result on Decision Day. Equipped with an accessible stadium in a big city, a proud fanbase and a formidable roster rife with players qualifying for the High Impact Player (HIP) rule’s initial criteria (including Trinity Rodman, who gave the rule its moniker), the Spirit hold sway in the attendance charts.
But starting next season, everyone on the Spirit will qualify for the “Rodman Rule”. So will every player in NWSL. Announced Friday, NWSL settled a grievance with the league’s Players Association, who argued that the initial criteria violated federal labor law.
Admittedly, when the new policy arrived on the scene last winter, it appeared half-baked, a somewhat frantic attempt to keep Rodman from floating across the Atlantic and doing something terrible, like playing for Michele Kang’s London City Lionesses instead of Michele Kang’s Washington Spirit.
A rule was born to prevent that. It allocated added funds beyond the salary cap for players who met league-set criteria that clearly prioritized international name recognition in a global market. Qualifying players needed to meet one of eight categories including SportsPro Media’s top 150 Most Marketable Athletes (only Alessia Russo and Aitana Bonmatí placed in 2026, though 16 female football players did in 2025, including three in the NWSL at the time – Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson and Marta, in that order). It also included ESPN’s Top 50, the Guardian’s top 100, top minutes on the US national team, the Ballon d’Or’s 30-player list, or NWSL’s MVP and Best XI awards.
Some measure of umbrage followed, as invested onlookers argued for a simpler solution: just raise the salary cap. And perhaps they should, but keeping an American-style sports league competitive in a global football landscape is less straightforward. The looming spectre of Europe’s super-teams, who have attracted key members of the USWNT starting XI, is ever present, waiting to take Croix Bethune away for the right amount of money. No doubt, the NWSL’s appeal is evident in its expansion and growth, in the success of its spine of stateside stalwarts, in its rapidly expanding dedicated facilities, and in the international talents such as Esme Morgan or Ann-Katrin Berger that choose to sharpen their skills in the US.
However, the domestic sporting culture of the NWSL is somewhat at odds, in some ways a disadvantage, when it comes to maintaining its margins, with a stand-alone team structure in a parity-driven league, while competing for international glory with teams such as Chelsea, Lyon or Barcelona, who spend three times or more the amount that some NWSL teams do. While competing for status as the world’s go-to destination, for players and fans, glory hunting and name recognition do matter.
Just look at the Ballon d’Or: Barcelona’s women took all but one of the awards available to them, though Alexia Putellas, who collected her third main prize, now plays in London. That Putellas deserves her trophy is not in dispute, though the inequitable factors contributing to international accolades were manifest. Putellas starred for two super-teams: Barcelona and Spain. Ewa Pajor, Barcelona’s Polish striker, fell just short, perhaps edged out by only having one super-team to play for.
Alexia Putellas’ performances for two super-teams – Barcelona and Spain – offered a fine platform for her to win the Ballon d’Or again. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA Subtly, it seemed, the original criteria for the HIP rule flirted with the idea of fostering a super-team in the US. Prior to the update, there was no cap on the number of players who could access the extra million if the salary cap was already met. For a team such as Kang’s in Washington, the door felt open, possibly, to building a team even more ready to contend with the heavy spenders in Europe (including those also funded by Kang), and the international accolades that go with it. If a NWSL player lifted the NWSL trophy, helped win January’s inaugural Club World Cup, then performed well at the World Cup, could a second NWSL (active) player win the Ballon d’Or?
The structure of the HIP rule remains in place. Teams that have met 2027’s salary cap of $4.4m (£3.3m) in 2027 can spend an additional $1.257m (as reported by ESPN) on a player. The post-grievance difference is that teams can spend that additional sum on any player. Gone are the stipulations mandating adherence to that eight-criteria list of global recognition.
The change is a win for players that did not meet it, which includes elite players who fell short in previous seasons (such as Ashley Sanchez) or star players with long-lasting or recurring injuries (Catarina Macario). It gives the NWSL’s individual teams the autonomy to decide which players are worthy, based on whatever criteria they see fit. And, with a cap on the number of players that can access it, it gives cash-strapped teams the theoretical ability to rein in teams with already-stacked rosters.
But the spirit of NWSL’s original criteria has more merit than many suggest. The NWSL is responsible for securing overhead issues such as an improved media rights deal, marketing marquee names to broadcasters, ensuring the league is seen as the go-to destination before a World Cup and performing well in global cup competitions such as the Concacaf W Champions Cup (Mexico’s Club América prevailed in the most recent final) or the upcoming Club World Cup. With that in mind – plus the ever-pressing desire to keep USWNT players in the US – the original HIP criteria had its eye on awarding stardom as it’s seen in the global market.
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Stardom is imprecise. It’s hard to measure, but impossible to miss. Rodman did not make the Ballon d’Or shortlist and is not leading the Golden Boot race. But Rodman and her closest national team peers (including “Triple Espresso” compadres Mallory Swanson and Wilson) are the presumed stars of the NWSL. Rodman, alongside Wilson (who clocked the Michael Jordan “shrug” celebration after scoring in the 2022 Championship final) have not just the skill but the personality flourishes reminiscent of Alex Morgan sipping the tea in Lyon.
The NWSL has yet to replicate the Morgan effect (think default attendance records and adoring away fans), but requiring that teams reward players with a certain je ne sais quoi in their international football fame was baked into the league’s original attempt at the HIP criteria.
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