From ending drafts to revenue sharing: Inside the NWSL’s radical new CBA

The National Women’s Soccer League’s new collective bargaining agreement is radical by American sports standards, but the league has clearly made the changes to position itself to compete globally.

All forms of draft have been abolished, and there are no longer any restrictions on movement for out-of-contract players. Young players will now enter the league by signing with teams, rather than being selected at random. Free agents will have equal rights to sign where they want. Contracts are now guaranteed, and no trades can be executed without the player’s consent.

The changes represent a drastic shift toward player agency in a single-entity league where, historically, clubs had absolute power. They also clearly answer a yearslong dilemma that NWSL brass has grappled with: Is the NWSL competing with other American leagues, or the rest of the soccer world?

The answer is affirmatively the latter. The new CBA was ratified over two years before the expiration of the previous deal. This new agreement, which effectively supersedes the old one, runs through 2030, meaning there is labor peace for the foreseeable future.

What do these changes mean, and why are they so revolutionary? Let’s dive in.

Goodbye to drafts

The player entry draft is gone, and so too is the expansion draft for future teams joining the league. This decision stands opposite the norm in U.S. sports: All the major men’s leagues, and the WNBA, utilize drafts.

In our recent anonymous survey of general managers, NWSL GMs were split down the middle on whether to keep the draft. Those in favor of keeping the draft pointed to the lack of alternative options in place, such as academies where teams can naturally develop and identify players. One GM said it could turn into “a total mess and a s—show” without alternative methods.

Well, we’re about to find out. The abolition of the draft took immediate effect, meaning the current crop of college players who are in-season, and who might have been thinking about entering the draft, are about to dive head-first into the open market of negotiation.

To be fair, this is how it works globally. The NWSL draft as a collective already competed against top European clubs annually for great young talents, such as U.S. international Catarina Macario, who chose Lyon over the NWSL in 2021. The NWSL was at a disadvantage because players could not guarantee which team would draft them, though there is a long history of backroom deals to honor player demands.

Several GMs pointed out that anything could be considered a competitive advantage, and that one team spending more on charter flights is no different than another team spending more on facilities or staff.

The WNBA expects to spend $25 million annually on charter flights. Soccer teams and staffs are larger, but they also generally play less frequently than basketball teams. One GM estimated that a round-trip charter flight might cost $120,000 (varying greatly depending on destination), while a commercial flight might cost roughly one-third of that.

The financial cost is a trade-off for the physical cost on players.

“Honestly, it is a nightmare trying to figure out your schedule and do things that are appropriate [to the rules],” a different GM said. “You either end up having to sacrifice player rest and recovery to try and get home quicker, or you lose a day stuck in a place because you can’t get a flight until later that night and then you’ve lost a day, and then that’s not allowed to be a [required] day off. And so, then you have to give the next day off.”

Charter flights have been grouped under “workload management” by the NWSL Players Association, which includes a guaranteed midseason break and minimum of 28 days off during the offseason (concepts that existed in the previous CBA).

More money — and potential sharing

The salary cap will increase annually over the next six years, as will the minimum player salary. The new minimum salary of $48,500 in 2025 is over $9,000 more than originally planned under the old CBA; by 2030, the minimum salary will be $82,500.

A set base salary cap for the next six years — increasing to $3.3 million in 2025 and reaching $5.1 million by 2030 — also allows teams to prepare for the future in ways they could not previously. In the past, the NWSL would set its new team salary cap each year — often, many executives argued, so late in the year as to hamstring teams from making clear, long-term decisions. Now, everyone can plan ahead.

Notably, the largest annual jump is scheduled for between 2026 ($3.5 million) and 2027 ($4.4 million). That’s when the U.S. will co-host the men’s World Cup in 2026, an event that executives across the country believe will drive further growth in soccer at all levels.