The draft is also about creating parity, a cornerstone of the NWSL that has long made it the most unpredictable, competitive and entertaining league in the world. Drafts inherently allow the worst teams to acquire the best available new players, the idea being that those teams can rebuild and compete better. Yet players don’t necessarily want to sign up to join the worst team, a problem that has previously dogged the league. Neither of the two top-six draft picks by Sky Blue FC (now Gotham FC) in 2019 reported to the team that spring, instead choosing to sign in Europe. Sky Blue was the laughingstock of the NWSL at the time and made global headlines for its unprofessional standards; players drafted there had no obligation to show up and also had options beyond the NWSL.
Bay FC general manager Lucy Rushton acknowledges that the biggest challenge of the draft system is that a player’s inability to choose their team might mean the entire league loses out on them. Rushton comes to the NWSL from MLS, which also uses a draft system — one that has changed drastically over time. She sees value in the NWSL draft, particularly given the lack of current infrastructure to support other entry methods.
“I think it comes down to your beliefs on youth development, your head coach’s willingness to work with young players, and their beliefs around talent development and their qualities and skills around talent development,” Rushton said. “It’s totally different coaching a group of average age 28 to 32, to having an average age of 24 in your roster. It’s a totally different way of coaching.”
The draft is not evil, nor is it irrelevant. It is uniquely American, something that existed from the idea that the NWSL had a monopoly on American talent. It has no such status, which league executives increasingly understand. There might be better ways for players to develop and transition from amateurs to professionals, ultimately, and the draft is another element of the NWSL caught in the crosshairs of what is best for the sport and best for the business. Right now, NWSL business is booming, with expansion fees increasing tenfold over a few years and the Thorns’ recent record sale for $60 million. Whether the sporting and commercial prerogatives of the NWSL can co-exist is an ongoing tension that won’t soon go away.
“One of the reasons that we are able to increase enterprise value of our franchises the way we have is because of some of those mechanisms like a salary cap, like an expansion draft,” Berman said. “It is what creates intrinsic value of a franchise. It’s the reason that the United States has led the world in increasing franchise values for professional sports leagues in leagues like the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball.”
