BREAKING: NWSL officially institutes "High Impact Player" rule (for some reason)
It's official! (and weird!)
The NWSL has officially announced the creation of the “High Impact Player” rule.
Frankly, this is just TAM with extra (and very unserious) steps. But the chance to spend more money is good for Atlanta’s Unnamed NWSL Team and it’s at least a starting point for the NWSL to move toward roster mechanisms that allow teams to keep the league’s best (kind of) players.
We already ran through a brief explainer on this one when it first got reported, but, now that it’s official and approved by the NWSLPA, we know exactly how it will work. And, folks, it’s goofy as hell.
We’ll do our best to do a TL;DR on what’s happening here.
The NWSL is a salary cap league.
A player’s salary for the season is all that counts against the cap, transfer fees do not.
Some players are beginning to have market values that have outpaced the small increases to the salary cap that happen each year.
So, for example, if a star player like Trinity Rodman is set to sign a new contract, there’s a decent chance a team in Europe can offer her more than an NWSL team reasonably could. As good as Rodman is, one player taking up an outsized portion of a salary cap can quickly turn into bad business for individual teams.
Which, of course, is bad business for the NWSL. The league (and its markets) need stars to stick around.
FACT: The NWSL is a soccer league based in the United States of America.
So, naturally, instead of doing something normal about this problem, they’ve decided to do something weird.
They could have just raised the salary cap and let teams spend what they need, how they want. They’ve chosen to go with HIPs instead.
Why? To protect owners who don’t want to spend as much from scrutiny and because no one with a business degree gets paid to suggest things should be changed simply, they get paid to come up with cool acronyms and initialisms that create value for shareholders (probably).
Now, if you’ve got a spare roster rules helmet around from your MLS days, it’s time to put it on. This is going to get goofy.
The creation of HIPs allows clubs to exceed that year’s established salary cap by $1 million.
A team can have multiple HIPs, so long as the collective salaries of those players don’t push teams over that $1 million threshold.
Only HIPs can count against that extra $1 million.
So, for example, if your current roster is taking up $2.5 million of the current year’s $3.5 million salary cap, you could add an HIP who makes $2 million. The extra $1 million will be covered by their HIP status.
If your current roster is taking up $2.5 million of the current year’s $3.5 million salary cap, you could add two HIPs who each make $1 million to bring your salary total to $4.5 million. The extra $1 million will be covered by their HIP status.
That $1 million number will increase at the same rate as the salary cap.
The NWSL’s base salary cap for 2026 is $3.5 million. When Atlanta enters the league in 2028, the base salary cap will be $4.7 million.
According to several Georgia Tech graduates, that puts the HIP allotment at $1.34 million during Atlanta’s inaugural season.
This is all kind of ridiculous, when, again, you could just raise the salary cap. But it somehow gets even goofier.
You might have been thinking that teams can determine who they make an HIP. Nope. That’s all going to be determined by the league. And the league has decided to offload the job to the world’s most correct class: Bloggers.
That’s not a bit. This is what’s happening. Someone decided people like me should be in charge of this. Direct from the NWSL, here are the criteria a player must meet to become an HIP.
Player is on SportsPro Media Top 150 Most Marketable Athletes within the one (1) year prior to the current league season; or,
Player is selected in the Top 30 in Ballon d’Or voting in the two (2) years prior to the current league season; or
Player is selected in the Top 40 of the Guardian Top 100 football players in the world in the two (2) years prior; or
Player is selected in the Top 40 of ESPN FC Top 50 football players in the world in the two (2) years prior; or
Top 11 minutes played for the USWNT in the prior two (2) calendar years for field players for all competition types; or
Top one (1) minutes played for USWNT in the prior two (2) calendar years for goalkeepers for all competition types; or
Player selected as NWSL MVP Finalist within previous the two (2) league seasons; or
Player selected to the End of Year NWSL Best XI First Team within the previous two (2) league seasons.
I, for one, can’t wait for our first scandal where an NWSL front office leaves a duffel bag full of money in the back of a Guardian Top 100 voter’s pre-owned Subaru (235k miles) so their fringe HIP of choice can get a boost into the top 40.
Now, you might have also been wondering: Are the players happy about this?
Dear reader, no. No they are not.
The NWSLPA has an incredibly reasonable suggestion here. This could get messy. It’s not clear what path they’ll take to fight against this—They’ll probably file a grievance for whatever that’s worth—and the current CBA runs through 2030. But, considering the player and fan reaction to this, there is a decent chance this mechanic won’t even exist by the time Atlanta’s Unnamed NWSL Team arrives.
We’ll keep you updated. Aren’t you glad to have a new league in your life?