Driving the Next 50 Years of Growth in Women's Sports
SD Wave chase playoffs as NWSL players gain new power
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Players celebrate the new NWSL-union contract Saturday with matching shirts. Photo: San Diego Wave FC
As the San Diego Wave fight for a spot in the NWSL playoffs, its players won an historic contract with the league that raises salaries and eliminates the draft.
Why it matters: The agreement puts new pressure on clubs to attract talent, as players have more power to choose which team they want to join.
- It gives the league agency over its business and the players agency over their careers, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement last week.
Driving the news: The NWSL and its players union announced the collective-bargaining pact last week. It runs through 2030 and makes the NWSL the first major U.S. professional sports league to ditch its draft.
- The agreement also increases investments in staffing, allows for more charter flights, improves facilities, and allows the league to build a year-round schedule.
- All trades will now require player consent.
What they're saying: "... To be able to choose where you want to live, where you want to play — with all considerations of reproductive rights, tax laws, culture, and facilities and everything within a team in a state that's provided — it's so important for the player to have that power back," Wave forward and USWNT icon Alex Morgan told Good Morning America.
- Morgan and Wave teammate Makenzy Doniak helped negotiate the contract as members of the players union bargaining committee.
- The Wave did not reply to Axios' request for comment.
The intrigue: The new contract also expands parental leave, child care and family-planning benefits.
- It allows players to travel with their kids and a child care provider, and improves access to fertility clinics, according to Morgan.
By the numbers: Under the new agreement, minimum salaries will be bumped from $37,856 to $48,500 in 2025 and $82,500 in 2030.
- There is no limit for a player's maximum salary, and the league's base salary cap will increase from $3.3 million in 2025 to just over $5 million in 2030.
Reality check: In San Diego County, annual income of $53,050 or less is considered very low, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
- When the minimum pay jumps in 2030, the $82,500 minimum would qualify as low income based on 2024 numbers.
The latest: Wave defender Abby Dahlkemper was traded to Bay FC in exchange for $50,000 in allocation money, the teams announced Monday. She requested the move back home.
- The 2019 World Cup champion was the first player to sign with the Wave ahead of its inaugural season.
State of play: The team returned from the midseason break Saturday with its Olympians on the field and new interim head coach Landon Donovan at the helm.
- They lost, 2-1, to rival Angel City FC in Donovan's NWSL coaching debut at Snapdragon Stadium.
- That leaves the team in 11th place and with a deeper hole to dig out of to earn a spot in the playoffs, which includes the top eight teams.
What's next: The Wave are back at Snapdragon on Sunday to play the second-place, offensive powerhouse Washington Spirit.