The WNBA kicks off its 30th season in May, but that doesn’t mean fans have to wait until the spring to see stars take the court.
Unrivaled, the three-on-three professional women’s basketball league, tipped off its season on Jan. 5. In its second season, the league is hitting the road for Philly is Unrivaled, in which four of the eight teams will head to Xfinity Mobile Arena for a doubleheader.
Here’s everything you need to know:
What is Unrivaled?
Unrivaled is a three-on-three professional women’s basketball league that provides WNBA players with an opportunity to play domestically during the offseason.
Its inaugural season tipped off on January 17, 2025, with six teams. The league now has eight teams and a total of 54 players.
The teams are: Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom, Vinyl, and the two new additions — Hive and Breeze.
Gameplay features three seven-minute quarters with a game clock, an 18-second shot clock, and six fouls per player.
The fourth quarter of play uses a “winning score” rule. This means at the end of the third quarter, officials determine a winning score by adding 11 points to the leading team’s score. The first team to get to that winning number wins the game.
In addition to the two new teams, another change this season is a development pool of six players. None of these athletes are assigned to a specific team at the start of the season but remain on-site and serve as injury-relief players.
Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier (right) and Skylar Diggins are among injured Unrivaled players this season.
How did Unrivaled start?
WNBA players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier founded Unrivaled in 2023 to give players a new option for offseason play.
Within just one year, the league raised $35 million in capital and attracted sponsors like Miller Lite and Under Armour, while being backed by other professional athletes including U.S. women’s soccer star Alex Morgan.
Unrivaled began with six teams and 36 total players, with each of the 36 earning more than $220,000 in salary. The league also offers players equity and revenue sharing, which has created an incentive for WNBA players to not head overseas during the offseason.
In its second season, the league will feature more than a dozen first-time players, including Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, and Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers.
While Unrivaled games typically are played at Sephora Arena in Medley, Fla., the 2026 season has one scheduled stop in Philadelphia.
Philly is Unrivaled, a doubleheader announced in October at LOVE Park, is set for Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Game 1 is Breeze against Phantoms (7:30 p.m.), while the second game features last year’s champion, Rose, against the Lunar Owls (8:45 p.m.).
Breeze guard Paige Bueckers (5) is defended by Phantom guard Tiffany Hayes in their Unrivaled season opener.
How can I watch Unrivaled?
For the 2026 season, Unrivaled games can be viewed on traditional TV via TNT and truTV or streamed on HBO Max. Both games of Philly is Unrivaled will air on those channels.
Stateside Live! has partnered with the league and Miller Lite to offer watch parties for Friday’s doubleheader. The official pregame begins at 4:30 p.m.
Who should I be on the lookout for?
Natasha Cloud, a guard for Phantom, is a Broomall native and graduate of Cardinal O’Hara and St. Joseph’s. Cloud, a three-time WNBA All-Defensive team honoree, was traded to New York Liberty ahead of the 2025 WNBA season after stints with the Phoenix Mercury and Washington Mystics.
This also is a pro hoops homecoming for North Philly native Kahleah Copper, who plays for Rose and the Mercury. She starred at Prep Charter before moving on to Rutgers. Copper, a four-time WNBA All-Star, also won a gold medal with the United States women’s basketball team at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
While she won’t be competing in Philly is Unrivaled, former Villanova star Maddy Siegrist is playing for Laces in her debut Unrivaled season. Siegrist set Villanova’s all-time scoring record before getting drafted third overall by the Wings.
Can I still get Unrivaled tickets?
While Philly is Unrivaled is officially sold out, tickets are still available on the secondary market via websites such as Ticketmaster and StubHub. Prices started at $35 for standing room only, as of Wednesday afternoon.
Unrivaled tickets for the league’s Florida games can be purchased on their website or resale ticket websites, including Ticketmaster, Vivid Seats, and GoTickets.
Temple coach Diane Richardson is not from Philadelphia. She spent much of her life in the Maryland and Washington region, which included several coaching stints in the area.
When Richardson was hired at Temple in 2022, she got a taste of what the Big 5 — and sports in general — mean to the city. But seeing how Philly responded to the women’s side of the Big 5 intrigued Richardson. It made her want to grow women’s basketball even more.
Richardson has become an advocate for professional women’s basketball and hopes to bring more eyes to the game, with a WNBA franchise set to come to Philadelphia in 2030. In the meantime, Unrivaled will make its first trip out of the Miami area and play at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday.
“It really sets the tone for what Philly has to come,” Richardson said. “The WNBA is coming here in a few years and to have Unrivaled come here, the first place that they have come to, it really shows the support that’s here for women’s basketball and how Philly’s grabbing ahold of it. So I’m excited about it. I’m really excited about the representation. I’m excited for the young girls in Philly to be able to see that up close and personal.”
Basketball was not always Richardson’s calling card. She was named one of the top female executives in the country in 1995, but she left her post as founder and chief operating officer of American Security Corporation to pursue a different passion, mentoring young girls through basketball.
Part of Richardson’s inspiration to make that change came from former college basketball coach and current color commentator Carolyn Peck. Richardson crossed paths with Peck during a recruiting visit with a player while Peck was at the University of Florida and Richardson was coaching at Riverdale Baptist School in Upper Marlboro, Md. She was enamored by Peck’s drive to help young athletes.
“I saw the care she had with her student-athletes and how she wanted to project women’s sports,” Richardson said. “I was just amazed and inspired that when you can be in a position like that, you can actually inspire other people. I left corporate America to coach because I saw her example. And I love what I’m doing now.”
Richardson arrived on North Broad before the 2022 season and quickly got to work, not just with her new program, but with women’s basketball overall.
Richardson bought into the Big 5 Classic, and when the format changed before the 2024-25 season, she was all for it. The the tripleheader has been held at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion the first two seasons. While Richardson believes the first two iterations have been successful, there is more to be done.
“I think we could use some more exposure,” Richardson said. “We’re playing at Villanova and the guys are playing downtown [at Xfinity Mobile Arena]. And I think if we put enough money into it, enough marketing into it, and we can market it locally and get a lot of people there.”
Richardson also has her team engage with the community in women’s basketball events. The Owls held a camp with Skilladelphia, a basketball clinic for young girls, and attended a WNBA watch party with Watch Party PHL to see a game that featured Jonquel Jones, Natasha Cloud, and Kahleah Copper.
Temple attended a WNBA watch party in July at Libertee Grounds.
A key part of Richardson’s involvement over her four years at Temple has been the involvement of Jones and Copper. Jones, who plays for the New York Liberty, is Richardson’s adopted daughter and makes the trip to Philly whenever she can.
She acted as a tour guide when the Owls went to the Bahamas in November. Copper, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, is from North Philly and has been a great friend of the program. She attended many practices during Richardson’s first two seasons.
New York Liberty star Jonquel Jones (second from left), the adopted daughter of Temple women’s college basketball coach Diane Richardson, was courtside to watch the Owls play the Drexel on Dec. 7.
Having professionals involved with the program has been beneficial for the team. It’s an opportunity to see what basketball can do for them.
“Coach Rich is really great at networking,” said junior guard Kaylah Turner. “We’ll have little meetings here and there to meet this person and that person she wants us to talk to. She knows that every person has one thing that we can take away from, as far as lessons. We meet a lot of different people, and just watching her, she knows everybody.”
Richardson brought her whole team to the Unrivaled announcement event on Oct. 2, when the pro three-on-three league announced it would visit the city on Jan. 30. Unrivaled is the next step to growing women’s basketball in the area.
Richardson hopes a lot comes from Unrivaled, including gaining more women’s basketball fans.
“I hope that the people who talk bad about women’s sports and the WNBA will see that this is true basketball,” Richardson said. “It’s not just some stuff on the corners. It’s not just AAU or church league. This is real professional basketball, and it should be respected as such.”
After Unrivaled, the city will have four years to prepare to welcome its WNBA team. The support that has come from Unrivaled is encouraging, and Richardson believes that with continued marketing, Philly will be more than ready for a pro team.
Temple coach Diane Richardson calls plays against Charlotte on Saturday.
“With the WNBA coming here … we’re going to be exploding,” Richardson said. “To get Unrivaled sold out in a matter of days, that tells you we are ready for the WNBA. I think if we continue to have programs and events like that, it’ll get there, and I think we’ll have sold-out stadiums when the WNBA gets here.”
In her short time in the city, Richardson has been at the forefront of the push to grow women’s basketball here. She hopes others will see the beauty in the sport, too.
“If they are a true sports fan, they will love women’s basketball,” Richardson said. “And it’s not just to say that it’s women’s basketball, but if you love sports, you’ll love women’s basketball, because it’s basketball.”
Temple’s hopes of beating Charlotte on Saturday seemed lost in the third quarter’s closing seconds. The Owls were trailing by 26 points, and they looked far from the team that had beaten South Florida just four days earlier.
But something changed. A technical foul against Charlotte guard Princess Anderson with 17 seconds left in the third quarter seemed to be the catalyst of the Owls finding some momentum.
Temple coach Diane Richardson found a lineup that worked and stuck with it through the final frame as the Owls mounted a furious comeback. They chipped away at the 49ers’ lead and were within one possession in the final three minutes. Temple took its first, and only, lead with three seconds remaining, when guard Tristen Taylor made two free throws to put her team up, 83-82.
Charlotte’s halfcourt heave at the buzzer fell short, giving Temple (9-10, 3-4 American Conference) a spot in history. The Owls’ 26-point comeback was the largest in program history and tied for third-largest in NCAA women’s basketball history.
“It showed the resilience we had; it showed we weren’t giving up,” Richardson said. “They just rallied together, not looking at the score, and executed. I’m really proud of them.”
The Owls also showed resilience in their previous game against South Florida on Jan. 20, when they overcame a 10-point second-half deficit to snap a three-game skid.
Aside from a much larger deficit vs. Charlotte, Temple looked disengaged on defense and was getting outworked for rebounds. The energy that helped push the Owls past South Florida was nonexistent for 30 minutes on Saturday — until their fourth-quarter lineup took the court.
Richardson played Taylor, guards Kaylah Turner, Savannah Curry, and forward Saniyah Craig for all 10 minutes and forward Felicia Jacobs for nine minutes. Those five ignited spark the Owls’ comeback.
Jacobs and Curry came off the bench and made an impact, which Richardson has been wanting to see in conference play. Jacobs recorded three rebounds and was a team-best plus-23 in her minutes, while Curry made two three-pointers.
“That’s why you saw subs,” Richardson said. “The people on the bench have to fight for minutes and they’ve got to show some kind of impact when they get in there to prove they are worthy of the minutes. They’ve been doing that all week.”
While Jacobs and Curry made an impact, the comeback was powered by Taylor, who had the best game of her career.
Taylor was playing well before the fourth quarter. She had 15 points and three assists through 30 minutes, but she took her game to another level in the final 10 minutes.
Temple’s Tristen Taylor made the game-winning free throw against Charlotte on Saturday.
Taylor poured in 17 points and made all six of her field-goal attempts, three of which were three-pointers. She also assisted on three of the other four made baskets in the quarter. When Temple needed her most, Taylor stepped up in the final minutes.
She scored the Owls’ final 10 points and made the biggest play of the game to set herself up for the go-ahead free throws. Turner missed a jump shot, but Taylor soared in for the offensive rebound and was fouled on her putback attempt. Taylor made both free throws to close out Charlotte and finished with a career-high 32 points on 10-for-13 shooting from the field.
“I think I went 50% from the free-throw line last game,” Taylor said. “I’ve been in the gym shooting free throws a lot this week, and I feel like when I stepped up there, I didn’t have any nerves just from practicing and being confident all week.”
Despite winning, the Owls failed to play a complete game through four quarters, and it nearly cost them against Charlotte. Next up, Temple has a road test on Wednesday night (8 p.m., ESPN+) against first-place Rice (17-3, 9-0).
Richardson knows her team can’t wait until the fourth quarter to play.
“They’re playing really great basketball, but I think we’re playing good basketball right now, too,” Richardson said. “So we’ve got to go in there on their home court, and we’ve got to play Temple basketball from the top to the finish.”
A 22-point deficit heading into the final quarter was just too much.
In the end, Villanova found themselves on the tail end of a 71-58 final against St. John’s on Saturday in New York City. For St. John’s, the win was retribution from the last time the teams faced off on Dec. 22 — when Villanova claimed an 85-48 victory.
Ryanne Allen led the Wildcats with 12 points. Jasmine Bascoe, Villanova’s star sophomore guard, added 11.
Villanova (8-3, 15-5 Big East) is now tied for second place in the conference with Seton Hall. St. John’s (6-5, 16-6 Big East) stands fourth in the Big East.
St. John’s fast start
The game quickly spun out of control for Villanova, as St. John’s sprinted off to a 22-5 lead across the opening 10 minutes. Brooke Moore led the way for the Red Storm, as the junior guard scored 10 points in the first quarter.
St. John’s shut down Villanova’s offense, going on a 17-0 run across the last 7 minutes, and 38 seconds of the quarter.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats shot an uncharacteristic 2-for-11 from the field and 1-for-6 from three. Villanova entered the game as the second-best shooting team in the conference, averaging 45.1% from the field.
Villanova attempted to push back in an energetic second quarter, in which it was outscored just 18-17. Junior forward Brynn McCurry led the Wildcats in the first half, with eight points and four rebounds.
St. John’s, which saw some difficulty early in Big East play, was dominant on its home court on. Unlike in its previous meeting with Villanova, St. John’s controlled the game and led by double-digits throughout the second, third, and fourth quarters.
The Red Storm succeeded in holding back Bascoe, who leads Villanova in scoring with 17.2 points per game. Bascoe dropped 21 points with a season-high nine assists in the previous win over St. John’s. But in Saturday’s contest, she was restricted, scoring just four points in the first half to support her total.
Villanova scored its highest point total (20 points) in the fourth quarter. Allen helped the Wildcats make a late-game push to narrow the deficit, scoring seven points and continuing her consistent three-point shooting.
Up next
Villanova returns to Finneran Pavilion on Tuesday to take on Providence (7 p.m., ESPN+).
The local answer starts with the U.S. women’s soccer team’s longtime popularity here, even though none of its senior players are from the area anymore.
That was proven again when the Americans came to town in October. There were quite a few Rodman jerseys in the stands, even though she wasn’t on the squad. She has genuine, cut-through star power, the first American women’s soccer player to reach that peak since the era of Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd.
In the year and a half leading to the 2027 World Cup, we’ll find out if any of Rodman’s current compatriots will meet her up there. Sophia Wilson will certainly be a candidate when she returns from maternity leave. Catarina Macario’s bright star will grow even brighter if she comes back to the NWSL this summer, as has been rumored lately. Lily Yohannes is meeting the hype as a young phenom.
Sophia Wilson (right) was out of action last year as she welcomed her first child.
But there’s another piece too, one which could have a big impact locally.
The NWSL would like to have a Philadelphia team if an ownership group steps forward.
“We love Philadelphia,” commissioner Jessica Berman told The Inquirer on Friday. “We think Philadelphia will be a great NWSL market one day, and certainly among the cities that would be in contention.”
The subject no doubt gave Berman a few minutes of respite from a grilling about the league’s controversial High Impact Player rule. That fracas won’t die down any time soon, not least because the NWSL Players Association has taken the league to arbitration over it.
But at some point down the line, there will be other subjects to discuss, and expansion is always on the list. The league is adding teams in Denver and Boston this year, and will add Atlanta in 2028.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman.
When Atlanta’s team kicks off, Philadelphia will be the only city that had teams in the two prior leagues, the Women’s United Soccer Association (2001-03) and Women’s Professional Soccer (2010-11), but lacks an NWSL team.
Meanwhile, the WNBA will launch an expansion team here in 2030, and the Unrivaled basketball circuit has sold out Xfinity Mobile Arena for a doubleheader this Friday. That puts more proof on the table that Philadelphia fans have an interest in women’s sports.
A group of investors has been working on a local NWSL expansion bid, but has not yet been willing to talk publicly about it.
That leaves Berman waiting along with everyone else.
“We do not have any news to break, or current timeline, or plan of when that might happen,” she said. “But I know I’ve shared with you before: we love that city, we know and believe a women’s soccer team in the NWSL would be successful there. And we look forward to the day when the circumstances are right.”
Philadelphia and its famously indefatigable, fanatical followers of all things pro sports, you have a test coming at you with the speed of a Tyrese Maxey breakaway.
Then will come the test. Can, and will, Philadelphia and its often-notorious rabid fans land on the right side of the WNBA story, embracing not only a specific team, but the general concept of women’s professional sports?
Billie Jean King, for one, has thoughts.
In two interviews, King — one of the most celebrated sports icons of any generation and an inductee into multiple Halls of Fame — explained how she planted roots in Philadelphia long ago and has yet to pull those roots up. Yes, she’s moved around the globe, with stops at Wimbledon, Roland Garros, Australia, and beyond. She is a fixture at the U.S. Open every summer in New York, a whirling dervish who refuses to slow down, even at 82 years old.
She wants to see Philadelphia become the next successful chapter in the chronicles of the WNBA story, proving all the more, even more that women can succeed on basketball courts, by measuring success one purchased ticket at a time.
“I just hope that comes true,” said King of a pro team other than the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers lighting up South Philadelphia’s sports complex. “If it does come there, then the fans better make sure they support it because the other [new] teams now, they really have great support.”
Elton John in a Philadelphia Freedoms jacket and Billie Jean King in 1974.
Her conversations about the possibilities of basketball’s best women playing for Philadelphia have been ongoing for seemingly a lifetime. “We’ve been talking to people about that forever on that subject,” King said, mentioning her wish that famed Philadelphians like Wanda Sykes and others from the entertainment industry help draw attention to the sport. (As for ownership, she again points to Sykes, and Sykes’ wife, Alex, saying “I know they’d love to invest.”)
Having just helped establish the Professional Women’s Hockey League, having dabbled in ownership of tennis tournaments, King knows what lies ahead for ownership of a new franchise and for a fan base that is particularly particular.
“Philadelphia, it’s a rough market,” King said, “because notice when the Phillies are winning, everybody shows up. When they’re not winning, very few show up. What you need is an organization like the Cubs, whether they win or lose, they fill the place. That’s what Philadelphia has to do. That’s what you need the fans do. They gotta have to want to do that to support their city.”
Her presence is not just the stuff of tennis lore. She is not a fixture in baseball, ensconced in the major leagues as a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. When not seated in the front row near the Dodgers’ dugout at Chavez Ravine, chatting it up with Magic Johnson and Sandy Koufax, she could be seen standing next to Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts on podiums as she and her team celebrated the last two World Series championships.
Billie Jean King (left) and Magic Johnson take in Game 1 of the NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals.
And for King there is no offseason. She sits on the board of directors for the 3-year-old PWHL, a creation of the Dodgers’ ownership. She applauds its million-plus ticket sales per season as heartily as she celebrates baseball championships.
She also is closely following the startup of the new women’s professional baseball league being backed by Major League Baseball. King has no stake in that league. Yet. But upon learning that none other than Mo’ne Davis, the multifaceted Philadelphia athlete of Little League fame, was attracted to the new league’s tryouts certainly attracted King’s attention.
Yet as King began the second of our interviews for this article, she leaned into the Zoom video camera and declared that she was wearing the Phillies’ maroon, a transplant from the West Coast stubbornly proud of her adopted city.
King remembers watching the Phillies play at Veterans Stadium, falling back on the dreams of a little girl who wanted to play baseball as much as did her brother, Randy Moffitt, a former big league pitcher who died earlier this year.
King also reminisces about Coaching 101 conversations she’d have with Sixers great Billy Cunningham while the two watched the Flyers skate their way to Stanley Cup championships. Just two Hall of Famers talking hoops. King also wished to have played the sport, but for that glass ceiling that limited girls’ and women’s access to the game.
That so many memories of teams rooted in Philadelphia can make her smile reminds one to never doubt how much Billie Jean King still has invested in emotions, heart, and soul in this city after six-plus decades.
“As a child, when I was growing up, I read everything I could on the history of women’s tennis and men’s tennis,” King said. “And there is so much history in Philadelphia. … And the junior championships used to be there. If you wanted to be the No. 1 junior in the world, you had to play at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. They had the junior nationals, and you had to win that tournament to be No. 1 in the country. I never won.”
That didn’t mean the city failed to win over King. “I’ve been going there since I was 15,” she said fondly. And when she returned as an adult, she did so as a world-renowned champion, coming back to play for and coach the Philadelphia Freedoms in 1974, the inaugural season of the World Team Tennis league.
Billie Jean King was a player-coach for the Philadelphia Freedoms.
These ventures make it feel like coming home whenever she passes through Philadelphia, she said. And now, she sees a city she loves about to take on a fight she’s waged her whole life.
Like many a WNBA team, their NBA counterparts will be counted on greatly to help the Philly team take flight. The franchise owner is Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, owners of the Sixers, with Comcast Spectacor holding a minority stake.
Yet King cautions, too, that “in Philadelphia, you’ve got to have the big bucks. You’ve got to be in it for the long, long haul.”
Why that matters is this: The WNBA has shuffled the deck in four expansion eras in its 29 seasons. Philadelphia will join as part of its fourth expansion.
The league’s history on moving or disbanding franchises is no secret. Neither is its willingness to go in another direction quickly, no matter the size of the market the league chooses to flee.
The league has relocated and rebranded five teams. Only three of the original eight teams remain. As the WNBA looks to grow to an all-time high of 18 teams by 2030, it is betting much on Philadelphia — the only city among the nation’s six largest metropolises to have never had a WNBA team.
New York Liberty center Jonquel Jones (35) looks for an outlet as Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas during a WNBA playoff game last fall. Jones’ and Thomas’ teams are two of the three inaugural WNBA franchises still in their original homes.
Right now, the model every future expansion team will be chasing is the Golden State Valkyries.
The Valkyries set a record for victories in an expansion team’s first season and made the playoffs, another first for an expansion team, all while selling out its slate of home games.
“So they did it right, and you’ve got to do it right,” said King of the team fronted by the NBA Golden State Warriors.
“You’ve got to have enough money and then you’ve got to set up everything right. Like, where are they going to play? Make sure they get good dates,” she said, noting that WNBA franchises often are second, third, or fourth in pecking orders in arenas often shared by other teams. “It’s a very difficult world to be in sports, financially, especially if you’re trying to help get a new sport in the area.”
That largely sums up what fans of women’s sports can expect when the WNBA lands here.
Can it work? Will it work? For Billie Jean King, just trying will be worth the effort as she keeps endorsing getting women not only on the courts, ice, playing fields, but in the seats of power.
“I’ve been in business forever,” she said. “My former husband and I owned tournaments from 1968. I always did the business side. It really helped me to lead. I said yes [because] the way to do it was to embrace it with everything I’ve got. The way to do it is to know all sides of something, and not because I’ve been an owner, a coach, a player. I’ve been in a lot of situations not only to have a better life, but to create opportunities for others. It’s just more enriched when you have a life where you have empathy and compassion for each person’s situation.”
In King’s world of sports, it’s always a must that fairness be made available to women. It won’t be long until the City of Brotherly Love gets its opportunity to agree with one of its most famous adopted sisters. At last.
Though Trinity Rodman’s contract saga has at last been resolved with her re-signing, the controversy over the NWSL’s High Impact Player rule likely won’t die down soon.
It remains the subject of a grievance by the NWSL Players Association, which claims the rule should have been collectively bargained; and it remains unpopular with many fans, for a variety of reasons.
The league’s commissioner, Jessica Berman, does not mind being the main target of that ire.
“I very much stand behind the decision and the process,” she told The Inquirer in an interview on Friday. “We intentionally negotiated for the right to do exactly what we did, which is to develop a specific rule for a specific classification of players which there is a reduced salary cap charge, so long as we consult in good faith with the Players’ Association. And I want to reinforce that’s exactly what we did in this context.”
The NWSLPA disagreed.
NWSL Players Association Statement on League’s Unilateral Implementation of the High Impact Player Rule:
“At no point in time in CBA negotiations or any time prior to the end of 2025 did [the] NWSL articulate a plan to impose a separate pot of funds with a new cap and eligibility criteria that were unrelated to roster classifications by any name,” NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told The Inquirer via email. “We disagree with NWSL’s representation that it consulted with the NWSLPA.”
Burke claimed that the first “written communication” she got on the proposal came on Dec. 11, and the union registered its objections after multiple board meetings in the ensuing days. The league announced the rule on Dec. 23, and said it will take effect on July 1.
Washington Spirit superstar Trinity Rodman’s threat to leave the NWSL in free agency sparked the league to adopt the High Impact Player rule.
Berman acknowledged the grievance in saying that “as in all labor relations in professional sports and otherwise, the union and the league can disagree,” and the league will follow the established procedures for resolving disputes.
“We are very confident in our position,” she said. “We have been contemplating different iterations of a potential rule or policy like this for a long time, and for that reason, we negotiated into the CBA the specific right to move forward with this if and when we believed it was appropriate.”
If there’s enough money going around to give each of the 15 clubs $1 million from the HIP pot, why not just raise the salary cap by the same amount?
“At some point, the board and NWSL are going to have to realize that increasing the cap — while retaining it — is in their own best interests,” said Burke, whose union has been loudly calling to raise the cap. “Until then, we stand ready to enforce the terms that were negotiated.”
Trinity Rodman (bottom left) signing her new contract on Thursday.
Berman started the league’s case by bringing vice president of player affairs, Stephanie Lee on the call to give more context.
Lee, who previously worked in the front offices of Gotham FC, the Utah Royals, and the Seattle Reign, noted that a player who gets HIP money must have a salary cap charge of at least 12% of the teamwide base cap, which for this year is $3.5 million.
Teams also can’t get cap relief from the rule unless they hit the cap in the first place. Up to that point, the player’s salary is charged to the regular payroll.
“As they roster build throughout the year and through [transfer] windows and different transactions, there’s flexibility there to how they designate players and take advantage of that HIP [money],” Lee said. “It’s not something that they have to decide at the beginning of executing a player’s contract.”
A league spokesperson added that teams can retroactively apply the money to a player when they hit the cap by signing other players, so they can go over the cap to keep everyone they want to.
U.S. women’s national team captain Lindsey Heaps is expected to be paid through the HIP rule when she joins her hometown Denver Summit in the summer.
Why limit who can get the money?
Then there are the criteria the league laid down to limit which players are “high impact,” from media and marketing rankings to U.S. national team playing time. This also is widely unpopular.
But there’s also a question at a higher level: Why have criteria in the first place? Why not let teams spend the money on whoever they want, as MLS now does with its Designated Player rule, and let teams potentially make mistakes?
“It is the league’s, and in this case our — my — responsibility to be responsible stewards of capital in service of growing the business,” she said. “In this circumstance where we have unlocked the ability for our clubs to spend an incremental $115 million [combined through 2030], it is our job to make sure that it is going to have a relationship to growing our revenue. That growth in revenue will also feed the revenue-sharing mechanism that was negotiated into our most recent CBA, which means that we are incentively aligned with our players to grow this business.”
U.S. veteran Crystal Dunn (right) is one of the most notable players who is not eligible for HIP money.
Burke strongly disagreed.
“Nothing in the CBA,” she wrote, “permits [the] NWSL to create an additional pot of funds (with an entirely new and separate cap) which only some players are eligible for based on ill-conceived criteria unilaterally determined by NWSL, including and especially when those criteria violate the non-discrimination clause in our CBA.”
Does Berman see a day when the league would loosen the reins?
“In the most general sense, we will always analyze the health of our business and the health of the game in the NWSL,” Berman said. “If we believe that there are business reasons for us to modify our rules, we will.”
Jaedyn Shaw (left) is another notable American who isn’t currently eligible for HIP status.
She stood firm again in saying “we feel like we’ve enabled our clubs to invest significantly.” And as she chose her words, she made it clear that the league will push those clubs to invest in specific ways.
“This particular mechanism, that was very prescriptive in what it was developed to address, is important in that it is supposed to help us to target top players,” she said. “Which, as you’ve heard me say many times, is in service of us being the best league in the world. In order for us to be the best league in the world, we need to compete for the best players, and we want this policy to guide the behavior of our clubs so that they can compete financially to attract and retain top players.”
It’s no secret that there’s a fair amount of variance in how much money NWSL teams have in the bank. Nor is it a secret that Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang sits at the higher end of the scale. She had long been ready to spend big on Rodman, and Rodman’s agent has said the three-year deal is worth over $2 million per season.
But when Kang first put a contract proposal on the table, Berman vetoed it for violating the league’s salary rules. A source with knowledge of the offer told The Inquirer that the Spirit would not have been able to pay Rodman and also meet the league requirement of a 20-player roster, even if all the others were on the league’s minimum salary.
Michele Kang (second from right) with, from right to left, Trinity Rodman, Spirit president of soccer operations Haley Carter, and CEO Kim Stone.
That has led some outsiders to wonder how much resistance there was elsewhere in the league to raising the cap and whether the HIP rule might have been an easier sell. A two-thirds majority of team owners is required to pass a vote.
“It is in our best judgment that the HIP rule is the most strategic mechanism for us to advance the business,” Berman said.
“A rule that has been adopted with such a singular focus on generating revenue is not even about soccer, building a competitive roster to win NWSL games, or meeting a team’s performance needs,” she said, “which are obvious functions of a team when they are constructing a roster.”
Catarina Macario might be the next U.S. star to get HIP money, as there’s speculation she might come to the NWSL in the summer.
Another milestone in all this is expected to arrive when the current European season ends in the summer. There’s been much speculation that U.S. national team star Catarina Macario could come home from England’s Chelsea, and Spanish superpower Barcelona reportedly has nine players on expiring contracts — including stars who’ve fueled the club’s three Champions League titles in the last six years.
Will the NWSL be willing to hit the gas pedal to bring them over?
“We developed this rule very intentionally to put our clubs in a position to compete financially with top clubs around the world for top players, and we believe it will put us in a position to do that effectively,” Berman said. “Without naming specific clubs or naming specific players, it is our expectation that when we look back on this, we will have a list of players that we’ve been able to attract and retain by virtue of enacting this rule.”
With heavy snow expected this weekend, two Big 5 basketball programs are moving their tipoff times.
The St. Joseph’s men’s team was slated to take on Davidson at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Hagan Arena. Now, the Hawks will be starting at 2 p.m. to avoid interference with potential snowfall on Saturday night.
Due to forecasted inclement weather in the Philadelphia region and in the interest of the safety teams, fans and staff, Saint Joseph's men's basketball game vs Dayton on Saturday, Jan. 24, has been moved up to 2:00 p.m.
Broadcast details will be announced when available. #THWND
The Drexel women moved its Sunday matchup against Towson at the Daskalakis Athletic Center to Saturday at 6 p.m., which will now be a homecoming doubleheader with the men’s team, which faces Northeastern at 2 p.m.
The women’s team will play back-to-back days, as the Dragons host Stony Brook at 6 p.m. Friday.
Due to impending weather on Sunday, January 25, the women's basketball game against Towson, originally scheduled for 2 p.m., will now be played on Saturday, January 24 at 6 PM as part of a Saturday doubleheader with the men's basketball team, which begins at 2 PM.
The Philadelphia region will be under a winter storm watch from 7 p.m. Saturday until midday Monday. As of Friday, the area is expected to receive anywhere from eight to 14 inches of snow.
Forward Trinity Rodman has agreed to a three-year contract to remain with the Washington Spirit, ending months of speculation about the Olympic gold medalist’s future in the National Women’s Soccer League.
“I think I’ve always had a vision and an idea of what I wanted my legacy to be,” Rodman said at an event announcing her new deal on Thursday in Los Angeles. “And for me, we’re doing that and I’m so grateful for that.”
The speculation over Rodman’s future with the Spirit spurred criticism of the NWSL salary cap and whether it hampered the league from attracting and maintaining top players.
The 23-year-old Rodman became a free agent at the end of last season after five years with the Spirit. One of the biggest stars in the NWSL, keeping her in the league was considered vitally important as other U.S. national team stars, including Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson, opted to play in Europe.
Rodman, who won a gold medal with the United States at the Paris Olympics, had been drawing interest from European teams that don’t have a salary cap.
“I can’t think of the Washington Spirit without her,” Spirit owner Michele Kang said. “And I hope she can’t think about her career without the Washington Spirit. So this is really monumental and it was really important, not only for the Spirit, especially for our fans who expect to see her. They come to Audi Field and that’s where Rowdy Audi clearly came out.”
Rodman said she always wanted to stay with the Spirit
“Making my decision, the one question I was asked was: ‘Do you feel like you’re finished with the Spirit? Can you say that and feel confident leaving?’” she said. “I didn’t even need half a second, and I was like, ’No, I’m not. I don’t feel ready to make a different decision. That’s just, again, getting drafted here and developing and maturing and learning – and failing – at the Spirit, in D.C., it’s become so much of my legacy and my story. But on top of that, I still feel like there’s so much more I have to give and so much more that I want to do.”
The Spirit and Rodman had previously struck a multi-year deal that both parties maintained was in compliance with the salary cap, but it was rejected by the league because it went against the spirit of the rules.
The National Women’s Soccer League Players Association filed a grievance claiming that the NWSL’s rejection of the contract violated Rodman’s free agency rights and violated the collective bargaining agreement.
To address the salary cap issue, the NWSL in late December adopted a “High Impact Player” mechanism that allowed teams to spend up to $1 million over the cap to sign players that meet certain criteria. Those included metrics like national team minutes, inclusion among the 30 candidates for the Ballon d’Or or player rankings by outlets like the Guardian or ESPN.
The NWSLPA filed a grievance over the rule, claiming it violated the collective bargaining agreement and federal labor law because player compensation must be negotiated. The NWSLPA maintains the league had no authority to “unilaterally create a new pay structure.”
Spirit President of Soccer Operations Haley Carter said the High Impact Player rule figured into the contract Rodman ultimately agreed to. Carter also said the grievances would not alter Rodman’s deal.
Rodman is currently with the national team in their annual January training camp in Carson, California. The team plays a match there against Paraguay on Saturday and then plays Chile on Tuesday in Santa Barbara.
Rodman has 47 appearances and 11 goals with the national team, more than any other player on the latest roster. She played in one U.S. match last year, a 2-0 victory over Brazil in April, because of injuries.
Laila Edwards, the first Black player to make the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team, could become one of the breakout stars of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
She’s also from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the hometown of Jason and Travis Kelce. The brothers experimented with hockey growing up before committing to football, and they remain fans of the game.
In November 2023, when Edwards first made the women’s national team, they gave her a shout-out on New Heights.
“I thought, ‘I’ll just message them thanking them, they’ll never see it,’” Edwards told People. “And then Travis and I had a full conversation over DM, and that was super cool. He was a really down-to-earth, humble guy who was super supportive and had really good things to say. They shouted me out again recently for making the Olympic team.”
Their support didn’t end there. Edwards told People that Travis made a large donation to her family’s GoFundMe page, which has raised over $50,000 to help her family fly to Milan to support her and the U.S. women’s national team.
Kylie Kelce will be on-site in Milan, after NBC named her as part of its Creator Collective. Jason and Kylie attended the Paris Olympics, and supported field hockey, volleyball, and women’s rugby. This time, Edwards hopes to see them at some of her games.
“Travis was saying that Jason and Kylie are big fans of mine, and I’m hoping to meet them all in Italy,” Edwards said.
Jason and Travis Kelce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
