However, clubs have access to additional resources in the form of allocation money, which they can use to cover player wages above the $75k salary maximum and buy down cap hits, offer in trades, and pay transfer fees. For the Reign, that means Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle are now under contract with the club and likely have significant wages which count toward the cap for the first time (Alana Cook and Sofia Huerta were already directly signed with the Reign prior to this season.) Beyond those two, there was a fairly substantial boost to salaries across the board, so most (if not all) of that additional $450,000 in cap space was likely accounted for from the beginning of the year.

That’s up significantly from 2021’s cap of $650k, albeit with USWNT players no longer allocated and now signed directly by their clubs. To start, teams now have a base salary cap of $1.1 million to work with. But these accusations belie just how savvy the club has been with trades and transfers over the past year, amassing a substantial war chest which they have been able to use to great effect during the summer transfer window.īefore we get into the details of the earlier moves they’ve made, we should first look briefly at the current NWSL salary cap structure and how that changed with the signing of the league’s first collective bargaining agreement at the start of the year. With OL Reign’s recent high-profile signings of Tobin Heath and Jordyn Huitema, along with a short-term loan of Kim Little from Arsenal, there has again been speculation from fans of other teams that the Reign must somehow be cheating the system to fit everyone on their roster, perhaps thanks to some under-the-table financial support from their parent organization OL Groupe.

Small moves