To have an idea of the quantity of current collective negotiation of the NWSL has changed the league, it is enough to look at the two most recent professions involving the current attacker of Seattle Reign Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams).
Back on January 12, 2023, Biyendolo, at the time a regular in the American national women’s team, was exchanged from Kansas City Current at Gotham FC. And she never saw him coming.
“It was a complete shock,” she told ESPN about the agreement. “I had no idea until about an hour before the trade occurred.”
Quick advance almost two years later and Biyendolo was treated again, this time from Gotham to Seattle – and his experience was completely different. In this case, she knew not only in advance that she would be moved, but she had her say in the place where she was going. The native of Fresno, California, wanted to go to a contender for the title and be closer to the family.
“Very, very different,” she said about the two experiences. “The ability to wrap everything, knowing that I was making an informed decision here, and it was in my own terms compared to this last (exchange) of surprise, where you have to uproot your life and everything.”
She added: “To have control of the place where we live and where we want to work, I think it’s considerably important.”
Biyendolo owes the difference in part to the new CBA that the NWSL accepted with the players last August. Players can no longer be exchanged without their consent, but that does not stop there.
While in the past, there was a limited form of a free agency linked to service time, all players are now free to sign where they wish after reaching the end of their contract. All the drafts have also disappeared, which means that collegial players are no longer forced to go to the teams that select them and can now sign with whom they wish.
Consequently, the ABC has created a new dynamic in the wrestling of the league for supremacy, whether for players or teams. For players, they can choose the situation which, according to them, will work best, deciding if they adapt with the manager and the style and culture of the team. A quick solicitation of some players from the recent day of the NWSL media revealed that when selecting a team, potential playing time is always an absolute priority.
“I think that’s all you can integrate and get this playing time you want,” said Houston Dash Michelle Alozie striker, who signed a two -year contract extension with the DASH last September. “People have different reasons for wanting to go or try something new, but I think everyone wants to play at the end of the day. Maybe you go to a club that, one, corresponds to your style of play, but two, you can really have a lasting impact.”
This is by no means the only consideration. The needs of a player can vary depending on the phase of his career in which he is in.
“Some people may be younger and want development, and some people may be at the end of their career and want to be closer to the family,” said North Carolina midfielder Ashley Sanchez. “So it really depends (on) what you try to get out. I think what is somehow special is that each team offers something different. I have the impression that North Carolina is a place where players go and they develop.”
In many ways, the new CBA was a way for the NWSL to follow the European leagues, where the free agency at the end of a contract is the norm.
The free agency without obstacle also put each team in the league in opinion and at various levels. Some had to refine their recruitment grounds, although Meghann Burke, the executive director of the NWSL Players Association, believes that it is a continuous process.
“I think there is the way some teams do, then there is the way they should do it,” she said about the team approach to recruit. “I think that some teams are launching what they have to offer and do it about them. But I think some of the most prosperous teams in the free agency present how they can help this player meet his needs at this stage.”
Burke added that these considerations become more granular. If a player has history history, he will examine the medical staff closely. If they want development, they will examine the coach and the personnel management style. And so on.
“You have to meet players where they are, and you have to do your research on the things that matter most for athletes,” said Haley Carter, director of Orlando Pride Sporting and Vice-President of Football Operations. “And some common similarities, I think, is the ability to develop.
“They all want to be the best version of themselves. And therefore really being able to meet them on this subject and create an understanding of what these goals are and how your staff and your environment can help them achieve these goals is really important.”
Due to the accent increased on the recruitment of players, the new CBA has created another directive for clubs: investing or perishing. This can happen at various levels. For some clubs such as Kansas City Current, the investment was in facilities such as stadiums and training bases.
This is an approach that is followed by Angel City FC, which has just opened its training center. The Portland Thorns have just announced its intention to build a new training center which will also be used with the city’s WNBA team.
But he doesn’t need to stop there. There are investments to be made in training staff, medical staff, as well as scouts to help recruiting players. In addition to that, these additions have the resources they need to succeed. There are a lot of buckets to fill.
The Pride, fresh out of the title of the League last season, is a club that checks a lot of these boxes. For this reason, Carter said that their recruitment approach had not really changed. She knows who their goals are “well in advance”. But Carter wants to see all the other teams in the League do the same, but with their own torsion.
“I am thinking globally for the League, and one of the reasons why I am a supporter of the free agency is that it really forces everyone to invest and be serious and professional and to make sure that you are investing in staff,” she said. “Make sure you invest in the facilities. Make sure you invest in the support of players and their experience and what it is on and off the field.
“You have to do things well if you want to attract the best players and if you want to keep the best players.”
She added: “The ABC is the soil. It is the bare minimum.”
Some of the most recent additions to the League are trying to play catching up in these areas. The Utah Royals are expected to start their second season, and sports director Kelly Cousins told ESPN that the emphasis would be on improving the recruitment of players “and having more eyes, whether based in the United States, based on the world and is really starting to develop this.”
A club spokesperson added that UTAH has three full-time dedicated employees, but plans to start more part-time scouts.
Bay FC is in a similar situation, with the team’s sports director Matt Potter, admitting that last season, the team has embarked on a “reset” which saw him take over in the middle of the initial rental campaign Lucy Rushton.
“It’s good and well to get a player here, but what do we get them when he is here?” Said Potter. “We probably have one of the most robust care and high performance / medical services, and the only thing about our identity as a club, because we examine development, is a parallel path between the field and off the field.”
Another ABC training effect is that other more established clubs are not motionless. Kansas City Current is one step ahead of many other teams since it has a training center as well as its own stadium. The next border is the development of young people.
The current co -owner Angie Long said that in the “World War for Talents is that everyone is progressing”.
The ABC has been in force for only six months, but so far, it is a rising tide that will raise the entire league – and especially the players.
Cesar Hernandez d’Espn contributed to this report.
