NWSL: Media Coverage of the ‘Historic’ and ‘Groundbreaking’ New Collective Bargaining Agreement

(Note: The bulk of this post was originally going to be part of a longer article analyzing the new CBA, but due to time constraints, I have not been able to do proper research for that article.)

On Thursday, August 22nd, the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA) released details about their new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the league. The new CBA, which has been described as “historic”, “groundbreaking” and “landmark” by professional journalists, has numerous significant new provisions, including several that grant the players much greater autonomy over their professional soccer careers.

Specifically, those provisions cover:

  • Full free agency for all players,
  • Player consent required for any trade,
  • Elimination of the entry draft and expansion drafts, and
  • Guaranteed contracts

Other key changes include revenue sharing for players, sizable increases in the minimum player salary, and requiring charter flights in certain situations.

At the moment, the full text of the new CBA is not yet available, so a detailed analysis is not currently possible. (According to the NWSLPA’s website, “[t]he full terms of the new CBA announced on August 22, 2024 will be shared… at a future date.”)

Media Roll-Out and Press Coverage

Except for two minor leaks, which may or may not have been strategic, the details of the new CBA were kept confidential until Thursday morning.

News of the new CBA was first reported on Friday, August 9th, by Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico. Novy-William’s article was based on unnamed sources who were described as “multiple people with direct knowledge of the process”. The article accurately reported that the new CBA would last through 2030 and that some aspects of the CBA would take effect earlier than 2027. Only a pair of generalities about the new CBA were mentioned: “more freedom of player movement” and the classic “higher compensation”. Both the league and the NWSLPA declined to comment for the article, which was published at 11:21 a.m. EDT, minutes after the conclusion of the women’s soccer bronze medal match.

However, about 10 minutes after the article was published, the NWSLPA posted the following statement using their X.com account:

Any news concerning the Players’ lives will be shared directly by them, on their terms. Respect that. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, we’re cheering for all our members playing in the gold medal match at 11am EST tomorrow on NBC

Question: Was that first sentence a promise and/or a non-denial statement of fact?

No additional details about the new CBA became public until this week: On the afternoon of Wednesday, August 22nd, long-time women’s soccer journalist Dan Lauletta posted this tidbit at 4:25 p.m. EDT:

From various sources — new #NWSL CBA will include elimination of the college draft effective immediately. Players will be free to sign with whoever they see fit

And, then Thursday morning rolled along with no new updates until…

The Executive Director of the NWSLPA, Meghann Burke, posted a hype video on X.com at 7:30 a.m. EDT, accompanied by the following text:

Some said a CBA like this would never happen. #WeSaidNow. Read more at wesaidnow.com.

Two minutes later, NWSLPA President Tori Huster posted a trio of graphics in an X.com post, plus similar text to Burke’s:

Some said a CBA like this would never happen. #wesaidnow @nwsl_players

The graphics’ text included “NWSLPA Announces New CBA” plus several talking point phrases (discussed later) and ended with “Read More At WeSaidNow.com”.

At 7:38 a.m. EDT, the NWSLPA published the below post on their Instagram account, followed a minute later with an identical post on their X.com account.

The “link in bio” is “WeSaidNow.com”, which redirects to the “CBA Fact Sheet” page on the NWSLPA’s website: www.nwslplayers.com/cba-fact-sheet. The “WeSaidNow.com” domain was only registered on Tuesday, August 20th (ICANN Lookup).

Within minutes, at least ten pre-written news articles about the new CBA went live, which strongly suggests that there was a publishing embargo until 7:40 a.m. EDT.

The NWSL also posted a press release about the new CBA, “NWSL and NWSLPA Agree to Historic Collective Bargaining Agreement Two Years Ahead of Expiration”, Thursday morning, but did not promote it on X.com until 11:02 a.m. EDT.

As part of the roll-out for the new CBA, Alex Morgan and Brianna Pinto appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America during the 8:00 (Eastern) hour. Here’s the full segment:

Also, Brianna Pinto taped a podcast interview with The Athletic‘s Meg Linehan and Steph Yang (podfollow.com) that was released Thursday morning.

Other Articles and Podcasts

Here are some more articles and podcasts worth mentioning for their content:

Articles:

Podcasts:

(More articles and podcasts may be added to this section.)