The catch-up, pt. 1: WNBA and NWSL offseason madness
The catch-up, pt. 1: WNBA and NWSL offseason madness
We have *a lot* to talk about.
Hi! I have missed you. Due to some *life* stuff, I’ve found myself a bit out-of-the-loop in the day-to-day happenings of the women’s sports world to start this year, which is terrible news, considering that’s literally my job!
Over the past week I’ve been having personal cram sessions and planning an exciting editorial calendar for our dear Power Plays. And it suddenly occurred to me: Why don’t I share my work with all of you? I mean, we’re all busy, right? Maybe you could use a catch-up, too.
In today’s newsletter, we’re getting caught up on the busy offseasons in the WNBA and NWSL. Next week, you’ll get one catch-up newsletter about everything happening in women’s college sports (primarily basketball, gymnastics, and softball, which are all in-season now) and another about the two new women’s pro leagues in our lives, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the Pro Volleyball Federation. (I’m not quite sure where I’ll fit in updates on golf, tennis, and other sports, but they’ll be there!)
Consider these my study guides to get us all on the same page for the next few months of women’s sports, which are going to be absolutely, positively massive. After this, we’ll move onto regular Monday check-ins when we’ll round up all of the biggest results/stories of the week, every week. It’s going to be awesome.
Okay, friends. Let’s do this.
Hi. Let’s start with WNBA.
Since last season ended we’ve got two new head coaches: The legendary Teresa Weatherspoon is at the helm of the Chicago Sky, and Nate Tibbets — who has basically no women’s basketball experience — is the head coach of the Phoenix Mercury.
The draft will take place on April 15.
The Indiana Fever have the No. 1 overall pick. The Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky will round out the lottery — the Sparks have both the No. 2 and No. 4 pick, while the Sky have the No. 3 selection.
The regular season starts on May 14 and will include 20 home and 20 away games for each team, just like last year. The entire Commissioner’s Cup will be played over two weeks in June, and the regular season will break from July 21 through August 14 for the Olympics. Everything is coming up so soon and all at once.
Those are some basics.
We’ve waited long enough, let’s talk about WNBA free agency!
I tried to summarize things, and it didn’t go well, so I just took things team-by-team.
Seattle Storm: They absolutely nailed free agency this year, adding two of the biggest names on the market, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike. That duo should perfectly fit in with their existing superstar Jewell Loyd, who started the Storm’s offseason off on the right foot when she signed a contract extension in September. When you add in Aussie Ezi Magbegor, who just won MVP at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Brazil, you just might have a new Super Team in the WNBA.
A’ja Wilson certainly thinks so.
Las Vegas Aces: Speaking of Wilson, let’s talk about the two-time defending champs. The biggest news in Vegas is that Candace Parker will return next season! Wooo. She signed a team-friendly $100,000, one-year deal. Kiah Stokes also re-signed on a two-year, team-friendly deal. The most significant new face on the roster is Megan Gustafson, who has had a good season overseas. The champs will be the ones to beat, again.
Phoenix Mercury: The Mercury have been BUSY. They added three key pieces to their backcourt: Natasha Cloud in free agency; Rebecca Allen via a sign-and-trade with the Connecticut Sun for Moriah Jefferson; and, most significantly, 2021 Finals MVP Kahleah Copper via a trade with the Chicago Sky. That Mercury back-court is going to be dynamic in every way, shape and form. Their current holes are in the frontcourt: Brittney Griner has not yet re-signed, though she is expected to do so, and they lost Brianna Turner in the Copper trade.
Washington Mystics: Things are going to look extremely different in the nation’s capital this season. As I mentioned, Cloud – who had been with they Mystics since she was drafted in 2015 – left in free agency for the Phoenix Mercury. Meanwhile, the Mystics cored two-time MVP Elena Delle Donne, giving them exclusive negotiating rights with her, but she turned down their offer of a one-year max contract and opted to sit out the season. Her future in the sport remains uncertain. The Mystics’ biggest offseason acquisition so far is Karlie Samuelson, though they still have a lot of cap space to work with. Going forward, the Mystics will build around Ariel Atkins and Shakira Austin.
Chicago Sky: The Sky have had a very rocky start to 2024. They failed to land any of the marquee free agents on the market, and then traded Copper, their franchise cornerstone, to the Mercury, in exchange for Michaela Onyenwere, Turner, and a bevy of picks. (Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun Times reports that Copper requested the trade after the Sky whiffed in the offseason.) Weatherspoon will be at the helm of a tride and true rebuild, it seems. The Sky did add a couple of pieces, with guards Lindsay Allen and Diamond DeShields coming(/returning) to town in free agency, and they have signed two potentially impactful young players to training-camp contracts: Chennedy Carter and Kysre Gondrezick.
Connecticut Sun: Like in Vegas, the biggest news in Connecticut is the returning faces. Both Brionna Jones and DeWanna Bonner were free agents this offseason. The Sun cored Jones and signed her to a one-year deal worth $212,000. They also re-signed Bonner to a one-year deal worth $200,000. With those two and Alyssa Thomas, the Sun will always be in the mix. The Sun also added Moriah Jefferson via the Rebecca Allen trade with Phoenix, Tiffany Mitchell via a trade with the Minnesota Lynx, and Rachel Banham and Astou Ndour-Fall in free agency. I like these moves a lot, but it’s worth noting they have very little cap room left to play with in the draft.
Atlanta Dream: The Dream have had an interesting few weeks, signing former MVP Tina Charles and Aerial Powers in free agency. They also traded Aari McDonald to the Sparks in exchange for Jordin Canada, and re-signed Nia Coffey. I like how these pieces fit around the undeniable face of the franchise, Rhyne Howard, but I don’t know if it’s enough to compete with the elite teams in the league.
Los Angeles Sparks: So, obviously the biggest news is that the Sparks lost Nneka in free agency and Jordin Canada via a trade. But they are welcoming a few new faces: They acquired Kia Nurse (!) via a trade with the Storm, McDonald via the Canada trade with the Dream, and Monique Billings in free agency, adding some needed depth to their frontcourt. They also re-signed Layshia Clarendon and Rae Burrell and extended Lexie Brown. Not great, but far from terrible.
New York Liberty: It’s expected that the Liberty are going to basically run it back with their Finals team from 2023. Sabrina Ionescu, Courtney Vandersloot, Betnijah Laney, and Kayla Thornton were all under contract already. The Liberty did have two marquee free agents this offseason: Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, but both are expected to stay. Stewart has been cored, so she should be signed soon, and The Next has reported that Jones intends to re-sign. I’m sure Liberty fans will feel better when things are official, but the Liberty are looking dangerous once again.
Indiana Fever: The biggest offseason move for the Indiana Fever will come in April, when the Fever will likely pick Caitlin Clark (if she declares, which she is expected to) with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. While we wait for that historic moment, the Fever did add Damiris Dantas and Katie Lous Samuelson in free agency.
Minnesota Lynx: The Lynx also haven’t had a flashy offseason, but I think it’s safe to say they’ve upgraded the talent around Napheesa Collier, Diamond Miller, and Kayla McBride. In addition to re-signing Bridget Carleton, the Lynx added Alanna Smith and Courtney Williams in free agency, and Natisha Hiedeman via a trade with the Sun.
Dallas Wings: Last but certainly not least, we’ve got the Dallas Wings, who are essentially running it back, too – their biggest moves in free agency, so far, have been re-signing Satou Sabally and Kalani Brown. They’ve also activated rookie Stephanie Soares, who sat out last season due to injury, and signed Emma Cannon to a training camp contract. I don’t think these moves are enough to turn Dallas into a contender, but any team with Arike Ogunbowale, Natasha Howard, Teaira McCowan, and Sabally will be a tough out.
Here are a few more pro women’s basketball news nuggets
The Athletes Unlimited basketball season will take place from February 29 to March 23 in Dallas, Texas. Some notable names on the rosters this year: Kiersten Bell, Kalani Brown, Lexie Brown, Natasha Cloud, Isabelle Harrison, Haley Jones, Emily Engstler, Angel McCoughtry, and many more.
The FIBA Olympic qualifiers took place earlier this month in four countries around the globe, and the field for Paris is now set: France, the United States, China, Puerto Rico, Belgium, Nigeria, Australia, Germany, Serbia, Japan, Spain, and Canada. The biggest surprise is probably that Brazil, which hosted one of the qualifiers, did not make it to Paris.
There are a few WNBA-related things happening at NBA All-Star this weekend, but the biggest by far is Sabrina Ionescu taking on Steph Curry in the three-point contest on Saturday night at 8pm ET on TNT. Definitely tune in.
Okay, now let’s talk about the NWSL season, which kicks off in ONE MONTH!
It’s WoSo time.
Now, look. When prepping this section I was tempted to go team-by-team like I did in the WNBA, but given there are more teams in the NWSL and more players on soccer teams than basketball teams, the task became a bit too daunting. So instead we’re dividing and conquering by topics.
First, let’s talk scheduling basics
We’re currently a few weeks into the preseason. Each team kind-of does its own thing in the preseason and there isn’t a league-set schedule like you might be familiar with in other leagues, and most games/scrimmages take place behind closed doors. Awesome. The best way to figure out what each club is up to is to go to their individual websites, to be honest. (And even then it can be difficult to find, which is frustrating!!!!) But there is one fun thing to note: The Coacchella Valley Invitational, a marquee MLS preseason event, will host four NWSL teams later this month in Indio, California: The Portland Thorns, San Diego Wave, Angel City FC, and Bay FC. The teams will compete on February 20 and February 24. (Ticket/schedule info here.)
The Challenge Cup will take place on Friday, March 15 at Red Bull Arena. This year it’s not a tournament, but rather a one-game face-off between last year’s NWSL Shield winners, the San Diego Wave, and last year’s NWSL champions, Gotham FC. It’ll be aired on Amazon Prime. I’m excited.
The regular season gets underway the following day — Saturday, March 16. Three games the first weekend will be nationally broadcast on network television: The Kansas City Current will face the Portland Thorns at 1:00 pm ET on ABC, then we’ll get a look at both expansion franchises, as the Utah Royals face the Chicago Red Stars at 7:30pm ET on ION, followed by Angel City FC taking on Bay FC at 10:00pm ET on ION. All other games that weekend will be available on NWSL+, which we’ll get to in a minute.
There are now 14 teams in the league. Overall, each team will play 26 games, 13 home and 13 away. There will be a break from July 8 to 14, per CBA regulations, and a break from July 15 to August 18 for the Paris Olympics. (I will quote directly from the league about the plans during the Olympic break: “During this time, the league will organize a tournament, featuring international participants and all 14 NWSL clubs, beginning the weekend of July 19-21. Further details regarding the competition and format are forthcoming.”) Sure.
Where will we be watching all of this fabulous soccer??
Here’s the fun part. Last November, the NWSL announced a marquee new four-year television deal worth $240 million. It involves a bevy of television partners, and is a bit complicated.
But here’s what we know for sure: Every Friday night a match will be aired Prime Video and every Saturday night there will be a double-header on ION (as we discussed during WNBA season last year, this is the broadcast network that airs SVU reruns all the time.) Other regular-season and playoff games will air on CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC — a total of 121 games will be broadcast on those national platforms. The remaining 69 games will all be available to stream for free on NWSL+, the league’s new in-house streaming service that we don’t know much about yet, but that, in my opinion, has a lot of potential.
We, of course, have to see how all of this goes in practice, but I think this is a home-run deal for the league and will drastically increase its visibility and popularity.
We have a few new owners in the mix
Merritt Paulson is finally gone for good! The new owners of the Portland Thorns is RAJ Sports, a group that consists of the Bhathal family, who are also investors in the Sacramento Kings. They bought the Thorns for a reported $63 million.
It’s also a new day in Chicago, where this will be the first full season that the team is owned by “a diverse investor group led by Laura Ricketts and prominent Chicago women business and civic leaders.” The Red Stars were reportedly valued at $60 million.
Technically, the OL Groupe still owns the Seattle (nee. OL) Reign, but all reports indicate that any day now, the Seattle Sounders of the MLS will purchase the team and the makeover will be complete.
While we’re here, we might as well remind ourselves of the ownership groups of the two new expansion franchises: Bay FC is owned by investment firm Sixth Street Partners and founded in conjunction with former USWNT stars Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osbourne, Danielle Slaton, and Aly Wagner. The Utah Royals are owned by Ryan Smith and David Blitzer, who also own the MLS’s Real Salt Lake.
There were an absurd number of offseason coaching changes
Angel City FC took the “interim” label away from Becki Tweed and promoted her to permanent head coach; Bay FC hired Albertin Montoya as its inaugural head coach; the Royals tapped former USWNT star Amy Rodriguez as their first head coach; the Chicago Red Stars hired Lorne Donaldson, former head coach of the Jamaican national team; the Houston Dash hired Fran Alonso from Celtic FC; the Kansas City Current hired former USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski, who coached the previous iteration of the Kansas City NWSL team to two championships; the Washington Spirit hired Jonatan Giraldez Costas from FC Barcelona Femeni as their new head coach, but he won’t be with the team until June andAdrian Gonzalez will act as head coach in the meantime; Racing Louisville FC hired former NWSL player Bev Yanez.
I’m probably missing some, sorry to those men and women.
Now let’s talk about the fun stuff: All of the record-setting contracts!!!
If you want an explainer on how NWSL money works, you’re in the wrong place. The NWSL has so many different categories of money and tradable assets that I’ve all but given up trying to understand it. (Pardeep Cattry almost gets me there with this piece at CBS Sports, though.)
Here’s what I do know: The NWSL salary cap has increased to $2.75 million, which is a massive bump from last year; allocation money is on the way out, but not dead yet; and there’s a now a budget for transfer fees.
I also know that these changes have led to some record-smashing contract numbers. So let’s talk about them!
Maria Sanchez signed the largest contract in league history in December with the Houston Dash, a three-year deal worth nearly $1.5 million. (This is a must-read piece in the Wall Street Journal about her.)
In January, Mallory Swanson overtook her in the record books, signing a $2 million deal with a fifth-year option, making her the highest-paid player in the league and giving her the longest-term contract in league history, per ESPN.
Also in January, Deyna Castellanos joined Bay FC from Manchester City in a deal ESPN reports is worth at least $1.8 million guaranteed over four years, making her the highest-paid international player in the NWSL.
Also in January, it was announced that Jessie Fleming is coming to the Portland Thorns from Chelsea FC with a transfer fee of around $316,000, an NWSL record per the Telegraph.
Or, at least that was the NWSL record until Tuesday, when Bay FC smashed that by paying a transfer fee of about $787,589, plus $75,000 in performance-based add-ons, per The Equalizer, for Madrid CFF and Zambia national team forward Racheal Kundananji.
Kundananji will now be the highest-paid international player in the NWSL, and one of the highest paid players, period, with a four-year deal with a fifth-year option worth over $2 million, per the Equalizer.
Phew!
There was, quite simply, a whole lot of player movement
Here is a very incomplete list:
Rocky Rodriguez was traded from Portland to Angel City; Sam Staab was traded from the Spirit to the Red Stars; Nichelle Prince was traded from the Houston Dash to the Kansas City Current in exchange for CeCe Kizer and an international roster spot; Taylor Flint (Kornieck) was traded from the San Diego Wave to Racing Louisville.
The North Carolina Courage (and NWSL as a whole) lost Emily Fox to Arsenal.
The Courage also made a shocking, blockbuster draft-day trade for Ashley Sanchez, formerly of the Washington Spirit. (Spirit fans are still reeling.)
Gotham FC was the undisputed winner of free agency, adding USWNT stalwarts Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle, Tierna Davidson, and Emily Sonnett, and signing each to three-year deals.
In other free agency news: Caprice Dydasco, 2021 NWSL defender of the year, signed with Bay FC; Bianca St-Georges signed with the Courage; Meghan Klingenberg, Christine Sinclair, and Becky Sauerbrunn all re-signed with the Thorns; Savannah McCaskill signed with the San Diego Wave; Imani Dorsey signed with Utah; Casey Krueger signed with the Washington Spirit.
Angel City also added two notable players through the U-18 entry mechanism: Sixteen-year-old Casey Phair, who played for the South Korean Women’s National Team at the World Cup, and Gisele Thompson, Alyssa Thompson’s 18-year-old sister.
Speaking of the youths, 18-year-old Olivia Moultrie signed a three-year contract extension with the Portland Thorns on Wednesday! Remember, Moultrie turned pro at 13, and at 15 she successfully sued the NWSL for the right to be on a roster even though she was only 18, opening the door for all the teens we see in the NWSL today. What a phenomenal story.
Let’s pause for an update on Christen Press
Christen Press is still working towards a return to the field with Angel City FC after four (!!!!) surgeries following an ACL tear, and there seems to be some optimism that it will happen in 2024. She gave a must-read interview with Meg Linehan of The Athletic, where she is, somehow, as optimistic as ever.
Finally, here’s a smattering of other WoSo news
In super exciting news, from February 20 to March 10 we’ve got the inaugural CONCACAF W Gold Cup. Twelve CONCACAF teams will compete — the United States, Mexico, and Argentina (Group A); Brazil, Panama, and Colombia (Group B); Canada, Costa Rica, and Paraguay (Group C); and the winners of three playoff games that will be played on February 17: Guyana vs. Dominican Republic (Group A); Haiti vs. Puerto Rico (Group B); and El Salvador vs. Guatemala (Group C). It’ll all be broadcast on Paramount+, so make sure your subscription is up-to-date.
Here’s a link to the USWNT roster, all other rosters, and the schedule.
The USL Super League has officially been granted Division I status, meaning it will essentially be in direct competition with the NWSL. The new women’s league will launch in August with eight teams, primarily on the east coast. There’s a lot we still don’t know about how this will all play out, but The Equalizer has a wonderful breakdown of what we do (and don’t) know about the nascent league, and The Athletic does a good job encapsulating some of my mixed feelings about all of this.
That was both way too much and not nearly enough, both at the same time. Paid subscribers: I’ll see you tomorrow with a very important trip to the archives. Everyone else, we’ll keep the catch-ups coming next week.
Thanks, as always, for being here.