The race to the top of women's club soccer began as a struggle for survival.
“Competing with everybody to get [players] here, in a strong European market, is very hard,” says Chicago Red Stars general manager Michelle Lomnicki. She and her peers are also limited to five international players per team. “So it limits your ability to bring top-tier players in from all over the world,” she says.
There is disagreement, though, even within the league’s boardroom, over how much and how quickly to raise the cap. “Everything you do from a facility standpoint, to a player care standpoint, to housing — whatever it is that you do in your market — matters in order for you to bring international players in,” Lomnicki says.
So it leaves top-flight players with too few professional games. The lack of alignment also means that their European contracts expire at inconvenient junctures, in June. “The time to sign players — well, unfortunately, that's right in the middle of our season,” Ellis says. They often no longer fit into budgets or beneath the salary cap. And if the player then goes to a World Cup or Euros soon after signing, the club only benefits for a couple months of her first season.
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