Expansion non-draft mania
A huge day for fans of salary cap rules
Upon further review: were there some errors in the last edition of Thorn Town? Yes. Specifically when it came to the endless and incredibly particular rules about this week’s expansion draft? You bet. Will I ever tell you what they were? Absolutely not.
The Thorns’ involvement in the double-expansion draft ended before it started. On Tuesday, Portland made trades with both Bay FC and the Utah Royals in exchange for protection in the actual expansion draft. It does mean that the team is saying goodbye to a longtime veteran in Emily Menges, and a promising prospect in Hannah Betfort. But, on the day itself, it really meant that you needed a lawyer or accountant’s (or lawyer-accountant’s) in-depth knowledge of the league’s salary and trade rules to know what the heck was going on.
What are the doggone rules
On Friday, the expansion draft is going to be airing on CBS Sports Network. Uh, those broadcasters are really going to have to vamp for time: the draft itself is going to get wrapped in just a few minutes, with the majority of the trading action taking place on Tuesday. By the end of the day, out of the 12 established NWSL teams: seven had traded for complete protection from the draft (including Portland); three teams had traded for protection from one of the two expansion teams; and only two teams did not make a move to protect themselves (Chicago and Seattle).
Since so many teams found it most beneficial to trade for protection in the draft, even though the NWSL wanted to broadcast the expansion draft itself, it feels safe to assume that the NWSL somehow miscalibrated how this entire thing was set up. (More on that below.)
For this offseason, both Bay FC and Utah got an extra $500,000 in allocation money. Allocation money is a buyable or tradable amount of money a team can use to exceed the league-wide salary cap. So, if I’ve got this right — and, folks, I will never guarantee that I do — it’s not money itself that is being moved around between teams: what’s being traded is changes in the theoretical amounts that both teams can proceed to spend.
Now, in 2023, the league-wide salary cap was $1.375 million, with an allocation money limit starting at $600,000 (before trades). So, an extra $500,000 for each expansion team is really a huge amount. (In 2022, San Diego Wave and Angel City FC each received $150,000 in bonus allocation money before their first season.) It looks like both Bay FC and Utah were effectively using their mega amounts of allocation money to jump the line and each other for the expansion draft, to trade for most-likely-unprotected veteran players of their chosing.
Boy were there a lot of allocation-money-for-player trades on Tuesday, all around the league. And, honestly: I’m struggling to wrap my head around why the expansion teams would make these deals. I guessed last time that both Menges and Betfort would be on the outside looking in at the Thorns’ list of nine protected players. So, if those players were likely to be made available at the expansion draft on Friday, then why trade your allocation money for them on Tuesday? It’s true that both expansion teams have limited ability to obtain superstar NWSL veterans, such as Trinity Rodman, whose top-of-the-line salary was made possible mostly through allocation money. But surely there are opportunities for the expansion teams to use their allocation money to make the largest possible offers to plenty of players currently in other leagues around the world?
Because, while these trades are painful on one level as a Thorns fan, there is also the feeling that Portland gets let off the hook here. The Thorns were going to lose some players no matter what. But now Portland gets some financial flexibility in return? And the team doesn’t have to release their list of protected and unprotected players? It makes losing two players for none in return, bizarrely, a small win.
Menges to Bay FC
Bay Area FC acquired veteran defender Emily Menges for $75,000 in allocation money. This was one of the steepest price tags out of all of the expansion trades that didn’t see any draft picks involved in the deal. With Portland’s depth, an unquestioned, every-game starter was going to be left unprotected, and I believe Menges would have gone near or at the top of the draft (in a non-trading alternate reality).
Still, it’s sad to see one of the all-time Thorns depart the team in a little accountancy move like this. Menges is second all-time in team history in regular season appearances, logging 172, right behind Christine Sinclair’s 176. The Thorns have played 226 games in total, that’s awfully close to the complete set.
While Sinclair came to the Thorns already established as an international legend, Menges came to the team as a third-round pick in 2014, but immediately locked in as an every-game starter from her very first season. Menges’ injury in 2022, which limited her to only five games played, was truly the first time in her career that her status as a starter had wavered. At the start of 2023, it sure did look like the Thorns’ back line was Meghan Klingenberg—Becky Sauerbrunn—Kelli Hubly—Natalia Kuikka, with Menges on the bench. Following Sauerbrunn’s injury, it did take Menges some time to shake the rust off, with Portland conceding three goals in her first two starts (vs. Angel City, at North Carolina).
But, shoot, Menges just finds a way to play steady, reliable starter’s minutes. I didn’t realize this until now: Menges played every single competitive minute for the Thorns from June 18 until the end of the season. And while Portland was third-worst in the league in goals conceded, there was an element of bad luck to that, as the team was third-best in expected goals conceded. Menges is still nailed in as an every-game starter — just, for the first time ever, somewhere other than Portland.
Betfort to Utah
Portland received $10,000 in allocation money from the Utah Royals in exchange for Betfort and the #33 pick in January’s college draft. This was a third-round draft pick belonging to Houston that Portland had picked up in last year’s draft. The Thorns go into January’s draft with all of their own picks (#11, #25, #39, #53), plus an additional second-round pick (#23) from last year’s Yazmeen Ryan trade.
Betfort’s emergence from the deep bench and into the starting lineup was Portland’s only saving grace during those long, lonely summer days of the Challenge Cup. After playing extremely limited minutes in her first two seasons as a Thorn, Betfort played her way into an every-game role by the end of the season, completely overtaking rookie Izzy D’Aquila and Michele Vasconcelos as Mike Norris’ preferred forward off the bench. The move to Utah will honestly be Betfort’s best opportunity to get the most minutes possible in 2024, and a chance to complete her ascension from fourth-round pick to established rotation player.
Grumble grumble
This expansion draft turned into another moment where, alas, the NWSL made it very difficult for fans to track their team’s offseason moves that are building next year’s edition of each squad. More established leagues, like the NFL and NBA, use their own platforms, and have equipped other media members to tell the ongoing story of team-building in a clear and concise way.
The formula behind the expansion draft was off-kilter from the start. Instead of creating a true expansion draft, the NWSL, accidentally or otherwise, ended up creating a mini-trading deadline, thanks to the confusing set of incentives at play.
A good counter-example comes from the NBA, and the league’s 2004 expansion draft for the Charlotte Bobcats (now Charlotte Hornets). At that time, established NBA teams were allowed to protect eight players — that’s out of 12 total roster spots, or a full 75% of their team. This NWSL expansion draft left established teams way too vulnerable, allowed to protect only 40% of their roster. Also, the Bobcats were allowed to draft restricted free agents in that expansion draft. By eliminating that possibility in this year’s NWSL draft, the league incentivized both players and teams to spend about a month twiddling their thumbs, effectively protecting players by keeping them in unemployed limbo, and waiting for the expansion draft to wrap up.
The good news is that the NWSL is in an era of regular, healthy expansion. We’re going to be back here very soon and, hopefully, the process will be smooth and easy to follow.
And, after an offseason that has only seen talent depart the Thorns roster, it’s time to sign some players to some deals!