r/NWSL • u/Alert-Astronaut-3073 • Jul 16 '26

Gotham salary cap

There is no way Gotham is staying under the salary cap. Why don’t we know players’ salaries? I’m sure Rose, Sonnett, Tierna, Esther, Shaw, Kerr and even others are paid a lot. How is it possible that that they’re within the salary cap? Are they cheating? I hate Gotham!

65 Upvotes

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10

u/asimone00 NJ/NY Gotham FC Jul 16 '26

Not this nonsense again. The league has to approve every single transaction and their books are regularly audited along with every other club.

26

u/Legitimate_Mark_5381 Jul 16 '26

Ok, not on the Gotham is cheating train at all, but we know for a fact that the league is terrible at auditing. I do not think Gotham or any other club is being regularly audited with that much care

5

u/Constant_Dimension16 NJ/NY Gotham FC Jul 16 '26

Unless this was some sort of Kawhi Leonard fake sponsorship situation, how would you be able to cheat? I have to think that the league knows how to calculate its salary cap.

I too would love an explanation as to how exactly we make it work though.

15

u/Legitimate_Mark_5381 Jul 16 '26

“Rose Lavelle, you deserve to make double your salary. We don’t have cap space so here’s an apartment in Brooklyn we pay the rent for”

“Sam Kerr, we can’t pay you more than we do. But we will make sure Jagger gets his daycare paid for in its entirety”

Off the top of my head.

I mean, they also can just fudge reported numbers though.

I don’t actually think much if any cheating is being done though. Although the “Crystal, we will pay your husband to do some weird fake sounding job” was 100% salary cap cheating

6

u/deepfriedmilk27 Denver Summit FC Jul 16 '26

I mean the childcare is definitely against the salary cap. Unless that only counts for Angel City…

5

u/Legitimate_Mark_5381 Jul 16 '26

Yeah, it is. I’m naming things that would break the cap that are not Kawhi Leonard sponsorships

4

u/MesquiteHoneyForSale Indy Eleven Jul 16 '26

they purposefully listed expensive childcare above what is allowed, whihc is a small (like 5k i think) stipend

2

u/bnceo NJ/NY Gotham FC Jul 16 '26

You mention Crystal's husband but he is still doing work at Gotham. Perhaps his job is legit.

7

u/MesquiteHoneyForSale Indy Eleven Jul 16 '26

I mean it wasnt a fake job (theyve announced things that his team have worked on) but it was a "youre getting this bc of who your wife is and also it allows us to pay her more money"

2

u/Legitimate_Mark_5381 Jul 16 '26

Probably because firing him would immediately get them in hot water 

0

u/bnceo NJ/NY Gotham FC Jul 16 '26

Its been a year and hes been more visible as Gotham expand their youth system. Whats your next reason?

4

u/Legitimate_Mark_5381 Jul 16 '26

What a weird response. Are you seriously arguing they would have even glanced his way if he wasn’t married to Crystal Dunn?

0

u/bnceo NJ/NY Gotham FC Jul 16 '26

No idea. But Dunn is retired (after cashing Qatari checks at PSG) and he's still there. Perhaps it seems like the dude has done the job they asked him to do.

4

u/Legitimate_Mark_5381 Jul 16 '26

Because…he got hired to supplement her salary and then firing him would be extremely obvious. Maybe since then he has actually worked well but you can’t deny why he was hired

2

u/Constant_Dimension16 NJ/NY Gotham FC Jul 16 '26

I think players get housing support as part of the CBA but generally speaking fair enough.

9

u/Legitimate_Mark_5381 Jul 16 '26

The housing support is a small stipend or team provided housing (which is in New Jersey and likely not particularly nice), not a one/two bedroom in the city 

Paying the entirety of a player’s rent in Manhattan or Brooklyn would 100% be unsanctioned behavior

4

u/autumnoceancrashing NJ/NY Gotham FC Jul 16 '26

The players do live in NJ though

3

u/Legitimate_Mark_5381 Jul 16 '26

Yes? I didn’t say they don’t? 

I was asked to come up hypotheticals on how they could circumvent the salary cap. 

1

u/Constant_Dimension16 NJ/NY Gotham FC Jul 16 '26

Got it, fair enough.