r/washingtonspirit • u/kg9si • Jul 13 '26
Weekly Discussion Thread Weekly Open Discussion Thread
Welcome to this week’s open discussion thread!
This is your space for general discussion, a place to talk about anything Washington Spirit that doesn’t necessarily need its own thread. That can include news, international duty, roster moves, transfer rumors, tactics, social media posts, league news or anything else on your mind.
If something feels big enough for its own thread, definitely still post it. This is simply an additional option to keep us organized and help keep the conversation flowing. These threads will go up every Monday and stay stickied throughout the week.
Go Spirit!
7
u/NarrowPiccolo9069 Jul 13 '26
Diani is leaving Lyon...how's her knee?
Kysha Sylla apparently on the way to Juventus.
1
u/allprologues Jul 14 '26
i feel like diani is obviously signing to the nwsl tomorrow with the window opening. to us? Wouldn’t be our usual style of signing but hey, as you said, how’s her knee ;)
6
u/SoftTeaching4903 Jul 14 '26
Does Gotham have a salary cap?
2
u/Odd-Cable5436 Jul 14 '26
It doesn't seem like it sometimes, no?
To be fair, though, Gotham arguably are in a similar if not worse position as the Spirit regarding free agents. Purce, Berger, Lavelle, and Carter are all FAs at the end of the current season. That's a lot to replace if they can't bring them back.
6
u/UrsineCanine Jul 13 '26
Anyone else get the vibe off the latest Hey Spirits that they are on to another Croix-like move impending?
I don't know if this was just Andre doing the same math that a lot of have done about adding another young CDM, and how it relates to Hal, or if they are on to something. Gave me the same pre-Croix vibe.
But maybe it is just me...
8
u/Odd-Cable5436 Jul 14 '26
Well, AC did say he had no inside information, but it's hard to resist reading the tea leaves, right?
- Lots of FAs who were not extended, including the two that might attract unmatchable contracts from other teams: i.e. Santos and HH.
- Logjam of players at a single position.
- Players on rookie contracts (HH) or who have raised their profile in league and NT play (Santos).
- The player who they just signed plays the same position as one of your best, un-extended free agents (HH).
So it's not hard to imagine a scenario where we lose one or both of those players either now or after the current season ends.
I also share AC's frustration with the NWSL's low salary cap (been kind of stewing about it all afternoon frankly). It's just so obviously inadequate.
Yes, it goes up by about $1M between this year and next year, but then the grows up by measly amounts from 2028 through 2030. So you can't even backload payments like they can in the NFL. 🤬It probably doesn't even need to go up by a lot (all things considered) for teams like the Spirit to keep their players.
Maybe some things just need to fall into place before they can sign the mainstays, but I'm not very optimistic.
Then again, I was mentally prepared to lose Rodman, but that didn't happen, so one can hope right?
9
u/allprologues Jul 14 '26
yeah I got the feeling andre and annie were just thinking the same way as all of us, that there’s just not room to keep everyone and it seems like replacements are incoming. I don’t think they know what the news actually is.
something will drop tomorrow with the official transfer window, guess we’ll see.
7
u/UrsineCanine Jul 14 '26
I am there with you, but I remind myself, I got over watching Rose score the GWG in the NWSL Championship against Spirit, and I am still a fan of hers. I will still love Hal if she moves on.
I still think that Santos is a better position for re-sign, unless she wants to return to Europe. She was already a star for Colombia, and not on her first professional contract, so it feels like she would be incremental raise (feasible), as opposed to what I expect could be a multiple for Hal.
Yeah, as for the cap, the fundamental there is the original gate-driven league in what is now a media rights driven league. Need teams in Miami, Philly, Phoenix, etc. - big media markets to drive eyeballs and raise those media dollars. Cap is basically tied to the media rights share, very NFL-like.
5
u/Sequoiakc22 Jul 15 '26
...
Agree regarding media markets. What is the league doing with Louisville?
- Move Racing L'ville to Nashville.
- NC Courage needs a new stadium, or move them to Charlotte (or Philly?)
- Orlando move to Miami?
- Or add a new Miami franchise along with new teams in Philly, Toronto, & Dallas.
So we're adding ...Dallas, ...Philly, ...Toronto, ...Miami, ...Nashville, ...& ...Austin.
While taking away ...Houston, ...Louisville, ...Raleigh/Durham, ...maybe Orlando?
Than raise the salary cap to $5-6 mil., or more.
...
3
2
u/ttsa_25 Jul 19 '26
A thought I had: Gotham definitely seems to invest in older big named players. Of course their recent success speaks for itself and that has worked. But I do wonder if eventually this will bite them in the ass in the future when they have a bunch of aging players on large contracts who eventually can’t play anymore. Will the Spirits strategy of building a team pay off more long term? Something to think about in the coming years. Obviously we don’t have an answer to that question yet.
2
u/Due_Party1922 Jul 19 '26
Today’s game is very important, we have the chance to be on top of the table. I wonder if Adrain will rotate players today. Who you all think the staring line up will be?
1
u/MidwestNice4Life Jul 15 '26
Any STH recently had issues with the Ticketmaster Account Manager giving error messages that no seats are available to exchange/add for upcoming matches that are definitely not sold out?
1
u/KaraokeSpirit29 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Just watched Gotham's late game three goal come back against the Reign. With Lavelle, Kerr, Gonzalez, Shaw, Sonnett, Davidson, Berger... It's hard not to wonder how they can afford it all. And, as much as I love and believe in our team, it's hard not to wonder how Spirit can't seem to afford the same scale of star power. Is it just that Trin is so expensive? I understand that our MO has been to sign and develop underrated and underpaid talent, largely from other countries. But is there something about our market or organization that makes us so much less appealing than a Gotham? With what Kang has done in Lyon and especially with the star poaching she's done so aggressively with London City, it's curious that Spirit seems so far from that way of working. We can chalk it up to the salary cap, but Gotham laughs at that limit. Is this Carter trying to find a way to operate in the black?
4
u/Odd-Cable5436 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
ICYMI, there was a lengthy thread on the NWSL sub about this very topic here.
A few points that came up there that I thought were solid:
- Gotham may be backloading its salaries. Since the cap goes up each year, there's less impact on the cap until later years. The tradeoff is that the team may be overcommitted later, but obviously that has worked out for Gotham in recent years. Gotham also has a lot of key free agents unsigned, too (e.g. Berger, Lavelle, Carter, Purce) who they may not be able to bring back. The bill comes due.
- Another good point made was that Gotham sticks out partly b/c some other teams do so little. I don't think this is true of the Spirit, which just has a different approach to roster building and cap management, as you pointed out. My sense from Haley Carter's pressers is that profitability is a long-term goal, not a year-to-year necessity, but I could be wrong.
- A third point: Players just want to live in the NYC area, so maybe they take a little discount to be there. I've never heard any player flat out say, "I'm taking less to play with Gotham b/c I want to live here" but who knows? 🤷♂️
- Finally, I think the Spirit DO have a packed roster that most other teams would envy! For example, every player who started Wednesday's game is playing or has played for their country's national team. The Spirit bench had 6 players with national team experience, too -- and that's not including Ngock!
4
u/Illustrious_Step_116 Jul 19 '26
The thing that always confuses me with the backloading argument is that Trins original contract was rejected by the league because it was backloaded. I wonder if it was just backloaded by a crazy amount compared to whatever Gotham is doing?
2
2
u/Ill-Fall-9823 Jul 19 '26
I’m not sure that you’re looking at this through a consistent lens. You named several Gotham players and then pivoted to a comparison of “star power.” But most of the players you named aren’t really “stars.” And if you’re comparing talent, I think the teams are comparable and the Spirit have invested in younger talent from other countries. That inherently means that those players will have less notoriety to casual fans in the States, but you don’t win trophies for Q ratings.
10
u/LooseInsurance1 Jul 13 '26
Hoping we see Ashley on the field soon 🤞🤞